Matthew Kraft’s voice shook when he accepted the “Child Protector Award” during a San José lunch on Friday.
“It is really difficult for me to accept this award,” said the Social Worker of Santa Clara County, “given what came before and the tragedy that took it.”
Kraft had tried to save the baby Phoenix Castro, playing the alarm that the baby would not be safe going to the hospital’s house with his parents who abuse drugs. They had done little to recover two older children, who were distance after being “severely neglected,” and Kraft wrote a serious letter to their superiors that Phoenix could be sent home from the hospital after birth in February 2023.
However, the leaders of the child welfare agency of the County recently committed to a policy that would be more focused on keeping families together than keeping children safe, essentially ignored Kraft’s warning. Three months later, Phoenix died of a fentanyl overdose. His mother, Emily de la Cerda, died of a fentanyl note about the note of the months later. His father, David Castro, faces danger charges for serious crimes.
Kraft’s warnings before Phoenix died and the lack of responsibility on the part of the department of family and children, brought to light by Mercury’s news at the end of 2023, helped lead to a review of the agency, which is still underway, and the final completion at the end of December of its director, Damion Wright.
In special audiences organized by the Santa Clara County Supervisor, Sylvia Arenas, and his former colleague Cindy Chávez, Kraft and the colleagues of colleagues demanded reforms and a rebalancing of a system that left too many children in dangerous homes.
“He symbolized, as regards me, the profiles in courage in the agency that are willing to speak with the power to express their concerns about the children’s safe,” said Steve Baron, a member of the abuse of abuse of abuse of abuse of the abuse of the Commission of the County County County.
The Department of Family Services and Children had changed its policies in 2021, when the agency director Dan Little, who has since been promoted to direct the Department of Social Services of the County, sent an email to the staff. He explained that in the sake of “healing of the historical disproportionate representation of children in color in the child welfare system,” social workers would work with the county lawyers “to avoid the need to eliminate children from their”.
Instead, the letter said, they would focus on cureing families with services such as breeding classes and drug treatment programs.
However, what one of the two state investigations Woldermine in the last two years was that “social workers have taught to be afraid or eliminate a child from their homes, even when there is a safety pea, or cold, the county may be a Beery can be a May can be a mayor can be a mayor can be a mayor can be a Mayyaya.
State investigations also found that in more than half of the cases they reviewed, between July 2022 and March 2024, no safe plans for parents who could have helped keep the children safe were created.
During the past year, the County Children’s Welfare Agency has made numerous changes, including the parents subjected to babies born with drugs in their system, such as Baby Phoenix, to “rigorous investigations” and social workers have pesty family to the family planning of the family of the family of the family best to the family for the best family to the best family for the best family to get better. Nedergone Wave gave a better implementation for a better Nedergone family. They are allowed to remain in their homes.
Since Phoenix’s death, Kraft has been full of nightmares “or I shouting or crying,” he said, “and nobody heard.” And with little and Wright assuming little responsibility for the policies that played a role in the death of Phoenix, Kraft says that he has felt a demanding charge about whether he could have done more.
“I don’t like to feel this strongly so much later,” Kraft said, “but I do it.”
Responding to a request from Supervisor Sylvia Arenas to reflect on his failures in leadership about the death of Baby Phoenix, Little last October wrote in a letter that he and the agency’s leadership team should have ensured that “that personnel were laser concentrated in effective planning and monitoring of security” and that they should have secured ” They could keep their children safe to whom a laser should occur in the Son of Security. “
Kraft looked for a desktop work with the county in which he would have to work with children, and recently appointed the LGBT coordinator for teenagers who age of the child welfare system.
Baron, the retired director of the County Family Court services, was also honored on Friday with the “Angel Award” as a “Feroz Security Defender of Children” for their more than 20 years of service to children. Hey, he was also drowned on stage.
“I am accepting this award in the girl’s memory, Phoenix Castro, whose name and lessons learned from her for short life are never forgotten in this county,” he said.
He thanKED THOSE WHO Help Vulnerable Children – From Social Workers and Public Health Nurses to Law Enforcement and Domestic Violence Victim Advocates – For Their Work To “Traumatic Traumatic Tragedy of Phoenix Castro Into Meaningful, Constructive and Durable and Durable, and Durable and Durable and Durable and Durable And Durable And Durable And Durable And Durable And Durable And Durable And Durable And Durable And Durable And Durable And Durable And Durable and durable, and durable and durable, and durable and durable and durable and durable, and durable and durable and duration and lasting, lasting and lasting and lasting and lasting and lasting and lasting and lasting and lasting and lasting and lasting and lasting and lasting and lasting and lasting and lasting and lasting
Alex Lesniak, a social worker and union administrator, said that many social workers still have ambiguous feelings about what Tok for Kraft to be honored on Friday.
“But I also think it is important that people can see what to talk, give what you have to do,” Lesniak said. “And I really hope that this is more about the department and the county that listens to social workers and when they bring these strong concerns, take them seriously and not concentrate so much on responsibility, but the kiles and families that are here honor it is because that process goes wrong and how we do not let this happen again.”