Difficult for Gage-Grey to stay after report of ‘gross breach’ at child protection agency- Morgan

Information Minister Robert Morgan says it will be difficult for Rosalee Gage-Grey to remain head of Jamaica's child protection agency after a report accused her of “gross breach” of care for engaging an American donor punished for involvement with a minor.

Morgan's view is based on the findings of an investigation done by the Office of the Children's Advocate (OCA) into the controversial partnership between Jamaica's Child Protection and Family Services Agency (CPFSA) and Carl Robanske, who was flagged in the US over inappropriate sexual contact with a child.

Children's Advocate Diahann Gordon Harrison's 93-page report contains 10 findings and four recommendations, one of which is for disciplinary action to be taken against Gage-Grey for her “gross breach of the duty of care owed to wards of the State and former wards”.

In March 2021, Nationwide News Network first reported about the partnership between the CPFSA and Robanske's charity Embracing Orphans, which led to the establishment of The Father's House, a transitional facility for female wards of the state in 2014.

The CPFSA learnt of Robanske's past from as early as 2018 but the relationship was only severed in 2021.

On her statements that the agency continued the relationship because Robanske did not have a criminal record, the Children's Advocate said Gage-Grey's position demonstrated “a grave lack of understanding at best or at worst, an act of willful blindness to the scope of her administrative and moral responsibilities”.

She added: “It is extremely troubling that someone who is entrusted with the care of arguably one of the most vulnerable cohorts within Jamaican society, could so glibly defend a questionable association based on semantics which so starkly call into question her own integrity and her loyalty to the vested interest that she ought to have in the lives of wards and former wards of the state”.

Morgan said the report contains a “very disturbing set of findings” that reflect “what clearly were administrative challenges” at the CPFSA.

He said although ministers can't hire or fire public employees, from a policy perspective, “it will be very challenging for the lady going forward”.

“This is not a very happy thing for me to say, but based on what we're seeing there, I don't know if her position is tenable but that is not for me to decide,” he told The Gleaner, adding that he has shared a “positive” relationship with the long-time child care administrator.

Morgan was a junior minister in the Education and Youth Ministry before his elevation to full minister in the Office of the Prime Minister in January 2022.

Education and Youth Minister Fayval Williams who has portfolio responsibility for the CPFSA has written to the Acting Permanent Secretary Maureen Dwyer to seek advice from the Public Service Commission on the way forward, Morgan disclosed.

Williams is scheduled to make a statement in the House of Representatives this afternoon. The report is also expected to be tabled.

In 2016, US authorities found Robanske guilty of professional misconduct and “to have a high probability of repeating the sexually inappropriate behaviour”. His education licence was suspended for two years.

The Children's Advocate's reports a series of alleged sexual-related engagements Robanske had with some of the female wards of the State, including fondling on a trip to Dunn's River Falls in St Ann and text messages.

Gage-Grey has been leading the agency since 2014 which was then known as the Child Development Agency.

She told The Gleaner Tuesday morning that she was unable to comment on the report "at this time". 

REPORT FINDINGS:

1. The Child Protection and Family Services is the government entity responsible for the care and protection of children. A breach of the CPFSA's duty of care undermines the insulation of the protective environment that the State has entrusted the agency to provide. This report finds that there has been such a breach of duty on the part of the CPFSA under the stewardship of its CEO.

2. Since the news of Robanske's suspension in the USA publicly surfaced in March 2021 and since the onset of this investigation, very deliberate and repeated attempts have been made by diverse representatives of the CPFSA to say that no females under 18 years, i.e. children, are accommodated at The Father's House. This, however, is a recent invention that is a classic example of 'a little too late' and is perceived as an orchestrated effort to exclude the facility from the OCA's jurisdiction and duty to investigate. There is a preponderance of evidence that confirms that since the opening of the facility right through to the conduct of these investigations, the CPFSA had routinely accommodated girls who were below 18 years at The Father's House; as previously discussed, this was not for “emergency” or over-night accommodation” as the CEO proffered in a belated attempt to qualify her claims regarding anyone under 18 years being at the facility.

3. It is of concern therefore, that the psychological evaluation of Robanske that was done as a part of the 2016 Hearing [in the US] initiated against him by the Office of Professional Practices, concluded, inter alia, that - “He appears to have little awareness of the inappropriateness of his behaviour.”

4. The CEO failed in her administrative and moral duty to these former wards of the State. Her responses indicate that she is either unaware of, or has a reckless approach to the significant vulnerability which attaches not only to them when they are minors (i.e. below 18 years) but also even after and during their transition out of the formal care system.

5. The CPFSA by its own admission, knew of Robanske's antecedents from early 2018. It also knew (despite recent denials) that it had children accommodated at The Father's House. It's continued partnership with Robanske himself and with Embracing Orphans given the central and lead role that Robanske plays in that organisation, was not only questionable but betrayed the CPFSA's mandate and undermined its moral authority to be telling Jamaicans that they should be wary of persons who may be around children for fear that they may abuse them.

6. The residents of The Father's House were not only accessible to Robanske but were very receptive to him perhaps because of the gifts and the attention that he would give to them. Some of the residents were able to speak about knowing and interacting with him from they were residents at Blossom Gardens Children's Home; one even produced a photograph of herself at age 6 that she says Robanske had shared with her from his interactions with her in that facility. He represented to them a person in authority whom they were fond of, indebted to, and liked; he also occupied a position of trust.

7. The CPFSA operated within an environment that allowed Robanske access to children and facilitated his engagement with them. Apart from his liberal access and association with residents from the Father's House, the OCA's investigations confirmed three other such facilities: Blossom Gardens Children's Home, Jamaica Relief Ministries and West Haven Children's Home.

8. The OCA through this investigation has ferreted out a number of instances in which the CEO of the CPFSA has made statements (both written and oral) that are inconsistent with what the records reveal or are discrepant in some other material particular that go to the root of the matter.

9. The analysis of extracted data from mobile telephones and tablets belonging to the Manager of The Father's House and its residents provided useful information. Among other things was "an open intent of the Manager of The Father's House to deceive" in her WhatsApp message as communicated via her mobile telephone number ending in -8546 in the a WhatsApp group chat for The Father's House. 

10. Both the Honourable Fayval Williams, Minister of Education & Youth and the [then] Honourable Robert Morgan, Minster of State in the Ministry of Education & Youth, through no fault of their own, communicated inaccuracies to the public with regard to the Robanske issue and the CPFSA. In the relevant section of this Report it has been illustrated that the Ministers fell into error consequent upon their reliance on what has now been established as the CPFSA's misrepresentation of the facts. Needless to say, this ought not only to be seen as unacceptable but also a dangerous precedent to allow to persist without being addressed.

RECOMMENDATIONS

1. The leadership and management of the CPFSA has demonstrated that it either does not have the capacity or the will to effectively manage sensitive matters in spite of the high level of responsibility that has been entrusted to it in relation to some of Jamaica's most vulnerable citizens. Exposure to extensive capacity building and training in the fundamental principles of safeguarding in relation children in care and the special vulnerabilities of those exiting care is therefore strongly recommended.

2. The risk assessment tools and procedures that are utilised by the CPFSA need to be revisited, assessed and aligned with best practices. 

3. The material inconsistencies and discrepancies that have been exposed at the instance of the CEO are of concern and special attention needs to be paid to this disposition in light of the reliance that one should be able to confidently place on an office holder at that level. Within the context of this investigation, for instance, it has been highlighted how the flawed information that was provided to the Honourable Ministers by the CPFSA led them into error and served as the basis for inaccurate information being communicated to the nation on a matter of high public interest and importance to the child protection sector.

4. Due to the CEO's gross breach of the duty of care owed to wards of the State and former wards who are housed in facilities run by the CPFSA that is a finding of this investigation, this matter is hereby referred to the Honourable Fayval Williams, Minister of Education & Youth as the person competent to take such disciplinary or other proceedings as may be appropriate against the CEO of the CPFSA.

- Jovan Johnson

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