Loring Henderson, Lawrence Kansas, And Homeless Families

What a weekend! Kirk Ferguson, sometime employee of Shelter, Inc., of Lawrence, Kansas, has been charged with sex crimes against two teen clients, who were staying at the shelter with their families. It seems that this has been going on, in intervals, since October of last year, and, despite complaints from desperate families with nowhere else to go, has been conveniently overlooked in favor of doing nothing and allowing the abuse to continue. This is not a big surprise, considering other odds and ends that have been known to occur in Kansas in schools, foster homes, shelters, and other places with vulnerable clienteles. Anyone remember Noble "Rick" (not his real name) Pendland? Kansas has an obligation to taxpayors to DO A BETTER JOB of consulting backgrounds and resumes of individuals who are hired to work in these fields.

Loring Henderson, the director of Lawrence Community Shelter, does not appear to agree that there is a problem in Kansas with background checks of social workers and made some comments that attempt to sweep this problem under the rug, instead. To quote Fox News, “We’re like all agencies that work with children, you try to make sure that you’ve done everything you can to be as thorough in your procedures to protect children who are present in your programs,” said Henderson, who says that while the charges are tragic, it’s important for the public to remember all the good these agencies provide. “I think that the general public understands that agencies certainly try and no one wants this kind of thing to occur.”Henderson says that he did not know Ferguson and did not want to comment on the allegations, but he says that he has nothing but good things to say about Shelter, Inc., which has been providing services for children and families in Lawrence since 1981."

Whoa! He assumes that "all agencies that work with children" try to protect them? That's a bit naive! "The general public understands"???? Wake up, Henderson! Yours truly is part of the general public, and does not understand at all! Except to understand that someone, at some time, WANTED the abuse to occur; otherwise, it would not have. It's that simple. The last sentence in the above quote is the most curious, though. Henderson states that he has "nothing but good things to say about Shelter Inc.", yet this whole news story is about a pedophile who got busted there! If that is Henderson's idea of a "good thing", Henderson needs to find a different line of work.

To get just a little bit more real, everyone should understand that during the winter, it gets very, very cold in Kansas. Everyone should also understand that in this nation's recent history, there has been a serious economic crisis, coupled with massive unemployment. Combined with that, this nation's real estate market imploded upon itself, resulting in millions of foreclosures and leaving many families homeless. A parent with no place but a community shelter to live with his or her children may risk getting evicted and dying of hypothermia, children included, if too many "waves" are made about the criminal behaviors of those who run the shelters. This creates a very vulnerable population and makes an easy environment for the type of abuse committed by Kirk Ferguson. Unless Kansas can pull it's head out of it's ass and begin performing simple background checks on anyone hired to work as a teacher, foster parent, or social worker, there will only be more stories like this. Is Kansas truly interested in the safety and well being of people who stay in shelters? Especially children?

To get even more real, children in shelters are vulnerable in even more ways. In Kansas, many shelter and foster children are used as experimental subjects by pharmaceutical companies. This is unacceptable, and may be what Loring Henderson means by this: “I can say they’ve done tremendous good over the years they’ve been here for years serving the community of Lawrence and doing terrific programs.”