ENID, Okla. — A petition out of Garfield County is renewing calls for accountability and reform at the Oklahoma Department of Human Services.
This, after the petition filed in Tulsa County failed for not collecting enough signatures.
Local News
PETITION FILED: Advocates ask for grand jury to investigate DHS
Advocates out of Garfield County are asking for the agency and nine of their staff members to be investigated, along with seven other state entities and individuals.
This petition was fueled mostly by alleged misconduct at the Robert M. Greer Center, an agency accused of ignoring residents suffering and evidence of abuse.
"I feel like parents are in a no-win situation right now in Oklahoma," said Apera Tobiason.
She's a family advocate who worked in Garfield County. While she wasn't employed by DHS, she was contracted as a Comprehensive Home Based Services worker to work with their clients.
Over a two-year period, she said she watched the agency time and time again remove children from their homes, telling the parents they had no other choice.
It wasn't until Tobiason got assigned to a case and found it was actually a volunteer-based case that families learned they could withdraw at any point.
"They're removing children on volunteer basis, telling them they have to remove them, they're removing them for no reason at all. There's hardly ever any crime committed when they're removing children," she said. “DHS did not want the parents to know their rights.”
Tobiason said DHS threatened to get her fired, and she did eventually lose her job. She said DHS didn't like her informing clients of their rights.
"It's causing more trauma to children," she said. "It's violating rights, and it's going to continue and it’s going to get worse if we don’t stop it and there’s not accountability, transparency. That’s what we’re wanting.”
Rep. Justin Humphrey has continued to join the fight, asking for the attorney general to investigate what he calls "gross negligence and failure to protect children from sexual abuse, physical abuse and neglect."
Tobiason says she too has written the AG letters to get involved in their fight, but has never heard back.
"It's not the people's job to seek accountability on corruption, but we are," said Tobiason. "We’re having to go from county to county to county trying to get these grand jury citizen petitions where he could just say okay.”
2 News reached out to the AG and did not receive a response.
2 News also reached out to DHS for an interview or a statement on these renewed calls for investigation into the agency, and did not recieve one.
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