Whistle-Blower #4

    I called my former boss, Betty Copland, whom I still thought a lot of, at York County Social Services. I asked her if Tammy was their foster child, and she said she would check. We stayed on the line together and waited, talked and waited some more. A lot more. Finally, Betty asked, "What do you think is wrong with us, Pete?"
    People have subsequently said Betty was trying to find out what I would do with this information that York County couldn't tell me if Tammy was one of their foster children. I was not thinking that at all. I honestly and directly replied, "I think the problem is your social workers are trying to be therapists
instead of being out on the streets monitoring and taking care of their foster children."
    "You may be right," Betty replied.
    Finally, we had to hang up with Betty promising to call me when she found out. Obviously, this was a very grave error that York County Social Services didn't know who their foster children were. It would be eaten alive if it got out to the media. I naively didn't realize that I had become very dangerous to York County Social Services and possibly to other top county employees as what I knew could make York County look very bad. As I would inevitably tell Sue Royster, she would become dangerous to them too as would the rest of my small agency since we talked to each other a great deal. Unless you took precautions, all of us could be heard by everyone else in the office when talking or on the phone. Peter Nickerson MS, MSW. 352-359-0850