Posted on Sat, Mar. 29, 2008

By DOMINGO RAMIREZ JR.
Star-Telegram staff writer

ARLINGTON -- Whitney Walker prays for a second chance to get her three young children back, two of whom had amphetamine and methamphetamine in their systems a year ago.

The attorney for the foster family caring for the kids says they are in a safe and loving home and says that's where they belong.

In the middle is Child Protective Services, whose mission includes reuniting families and making sure that the parents can -- and will -- succeed.

Walker, a recovering drug addict, said she entered a rehabilitation program in Dallas on April 24, three weeks after the children were taken away, and she has completed every CPS program and test that has been required of her.

"I don't want to fail my children," Walker, 22, said as she sat in her Arlington apartment this week. "I want to know what it's like to have a normal family."

CPS guidelines for Walker

Days after taking the kids out of Walker's home, CPS established 10 programs and evaluations for Walker: psychological evaluation, inpatient drug treatment, parenting and anger management classes, individual counseling and random drug screening. She must also maintain regular visitations with her children, have regular contact with a CPS caseworker, stay sober for at least six months, have a place to live and maintain a job.

Walker completed all the tasks in a timely manner and all drug tests were clean, CPS officials said this week.

"I was crying every day," Walker said Thursday evening in her first interview since her children were taken away. "In the beginning, I couldn't help but think of all the things I had to do, but I realized this is what I had needed. I was an addict and I had tried to quit on my own, but I would always go back to using."

In January, CPS added four tasks. Walker had to continue individual counseling, provide the name of her Narcotics Anonymous sponsor, provide documentation for each NA meeting she attended, and submit a relapse prevention plan. CPS officials said that as of Friday she has submitted all documentation.

Thwarted goals

Walker was born in Fort Worth and grew up in Tarrant County with three brothers and a sister. She attended Birdville High School in North Richland Hills as a freshman, then transferred to Carter-Riverside High School in Fort Worth, where she was on the varsity volleyball squad for three years, she said. She was also in the school choir.

She dreamed of becoming a volleyball coach.

But her grandmother withdrew her from Carter-Riverside her senior year, saying she would be better off at home because she was skipping classes. She never graduated.

At 18, she moved in with her boyfriend, and drugs became a part of her life.

"I hadn't done any drugs before that because I was on the volleyball team, and I didn't want to mess that up," she said. "But then I went out on my own, and I started using meth and smoking pot. It's obvious now that I wasn't in the right frame of mind back then."

Within two years, Walker had two children, but she was still using methamphetamine.

"I would go a week or more without it, and then I just would use again," she said.

Losing her kids

On April 5, Walker left her 8-month-old son and 19-month-old daughter for a few hours with her mother at the home they shared in Richland Hills. She was pregnant, though she says she had used methamphetamine that night. She says she didn't take any into the house, however, and does not know how the children got the drugs.

When Walker returned home, her son was acting oddly, and she rushed him to a hospital.

Hospital lab tests found amphetamine and methamphetamine in the boy's body. Also present were caffeine, nicotine, the cough suppressant dextromethorphan and prescription antihistamine, police said. The boy's sister also tested positive for methamphetamine, police said.

"I knew I was dirty," Walker said, referring to being tested at the hospital. "I regret all that now."

CPS placed the children in foster care in April. When her second son was born in July, CPS placed him with the same family.

No indictments

Police arrested Walker's mother, Janna Beau, in early July, accusing her of knowing that the drugs were in the home and allowing her grandson to be around them. Walker surrendered to authorities in August, also accused of allowing her son to be around the drugs.

In late December, a Tarrant County grand jury declined to indict Walker and Beau on charges of endangering a child.

"God answered my prayers," Walker said.

Authorities have said one reason for the decision was that the incident happened while an old law was in place that required prosecutors to prove how drugs got into a child's system and that the drugs were a danger. A law that went into effect Sept. 1 does not require a prosecutor to prove how the drugs got into the child's body, and it includes a presumption that a child who has methamphetamine in his or her body is in danger.

What's next

Grand jurors ended the criminal case against Walker and Beau, but the issue of custody of the three children remains. A tentative date for a jury trial is July 28 in Fort Worth.

Foster parents Carl and Laura Gorman are challenging Walker's attempts to get her children back. In January, they filed a motion asking a judge to let them remain an option for the children's custody.

In a previous interview with the Star-Telegram, Laura Gorman said that she didn't believe that Walker had been clean long enough and that she and her husband want to adopt the children.

The Gormans' attorney, Kellye Swanda of Arlington, said: "She's been clean for a year, but is that long enough? They got their second chance with the Gormans, and they should stay with them."

In the meantime, Walker will continue under the watchful eye of CPS as she awaits the hearing this summer.

She works at a department store, owns a car and lives in an apartment that she is fixing up for her children if she gets them back.

Walker's fourth child is due this summer, and CPS has notified her that it will not take that child away. The father of all of her children is in prison, and Walker said she doesn't plan to allow him back in her life.

A gradual process

If she regains custody of her children, it would be a gradual process with CPS, friends and relatives helping, said her attorney, Mike Schneider of Arlington.

Walker said she will be ready. "I think I have been given a great opportunity to change and start over," she said. "I made a mistake, and it hurts that I don't have my children. ... I'm their mother. I need a chance to be their mother."

Foster care

There were 33,615 children in foster care in Texas during fiscal 2007. Of that total, 16,254 children left CPS custody during that year:

36 percent returned home

26 percent were placed with relatives

25 percent were adopted

9 percent reached adulthood

4 percent had other dispositions

Back in the system

An average of 3.3 percent re-enter foster care within a year of being released from CPS custody.

Source: Child Protective Services

ramirez@star-telegram.com
DOMINGO RAMIREZ JR. 817-685-3822

http://www.star-telegram.com/arlington_news/story/551381.html

Emphasis added by H4K Editor