Slaying of Foster Parent Spurs Social Service Changes

Charles Johnson knew his 15-year-old foster son was trouble almost from the moment the teenager walked into his suburban home in December.

Johnny Jordan had a swagger about him and talked back.

But Johnson says he didn’t know the whole story until after he found his wife, her head crushed and body smoldering, dead on the kitchen floor of their home Jan. 29. The boy was charged with beating Jeanette Johnson, 62, with a hatchet and setting her on fire.

Johnson says the Lucas County Children Services agency never told him that the teen, who has been in and out of foster homes since 1988, had a history of theft and vandalism against previous foster parents, and had once assaulted a foster mother. He also had served 10 months for assaulting a bus driver.

“If I had known about all that stuff, I would never have let him in my house,” the 70-year-old retired welder said.

Agency spokesman Mark Harris says the Johnsons were told--twice, both times orally.

Nonetheless, the agency has changed its policy, now requiring social workers to give foster parents details about a child’s past in writing. The document must be signed by the agency and the foster parents before a child is placed.

“With this form, you can document everything that has been told. This will prevent any future misunderstandings,” Harris said.

Nationally, foster parents too often know little about a child’s background, said Don Duquette, a University of Michigan law professor and director of the Child Advocacy Law Clinic in Ann Arbor, Mich.

What foster parents are told varies from state to state, county to county. Most children’s services agencies do not require that parents be told about a child’s criminal background.

“Generally speaking, foster parents ought to know what they’re getting into,” said Bruce Boyer, supervising lawyer at Northwestern University’s Children and Family Justice Center.

In Ohio, the Lucas County Children Services agency says the slaying has hurt what was a robust foster parent program, with about 300 foster parents caring for 600 children. Some parents have quit, others have decided not to join. A few refuse to take teenagers.

“The unfortunate thing is, we’ve never had an incident like this before. You hope that nothing like this happens again,” Harris said. “But in the meantime it gives all of these kids who are in foster care a bad name.”

Before the slaying, Lucas County social workers were required to tell foster parents about a child’s criminal and medical history. The way in which parents were to be notified--orally or in writing--was not spelled out.

In the case of the Johnson family, when the agency called the couple to tell them that Jordan would be placed in the home, “they were told the information that we had at the time,” which was that Jordan had a history of problems with foster parents, Harris said.

“We didn’t have all the information when we first placed him there. But when we got that, we told them,” the spokesman said. The Johnsons knew everything that Children Services knew within a week after Jordan moved in, Harris said.

Jordan has been charged with juvenile counts of aggravated murder and aggravated arson. If convicted, he could be held until age 21.

Prosecutor Anthony Pizza said Jordan has confessed but gave no motive.

Shirley Meredith, a neighbor of the Johnsons, believes that Jordan was upset because the Johnsons wouldn’t let him keep a stray dog. She said the county dog warden took the animal away just hours before Johnson was found slain.

Meredith, a foster parent herself, said she is through taking in youngsters: “It’s getting too dangerous. Social workers don’t tell you nothing about these kids.”

The Johnsons “took him in because they were good people. Now she’s dead,” Meredith said. “Somebody else could get killed again.”