Uresti Wants Answers About Abuse Deaths

By Tim Gerber | KSAT.com

POSTED: Tuesday, October 20, 2009
UPDATED: 10:49 am CDT October 20, 2009

SAN ANTONIO -- The deaths of three babies in the past four weeks has grabbed the attention of State Sen. Carlos Uresti.

The San Antonio lawmaker has called for a meeting of the Blue Ribbon Task Force On Child Abuse, a group he created five years ago in the wake of another series of child abuse-related deaths.

"When you have something like this happen, you have to shake your head and wonder, what are we doing wrong?" Uresti said on Monday.

Uresti was planning to celebrate the progress the task force has made over the past five years, Instead he's calling on them to help get to the bottom of the problem of abuse and neglect that continues to plague not only Bexar County, but the entire state of Texas.

"There have been a lot of deaths around the state of Texas and an increase in abuse and neglect," said Uresti.

The rise in abuse continues despite new laws pushed through the Legislature by Uresti and high-profile advertising campaigns. Efforts to fix an overburdened Child Protective Services system has led to a reduction in caseloads for CPS workers and the turnover rate for case workers has also significantly dropped, he said.

"It begs the question, if we're doing all these things right, CPS is doing all these things right and the community is doing things right, why do we have in one month alone three deaths of children 3 months and younger?" said Uresti.

Those are questions the senator hopes to put before the Blue Ribbon Task Force when they meet Tuesday afternoon. The meeting will be held the Central Public Library downtown from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. The public is invited to attend and offer suggestions.

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http://www.ksat.com/news/21348725/detail.html

Emphasis added by H4K Editor



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