CHICAGO (AP) — At least a dozen Illinois Department of Children and Family Services workers have been attacked or seriously threatened while trying to protect children or investigate mistreatment allegations since 2013.
The Chicago Tribune analyzed government and police records to help to determine the figure. The newspaper reports the violence can be serious, though it’s rarely publicized.
One DCFS investigator was chocked and pushed by a mother after being called to a Chicago elementary school last week on a report that the woman’s son had a burned ear.
Illinois lawmakers drafted legislation to stiffen criminal penalties for such assaults in the wake of the September beating of DCFS investigator Pamela Sue Knight. She’s been in a coma since being attacked while trying to take protective custody of a child.
