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My name is Sarah Short. I am not only an adult survivor of the foster care system, and abusive parents, I am an adoptive mother of a former foster child (as a single parent) a mother of a child from rape, an accused foster parent and an advocate (which is why they are refusing to appropriately investigate the allegations so I can clear my name. I would like to help you collect stories from here in Alaska to add to this wonderful page. I would also like to add mine. I can prove all allegations untrue, but have yet in over eight months been allowed to. The division has not even once called the witnesses, and the person who made the allegation has since recanted. Yet in early April 99 a ten year old boy ran a way from his foster home because the foster mom was whipping him with a belt because he could not keep up on a "family run". Steven Murray ran away to the police, made his own report, where photos were taken of the welts on his butt. He was returned ten days later to the same home. In June the foster mother pleaded no contest to assault with a deadly weapon on her husband, which was reported to police by their 11 year old biological son. Three foster children including Steven were in the home. In late July Steven Murray died of massive head injury, as a result of it being slammed on a cement floor continuously. Evidence proves he was not alone in the room, yet the biological child remains in the home. Steven was taken from his mother because he witnesses domestic violence. His mother is one of my many clients. I also have many foster parents as clients. I run an organization called Families First Partnership. Because of my work over a million dollars of misappropriated funds has been discovered and many cases of coercion and worse. this is the true reason they are not investigating the allegations against me as a foster parent. I have been instead required to have a full blown hearing at the highest level. The hearing will take place in April. One of the things they are using against me is the fact that I was abused as a child. This comes after I passed mental health evaluations and home studies in order to adopt a former foster child. My organization is about finding solutions. It is not suggesting that children are not really abused. It is suggesting equal accountability, better trained and mentally evaluated case workers. We are asking where is our money being spent and how can we as a community make our agencies provide better quality services. Do you know someone who needs help? Have them call 907-561-5976. We have 8 chapters in Alaska and if we can not help you we will certainly help you find someone who can. This is a GREAT page and I plan on linking it to ours and notifying our legislators to visit it. Sarah Short

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Linda, This page was written beautifully,& from the heart.I for one know there is no truth to the allegations that was made against Jack, his not like that. The system sucks,and needs to revealed as the failure in which it is. Due to the false allegations those children lost the most loving family they could ever have,and you lost a part of your family. God Bless and may the decision be turned around the way it should have been in the first place *INNOCENT*. Betty

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I have followed your story on the listserv with an ache in my heart. I was just sent your website and this morning read every word and relived your pain with you. I only hope that someday it will be over for you and you will be vindicated. All your strength and faith and the energy you have put into the fight should not be wasted. And I commend you on what you have done for others in foster care. You have created a wealth of information that can help deter this from ever happening but as it is inevitable that it may still happen, the steps to recovering from these kinds of disasters are well laid out and will give others the strength that you have had. Bless you, Karen

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Our hearts and prayers go out to you. We are in a fight over a fos-adopt child that was removed from our home because a young caseworker decided that I am too difficult to work with. We also belive that our former foster dauhter has told her lies. We so far have no alligations against us but have been ignored from everyone or had the two agencies point the finger at the other.We made the committment to him and find it hard to forget. We are not allowed any contact and have been given no answers as to why this is really happening. Do you have any advise to give us as how to procced? We are at the Governor level at this point waiting to hear from his office. Let us know if there is anything we can do to help you. The 16 year old foster daughter e-mailed me last week to ask if she can come home. We know that we have been kind loving parents to the children in our care and do not deserve this kind of treatment. But where do we go with this next. We have yet to find a Lawyer who will take the case. We have never felt so used and abused.May God Bless you as you continue the fight for Justice. We are trying to get the media to listen to our story. Have you gone to the media yet? We have not yet done the story because we were told that if we take that step we will never do foster parenting in NE again. Sincerely, Richard and Judy

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