Humanistic Reflections on a Child Abuse as a Baseball Game: Missed pitch, Missed catches, Wild Throw, Inappropriate Transfers, and Patriotism Kiss by Angle of Death

By Professor Wang Shun-min.
（Institute of Social Welfare ,Chinese Culture University）
Jennifer Chien
（Chinese Culture University social work credit courses）

A breaking new has astonished all the parents in Taiwan. The Child (nickname Kai-Kai) had abused to death by the licensed nanny Lu in foster care system under Child Welfare League Foundation on December 24th, 2023. Unfortunately, this news has burst into public on March 11th, 2024. Ironically, three months later, it has thrown a huge bomb from a single agency to bureaucratic administrative, and even to public opinion. There are following the event’s timetable.

1.In January 2022, the boy’s mother had become pregnant and consulted the New Taipei City Social Affair Bureau and the Children’s League, and the New Taipei City Social Affair Bureau accepted the case.

2.In February 2022, the boy was born in Shulin, New Taipei City. The biological mother signed a contract with the children’s league to adopt him.

3.In May 2022, the boy’s biological mother lost contact.

4.In June 2022, due to financial difficulties, the boy’s grandmother asked a former nanny to take care of her (for more than a year) and was accompanied by a social worker to apply for the “abandonment of custody” process.

5.In October 2022, the nanny surnamed Liu regained the registration as a home-based childcare provider in Taipei City.

6.In June 2023, the court ruled to terminate the boy’s right to have a mother and change the boy’s custody to his grandmother.

7.In the same month, the boy’s grandmother expressed her intension to adopt him to the New Taipei Social Welfare Center, and the Children’s League continued the adoption process. The Social Welfare Center will continue to provide diapers, milk powder, and a monthly financial subsidy of 7,000 dollars until September.

8.In September 2023, the court completed the verdict of abandoning custody, and the Taipei City Social Affairs Bureau referred the boy to the Children’s League.

9.On September 1st,2023, the former nanny expressed her willingness to adopt to Children League and tried to obtain certification from Children League to serve as a placement nanny, but was rejected; however, the social worker recommended the nanny surnamed Liu as the boy’s caregiver.

10.On September 26th, 2023, the Taipei City Social Affair Bureau’s residential care center made its first visit and found nothing unusual.

11.On November 23rd, 2023, the Children League stated that the nanny Liu took the boy to see a doctor because his “teeth were polished.”

12.On December 21st,2023, the Taipei City Social Affairs Bureau conducted its second unwarranted visit. The nanny informed the family living with the sickness person who was diagnosed and postponed the visit.

13.On December 24th,202, the boy died after being sent to the hospital due to difficult breathing. Signs of abuse were found, and Taipei City Social Affair Bureau suspended the case.

14.On December 25th, 2023, the Taipei City Social Affair Bureau accepted the child case notification.

15.In January 2024, the police received a report and the investigation found that the nanny with nanny’s sister were suspected of abuse.

16.On January 9,2024, the nanny was detained by the prosecutor’s office.

17.On March 11th, 2024, the former nanny’s daughter’s boyfriend revealed the matter in the “Breaking New Commune” and the entire case was exposed. At the same time, the Child Welfare League Foundation said that social workers had interviewed on September, October, and November.

18.On March 12th, 2024, the prosecutors searched the Children Welfare League and the social worker Chen.

19.On March 13rd, 2024, the Ministry of Health and Welfare held a press conference to explain that in parallel with the Children’s League’s request to suspend the adoption of new adopted children.

20.On March 15th, 2024, the Ministry of Health and Welfare plans to hold a major case review meeting together with the Taipei City Government, the League, experts, and scholars.

21.On March 21st, 2024, the Social Affairs Bureau of the Taipei City Government plans to hold a meeting of experts and scholars to review relevant mechanisms.

From this timetable, there are several tricky points behind the tragedy. This child abuse processes as a baseball game which has missed pitch, missed catches, wild throw, inappropriate decisions, and patriotism phenomenon. Indeed, we need to take it seriously to exam all the procedures.

It is true that even if there is any subsequent accountability, it can no longer save this innocent precious life of Kai-Kai. However, to find out the cause of the incident with hindsight is to put all the pieces of puzzles together and draw a picture of the abuse process from the incident. Like patchwork, in this case, it involves the shirk of responsibility from the social welfare unit that undertook the program to the central and local government. From Kai-Kai’s fragile family, the processes of adoption, the transferring regions, the chosen foster home from Child Welfare League Foundation, the social worker’s pictures and conversation with the nanny Liu, several concerning from pre-nanny, and seeking dentist because of losing teeth, if any of these signs such as the dentist reported possible abuse case, or nanny Lui’s neighbor had heard the crying Kai-Kai and had been reported, he would remain alive. There are several systematic changes to have a better social safety network.

First, the focus of the help-seeking pregnant mother to helpless grandmother is not to initiate supplementary procedures such as adoption and economic support, but to the hidden risk factors and risk coefficients such as disappearance and transfer of custody. The transition period from being ready to be raised to being completely ready to be raised is filled with all kinds of interfering variables that are difficult to control. According to CRC (Convention on the Rights of the Child) no matter how the procedures go, “the best interest of child” concept is the spirit of children’s welfare highest principle. During the period from January 2022 to December 2023, it had included “social worker team” of social workers from the New Taipei City’s Social Welfare Center and Children Welfare League, and “visiting team” of social workers from both New Taipei City and Taipei City Home Care Management Center.

Also, the “nanny team” for personal care of Zhou and Liu are diverse combinations. As a result, there is a lack of one main responsibility, with multiple collaborative efforts’ care management mechanism design. From Kai-Kai’s multiple transfer system is like the baseball tern” inappropriate transfers”. If we had a main responsibility social worker who could take charge of his adoption procedure and connect all the resources and professional helpers, or even choose the children’s welfare institute and nanny based upon his best interest. This tragedy would not happen and will noy happen in next Kai-Kai. Therefore, the concept of main case manager with multiple collaborative care system workers can solve some problems of foster system and keep the CRC’s the best interest of child.

Second, how could the foster care system business and social safety net have experienced such unimaginable malfunctions? This has also led to the “missing of frontline social workers, the “missed connection “of supervision, and “violence” of cross-level or cross -jurisdictional reports. Because of the improper deployment of coaching staff, the barn effect proposition came true, not to mention the “patriotism” of the fans and audiences. In addition, it added more collective and alternative knowledge caused by lawlessness ignorance and sentimentality trauma. In other words, from this event, we saw the social worker who put on handcuffs and exposed the conversation with nanny Liu that chilled all service on the welfares’ social workers.

Even more, according to Kai-Kai’s bruises and molar’s pictures, I do not see the supervisor to show up and I do not believe that the supervisor would not suspect some weird things behind this nanny. Furthermore, the supervisor should have seen all the reports from the social worker of Kai-Kai. The latest new, Child Welfare League Foundation spoken person pointed out “no supervisor”. I really do not believe that the foundation could use 3.7 ten million dollars to buy a building and total assets 45.9 ten million dollars. The foundation cannot afford to hire experience supervisors and more social workers, and even more quality nannies. They try to set a stop-loss point by having the CEO passively resign. In this way, the board of directors of Er-meng will be completely reorganized from the internal micro-system and external independent directors will be introduced and fund-raising will be stopped in an all-round way to properly utilize the huge Dijuan.

If the tragedy event uses baseball terns “pitchers’ misses, catchers’ missed passes, fielders’ wild passes, couches’ improper transfers, and the patriotism of spectators, are already a life-long race that has kept the judicial process from ending, because human live tragedy is a massive loss, and it presupposes difficult trauma-informed collective grief healing. As for the loss of a human life due to systemic failure, this also make the Child Welfare League has equal merits and faults really seem to be kitsch, especially given its institutional title of “alliance”. In fact, it is a single and private group for children welfare culture and educational institution; however, the institution has given audiences misunderstanding in which is an “league” foundation. It has long been in danger of being confused, and this m