Social worker murdered; child kidnapped

State caseworkers offered counseling
Cincinnati Enquirer, Oct. 18, 2006, Metro pg. 1B.

HENDERSON -Top state social service officials say their immediate concern is the safe return of a 10-month-old boy allegedly abducted from the Henderson home where a state worker was slain Monday.

"Our focus has to be on working to get the infant back safely," Tom Emberton Jr., state social service commissioner, said Tuesday.

Emberton said he is visiting the Western Kentucky region where slain social service worker Boni Frederick, 67, was killed after she took the baby to what was supposed to be a supervised visit with his mother.

An Amber Alert has been issued for the mother, Renee Terrell, charged with kidnapping her son, Saige Terrell. Police also are seeking Terrell's boyfriend, Christopher Luttrell.

Emberton said he spent Tuesday meeting with social workers in Union and Henderson County where Frederick, a 15-year social service aide, had worked. Workers are distraught and Emberton said he attempted to console them.

The state has made emergency counseling available for workers.

He also visited with the foster parents who had cared for Saige since birth, Emberton said.

"They are devastated," Emberton said.

Emberton and other officials with the Cabinet for Health and Family Services Monday declined to provide details about why the child had been removed from his mother, citing confidentiality and the police investigation into Frederick's death.

The last social worker killed on the job was Paul T. Grannis, 35, who was fatally shot in 1987 in Fleming County while working on a child protection case.

Social workers and others say Frederick's death underscores the danger of the job where workers often are confronted by violent and angry adults as they seek to protect children.

"We knew it was only a matter of time," Patricia Pregliasco, a social worker with the state Cabinet for Health and Family Services, said Tuesday. "We hoped and prayed this wasn't going to happen."

Social workers for the past year have been increasingly vocal about their growing caseloads and lack of adequate resources to do their jobs. State officials are reorganizing the child welfare system to try to help but said they have no additional money for more workers and support staff.

"We're concerned about our safety," said Tricia Mack, also a social worker in Jefferson County. "We go out and there's a lot of times clients make threats."

Mack and Pregliasco said social workers often go alone to homes.

Family Court judges say their caseload of abused and neglected children is growing and the child welfare system simply doesn't have resources to meet the needs.

"We're hemorrhaging cases," said Jefferson Family Court Judge Patricia Walker FitzGerald.

Dr. James J. Clark, a social work professor at the University of Kentucky, said that Kentucky - like most states - doesn't have sufficient resources to handle the increasingly complex cases of child abuse and neglect.

"I think it's pretty clear that child welfare is pretty under resourced everywhere in the United States," he said. "It's just not a priority area for a lot of state governments."

Emberton and Mark D. Birdwhistell, secretary of health and family services, said Monday that they will review the situation and recommend changes -including asking lawmakers for more money if necessary.

"All options are on the table," Birdwhistell said.

Pregliasco said Kentucky needs to do more to protect workers and families they serve.

"It is a dangerous job," she said. "You go into these homes not knowing what's behind those doors."