We’ll call her Louise. She's concerned about her identity being known, but when she heard that Josh Powell killed himself and his boys she had very personal reasons for feeling sick.
“The boys were the same age as my boys,” she said.
And they are having supervised visitations with their father, who she describes as violent and abusive. She thinks they could be in danger at those times.
"It hit me really hard because it’s my worst fear,” she said.
But these were on a neutral site like Josh Powell's early visits with his boys. Louise says they took place in a private family care center in Pierce County and far from the main office with no oversight other than one female supervisor. Louise thinks it’s odd in any case where the supervision is court-ordered.
"It means they've already determined there’s a possibility for danger, therefore they have an obligation to make sure the environments safe,” she said.
A DSHS spokesperson points out that Josh Powell's kids weren't taken from him because of abuse or neglect and there had never been reports of that kind of danger in the case.
Similar visitations will continue while the Powell case is reviewed.
“We're required to make reasonable efforts to be reunified, it would not even be possible to stop visitations of all the children in our care with their parents and siblings,” said Sherry Hill, DSHS spokesperson.
Private companies doing supervision work have their own standards for hiring but say the workers aren't state licensed and there's virtually no state oversight.
For Louise, it doesn’t make sense. If you're 20 years old, have 20 hours of training in domestic violence awareness and a high school education you meet state standards. She and many people in the supervised visitation industry want to see changes.
"I would have to say if we don’t look at it then we're all at fault,” she said.
Chuck Cox said they had no role in choosing the company that over saw those visits. That was ordered by the court and DSHS.
Also, according to Sherry Hill at DSHS, all parties involved agreed that once-a-week supervised home visits would be ok.
The state now has six months to complete what they call a "child fatality review."
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