‘It failed my children’: Kevin Franke calls for DCFS investigation
Oct 10, 2024, 4:46 PM | Updated: 5:52 pm
SALT LAKE CITY — Kevin Franke spoke before lawmakers on the state’s Child Welfare Legislative Oversight Panel at the Utah State Capitol on Thursday.
“First, I would like to publicly express my sorrow, grief, and anger for the tragic death of Gavin Peterson. His death hit very close to home for me. I offer my sincere condolences to those of his family and friends who love him. I am present at this meeting today as an advocate for their cause as well as that of my own children, who were horrifically and systemically tortured over the summer months of 2023 by their mother Ruby Franke and their professionally-licensed mental health counselor Jodi Hildebrandt.
DCFS is an organization I have come to know well over the past year through the process of reunification with my children. I have developed genuine respect and appreciation for the case workers that have interacted with me and my kids. I know they are good people who genuinely care. I observe that DCFS case workers in general are understaffed and underpaid. Many case workers seem discouraged by the overwhelming number of cases they are asked investigate and/or manage. I would ask what DCFS and the state are doing to address the high turnover and vacancies among case workers. These case workers perform a vital but thankless job while simultaneously working within a system and set of laws that seem to favor parental privacy and “reasonable effort” over the well-being of children. Following the tragedies of Gavin Peterson and my own children, I believe that the public deserves a transparent and independent investigation of the entire child welfare system and its governing laws to discover what went wrong and what needs to be changed to prevent similar tragedies from happening again. I think it’s wrong for any aspect of the child welfare system to avoid public accountability by citing privacy laws or proposing to perform a private internal investigation. Closed doors do not foster trust or confidence in the process. Privacy does nothing to help Gavin Peterson at this point.
Gavin’s tragedy is a perfect example of why we need red flag laws in child welfare. Nearly everything in our current child protection laws hinges on a judge’s signature, and that judge is typically three steps removed from the child. Conversely, those who know the child best such as family members, neighbors, friends, ecclesiastical leaders, and school teachers are just one step removed from the child. These individuals know best when something is wrong and authorities should be empowered to act on their word. Red flag laws would allow police and DCFS authorities to rapidly and temporarily separate the child from the situation, assess the well-being of the child and the parenting techniques of the parent, and more accurately and timely determine if longer term placement is necessary for the child.
I have also recently learned that the number of reported child abuse cases began to skyrocket when the state legislature voted years ago to remove school truancy from the hands of the juvenile court. I urge lawmakers to rethink that choice and turn the matter of school truancy back over to the juvenile court system.
Finally, until new laws are enacted that overcome the impenetrable barrier of the “uncooperative parent” in this state, children’s lives and well-being will remain at risk. I urge lawmakers and citizens to support these proposed measures. Such laws could have saved Gavin Peterson’s life. And I tremble when I think that my own children were just weeks away from meeting the same fate as Gavin. If not for the heroic efforts of my son in escaping his abusive captors, that certainly would have been the outcome. The child welfare system in this state is broken, and it failed Gavin Peterson and it failed my children in their time of greatest need. Please act now. Please stop placing the rights of abusive parents above the rights, safety, and well-being of their children.”
The estranged husband of former YouTube vlogger Ruby Franke told KSL TV he came to this meeting as a concerned citizen with personal experience in this area.
“I’m a proponent for child welfare reform and I want to see some serious changes,” Kevin Franke said.
In the official statement he gave to the committee, Kevin Franke said his children were just weeks away from meeting the same fate as Gavin Peterson, the 12-year-old West Haven boy who died in July. Documents showed the Division of Child and Family Services received multiple child abuse reports linked to him.
Kevin Franke said he’s learned in his situation that DCFS caseworkers are overworked and underpaid. He encouraged lawmakers to talk to those people, rather than the division’s directors.
“The caseworkers that have been assigned to our case I think genuinely care,” he said. “They are genuinely trying to help my family, but they have to operate within the current system and the laws and policies that govern that system.”
Kevin Franke, and a number of other speakers during public comment, said the state’s child welfare system needs reform.
“I think a major issue that we don’t talk a lot about, but I think we need to is how much power the judges in the juvenile court have over this entire process,” Kevin Franke said. “They literally are the drivers and the decision makers for the go or no-go.”
He spoke in favor of red flag laws saying that would have made a difference in his family’s case.
“Individuals like teachers, neighbors, friends, ecclesiastical leaders who are only one step removed from a child and those individuals know best when something is wrong,” Kevin Franke said.
Kevin Franke was critical of the closed-door conversation the panel had with DCFS.
“I don’t disagree with privacy laws, but I think we need to look at them from a higher elevation and really ask the question, can we address some of these issues and some of these questions without invading individual privacy,” he said. “I personally have the opinion that privacy laws are used by agencies to shield and protect themselves, not to protect the kids.”
Sen. Luz Escamilla, D-Salt Lake City, a committee member, pushed back on that point.
“There is a delicate balance,” she said. “I believe truly in transparency and in these cases, there is a criminal case right now. So it’s even more complicated because you can impact that. And that needs to be taken care of and addressed. So I will say right now, I don’t know. Where can you expand the openness? ”
She said both federal guidelines and state law have to be followed when it comes to how much information is given to the public.
“We also want to make sure that we’re not sending any chilling effect to people that if they disclose, their information is going to be public,” Escamilla said. “If I’m asking you to be the neighbor or the church parishioner … for you to call and say something is not okay, and then your name is in the press?”
Kevin Franke advocated for an independent investigation of DCFS.
Escamilla said they are examining the division’s work while also looking at what to fix with legislation.
“In this case, it shows that DCFS was following protocol and procedures, but I have to admit, you see more people being sophisticated in the way they abuse children and utilizing things that maybe were not even a conversation five years ago,” she said. “We will continue to make sure that we now use, even AI, all this data that we have to see trends and to see red flags in place is now what you’re going to see some of that legislation because we can’t have this be repeated.”
Kevin Franke said he’ll continue to push for these changes, but said he doesn’t claim he’s guiltless in his family’s situation.
“All of the details regarding what happened with my family and in my experience aren’t out and the narrative that is quite popular in the media and on social media today has many inaccuracies,” he said. “When the time is right and when I’m ready to speak, I will, and my adult children will tell what happened. But the bottom line is, many of us were deceived and betrayed, and that led to the disaster and the tragedy that, that impacted my children.”
Kevin Franke said the juvenile court proceedings for his children are still ongoing, but those were closed to the public.