A Texas Child Protective Services employee lost her job after allegedly telling a 14-year-old girl to become a prostitute.
Keisha Bazley, a Texas mother of nine who turned to CPS to help with her 14-year-old daughter, told FOX 26 Houston that her child was running away and causing trouble at school, prompting her to call in family services.
"My daughter told me that the worker had been telling her she should do these things, so she said she decided to video her," Bazley said.
CPS is housing the girl at a hotel, just like dozens of other foster kids in Harris County.
FOX 26 Houston reporter Randy Wallace spoke with a mother of a child who recorded a CPS employee telling her to become a prostitute. (FOX 26 Houston)
The video allegedly shows an exchange between the teen and a CPS worker who reportedly tells the girl to be a prostitute.
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"And giving her an incentive to do so, and almost a threat of not having her needs being met, if she didn't do what this woman very explicitly told her to do," family law attorney Mike Schneider told FOX 26 after watching the video.
"If me, the parent, was to do something like this to my child, I would be bashed," Bazley said. "I would be called a horrible parent. I would lose my kids."
Bazley filed an official complaint with CPS. The agency's commissioner, Jamie Masters, reportedly went to Houston from the Lone Star State's capital city to apologize to Bazley and her daughter.
"This should not happen to girls in their care," she said. "It should not happen. It's unacceptable."
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"I've never seen that happen before where the commissioner of CPS comes in from Austin, just to apologize about something horrible that's been done to a child involved with CPS," Schneider said. "It's bad enough if it's just one bad rogue worker. It concerns me that it may be bigger than that, and they need to make sure it's not just one person, and they've got to find a way to protect these kids."
In a statement to FOX 26, Texas Department of Family and Protective Services spokeswoman Melissa Lanford, said, "DFPS is aware of the video and has taken action. The person in the video – who was employed as CPS support staff - was dismissed from her position August 10. The safety and appropriateness with which children in care must be treated is our paramount concern. Nothing less will be tolerated."
