A Texas Child Protective Services worker was fired after she reportedly advised a 14-year-old girl to work as a prostitute.
Keisha Bazley, a Texas mother of 9 who sought CPS assistance for her 14-year-old daughter, told FOX 26 Houston that her child was running away from home and causing problems at school, provoking her to contact family services.
“My daughter told me that the worker had been telling her she should do these things, so she decided to film herself,” Bazley explained.
CPS is housing the girl, along with dozens of other foster children in Harris County, in a hotel.
The video allegedly depicts an interaction between the teen and a CPS worker, who reportedly advises the girl to become a prostitute.
“And giving her an incentive to do so, and almost a threat of not having her needs being met, if she didn’t do what this woman very explicitly told her to do,” family law attorney Mike Schneider told FOX 26 after watching the video.
“If me, the parent, was to do something like this to my child, I would be bashed,” Bazley said. “I would be called a horrible parent. I would lose my kids.”
Bazley submitted an official complaint with Child Protective Services. Jamie Masters, the agency’s commissioner, reportedly traveled from the Lone Star State’s capital city to Houston to issue an apology to Bazley and her daughter.
Melissa Lanford, a spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, told FOX 26: “DFPS is aware of the video and has taken action. The person in the video – who was employed as CPS support staff – was dismissed from her position August 10. The safety and appropriateness with which children in care must be treated is our paramount concern. Nothing less will be tolerated.”
