Missouri DSS Targets Whistleblower

“When the mom wanted to press charges against the dad for raping the girl, (they said) ‘well you’re not gonna do that, because if you do that, we’ll just charge you with failure to protect'

A whistleblower who said she was trying to advocate for a child molestation victim says Missouri Department of Social Services (DSS) targeted her.

Laura Ann Thomason said after she began advocating for a fourteen year old who said her father was molesting her she was first removed from the case, then her grandchildren were taken, and finally she was terminated from her employer, The Compass Group USA.

Thomason said at the beginning of this affair, “I was an integrated health specialist and I advocated for children, so, like, you know, in every area of their lives.” Thomason said of her role, “So, for example, if a child had a complete meltdown because they were taking them out of PE. I had the authority to say ‘let’s do something different.’”

In her role, she worked with DSS. “I worked for a behavior center, but most of the children I worked with were in foster care.”

Thomason is based in Jefferson City, Missouri which is in Cole County.

Her problems began when she was assigned to a fourteen year old who disclosed child molestation in February 2020.

“We got called in because she missed so many days of school,” She said, “The third visit she begins to tell me that her dad had been beating her, locking her up, and she showed me scars on her where he had hit her so hard he broke in against her bones, and she told me he had been raping her since she was twelve.”

This girl told Thomason that this sexual molestation had been going on since she was twelve years old.

Thomason called in DSS, but DSS seemed not interested in conducting an investigation.

Find a full interview with Thomason below.

“I called them several times; the case worker’s name was Jesse. I called them several times about the situation, about the things were going on because they left the girl with an eighteen year old while her mom had surgery.”

Thomason said she next convinced the girl to tell a school guidance counselor about the abuse.

The counselor and Thomason then both called DSS, but DSS dug in its heels.

When DSS came to visit following these calls, they turned it around the mom, “When the mom wanted to press charges against the dad for raping the girl, they told her, the juvenile officer looked at her and said, ‘well you’re not gonna do that, because if you do that, we’ll just arrest you for failure to protect.’”

Thomason then said she told this juvenile officer, “You failed to protect, because you’ve been called to her house like ten times and never did anything.”

Thomason then turned to her employer for help. She said that she told Compass she was going to report DSS for “failure to protect.”

This conversation, Thomason recalls, was on a Friday, and the next Monday, Compass had removed this case from her case load.

The retaliation was only beginning.

Next, DSS targeted her grandchildren. Thomason was the guardian for her grandchildren.

Within two months, DSS opened a case against Thomason for abuse and neglect of her grandchildren.

Her grandchildren were removed and placed into a foster home in April 2020.

In that foster home, her grandchildren, Thomason said, were abused. She provided photos which showed abuse.

In a meeting with DSS, a DSS employee acknowledges that there was a complaint made because there was a handprint visible on one of Thomason’s grandchildren during a Zoom meeting with the boy’s mother, but DSS could not confirm that. Despite that, the grandchildren were still removed from that home without a clear explanation.

Missouri DSS became cagey for why the grandchildren were removed. The case worker would only say that during the investigation into the handprint, “there were some other concerns.”

She refused to tell Thomason in the recording what those other concerns were.

The DSS employee did acknowledge that a child abuse investigation had been started on another matter.

Despite the tacit admission that the grandchildren were being abused in foster care, Thomason said DSS refused to reunite her with her grandchildren.

She was told she was hindering the reunification process as the reason; she told me that the grandchildren never suffered abuse while in her home.

Within six months of all this getting started, Thomason said that Compass then fired her.

She taped the meeting when she was fired, expecting the termination. That video is below.

The reason given was that her relationship with DSS was so broken she could no longer work at Compass because of their close relationship with DSS.

“If you’re not able to work with CD, it might be a challenge in some other position,” her superior tells her during the call when she is terminated. “Nobody will work with you; that’s the issue.”

Find the audio below.

More recently, Thomason filed a civil rights lawsuit. Find that here.

The lawsuit alleges that she was retaliated against by her employer, Compass, for being a whistleblower.

The lawsuit states in part, “A co-worker named Derinda Ofori explicitly warned Plaintiff, on one occasion,

“‘You will get fired’ when she stated her intent to go public over child welfare issues.”

The lawsuit continued, “A.L. was in an abusive situation with regard to her father, and, on a third visit, displayed scarring on her neck.

“Of course, Ms. Thomason reported this, as well as a report of sexual abuse, to Defendant and CHS.”

“In the end, nothing was done to protect the child and resentment against Plaintiff grew on the part CHS, until it ultimately culminated in her illegal discharge, following her stated intent to make these serious, ongoing issues public, by going to local media.

“Although she was told she was terminated for because Children’s Health Services (‘CHS’) did not want to work with her and had made her retention untenable, this explanation was pretextual.

“Upon information and belief, CHS ever actually expressed this to Defendant.

“No progressive discipline or warnings were issued to Plaintiff prior to her summary discharge.

“No good faith attempt was made.”

Thomason said she is seeking back pay along with punitive damages.

Compass Group did not respond to an email for comment.

Missouri DSS has gained notoriety lately. First it was reported that nearly one thousand children have gone missing in that state’s foster care system.

Here is part of a local news article, “A federal report shows that more than 975 kids in Missouri’s foster care system have vanished at some point.  Just days after the report was released, lawmakers stressed their frustration with the state’s agency for the lack of protection and policies during a House Families and Children Committee. 

”The acting director for the Department of Social Services (DSS) said as of Tuesday morning, there are 95 kids in the state’s case management system that were on the run. The United States Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) released a report Thursday that showed Missouri has previously failed to comply with federal requirements that could have found missing children.”

The director at the time, Jennifer Tidball, got in hot water over this report but also over a separate case in which she effectively stole children from a couple when she was made a foster parent and then the adoptive parent.

That mom- Jessica Lake- will hopefully be featured here soon. Here is more from another local story.

“A Missouri mom says she is in an unfair battle with the state Children's Division as she tries to reunify with her children.

“Jessie Lake of Columbia was notified in 2019 the state was moving to terminate her parental rights to her 2-year-old twin daughters.

“The foster parents of the twins plan to adopt them, Lake said.

“The kicker: According to court documents Lake provided to the News-Leader, the foster mom is Jennifer Tidball, director of the Missouri Department of Social Services.”

Tidball was finally removed as director in October 2021, but merely demoted to the number two position in the State’s DSS system.

Missouri DSS provided the statement below.

The Department of Social Services strongly encourages anyone who suspects child abuse or neglect to call our toll-free hotline at 1-800-392-3738. The Missouri Child Abuse and Neglect Hotline is answered 24-hours a day, every day, all year round. DSS investigates all reports of child abuse or neglect that merit investigations as laid out in §210.145 RSMo. Under Missouri law, the Department of Social Services must contact appropriate law enforcement agencies when it receives a report that merits investigation. Law enforcement agencies may co-investigate or provide other assistance.  Information related to specific child abuse and neglect investigations is closed and confidential under Missouri law, except under very limited circumstances (please see §210.150 RSMo). You may find additional information about the Child Abuse and Neglect Hotline, child abuse and neglect investigations and family assessments at: https://dss.mo.gov/cd/keeping-kids-safe/can.htm and https://dss.mo.gov/cd/pdf/faq-child-abuse-investigations.pdf

The Department of Social Services categorically rejects the assertion that “kids who wind up in the system aren't that important.” The Department prioritizes the health, safety and welfare of children—and especially children placed into the custody of any Division of the Department.

The Department of Social Services has no knowledge of any reporting asserting that “nearly one thousand children in Missouri's foster system are missing.” Moreover, the assertion would be untrue. The Department’s response to the 2019 case study was published with the OIG report, Case Study: Missouri's Efforts To Protect Children Missing From Foster Care_OEI-07-19-00372 (hhs.gov).  

Finally, the Department of Social Services is not a party to the litigation you mentioned and has no comment on the lawsuit.

Post Script:

Please find the fundraiser for more Missouri stories here.