Lanie Heuser

Dr. Haslam

P.5

(i did an audio, and have to download it later as mp3 so for now this is the script i used)

My Side: So everyone has all heard of the system Child Protective Services or CPS. Child

Protective Services protects children from caregivers who may be harming them or neglecting

them. While this may seem like a very helpful and good system, I am here to disagree. I believe

that the Child Protective Service system has an endless amount of flaws and that they need to

change their ways. There are countless times that signs of abuse and neglect are completely

missed, or the final decision for a case that was made, was the wrong choice and a different call

should have been made. I feel like Child Protective Services needs to change the level of

education needed to work for them, or, they need to change the things that they teach the social

workers when they are in training in order to make this system more helpful.

Other Side: Now I know many people do not agree with this and they believe that Child

Protective Services is a very good system and that nothing is wrong, and that nothing needs to be

changed. I feel like many people believe that they always do the right thing and that it is good

solely based on their name. This system is good and they help out in many different ways. They

help get people out of situations that they can not get out of by themselves. CPS can also place

people in different homes if theirs is not safe. Child Protective Services ensures the safety of

children and tries to find the safest possible option for children as quickly as they can. Child
Protective Services can also connect you and your family with beneficial resources. They can

sometimes provide financial assistance to those that need help as well.

Why You Should Agree With Me: While there are many positive things about Child Protective

Services and there have been many cases that have had good outcomes, a system like this one

does not have any wiggle room for these mistakes to be happening. I think in this situation with a

system that holds so much power and does so many important things, the bad things and all of its

flaws definitely outweigh the good things. I understand that sometimes when a mistake is made,

it does not end up to be a big huge thing and the outcome if the situation ends up just fine. But

sometimes these mistakes can cause huge problems and make things much worse for the family

involved in the case, or for the child in the case. Sometimes these little mistakes can cause a life.

I have read a countless number of stories about these types of cases where a misjudgement

mistake was made and it had a terrible end result. I believe that Child Protective Services is a

system that has tons of flaws and that there are many things that need to be changed within.

Without some sort of changes being made, things with the system are never and will never get

better.