HOUSTON, Texas — A video revealed a Harris County Child Protective Services employee encouraging a teenage girl to become a prostitute. The child’s mother asked CPS for help with the child who has a history of running away from home.
Keisha Bazley told Fox 26 Houston she called on CPS to help her with her 14-year-old daughter who would run away from home and cause trouble at school The mother of nine children produced a video showing a CPS worker encouraging the young girl to become a prostitute.
“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 told Fox 26’s Randy Wallace.
The 14-year-old teen is currently in foster care and staying in a hotel in Harris County, Fox reported.
Houston family law attorney Mike Schneider told Wallace that the CPS worker, later identified as a support staff worker, encouraged the girl and “almost made a threat of not having her needs met if she didn’t.”
“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,” Schneider to the Houston Fox News affiliate.
After Bazley filed a complaint with CPS, the agency dismissed the worker and CPS Commissioner Jamie Masters made a trip from Austin to Houston to personally apologize to the mother.
“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 explained. “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.”
Fast forward a few days and Ms. Bazley now said CPS is retaliating against her family, FOX 26 reports. She says the agency is now attacking her other daughter.
“I feel like CPS knows they messed up, and now they’re trying to attack my other daughter, that’s unfair,” Bazley said.
After the initial report and news coverage, CPS officials moved her daughter three times in a week.
“It is unusual,” Schneider stated. “Number one, I haven’t heard of any behavioral problems this week, and all of a sudden three placements break down. It’s not unheard of, but it’s very, very rare.”
CPS then allegedly went to Bazley’s 25-year-old daughter who has three children of her own and taped a note to her door saying they received an anonymous tip that she was on drugs and living in a car with her children.
“I was on the phone with her daughter in real-time when CPS showed up,” Schneider reported. “Ironically, they’re talking to her about accusations she’s living out of her car in her home that has two cars out front. Healthy kids obviously, no drug use.”
“The fact that all of this has happened just in one week, that had not happened in anyway like this before, is suspicious,” he added.
Schneider also said CPS did not inform the court overseeing the CPS case involving the teen. The family law attorney said he is seeking to have the case dismissed.
Fox reported the following response from CPS regarding the circumstances of the worker who encouraged the teen to become a prostitute:
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.
The teenage girl is now reported to be in a foster home instead of a hotel.
