Fenty's Unthinking Ax

Okay, let's try this without the hindsight:

You are a caseworker for the D.C. Child and Family Services Agency. You receive a report from a school social worker who is concerned about truancy because a 16-year-old girl has not been in school for several weeks. She says the mother won't let the 16-year-old return to school because she is afraid the child will run away. The social worker characterizes that as "holding her hostage in the home." When you visit the home, no one answers, so you leave a note asking the mother to call you.

Three days later the school social worker herself returns to the home and speaks to the mother again. She calls the police and says she thinks the mother has mental problems. She believes the children are "abused and neglected," apparently because of the truancy and because the children and home look dirty.

But when a police officer arrives, he finds four children "well and healthy." Mom claims she's home-schooling the children. The officer sees the books mom says she is using.

What do you do?

The police officer saw no evidence of abuse or neglect. Yes, mom wouldn't let him in without a warrant, but in America, that is her right. The school social worker suspects mental illness -- but she's also the one who said the daughter was being held hostage, something apparently contradicted by the police.

If you happen to be psychic, know that the mother is Banita Jacks and know what will be discovered more than eight months later, presumably you drop everything and find a way to get into that home.

But if you are simply a typical D.C. caseworker -- juggling many other cases -- then you move on to all those situations that, on the surface, look far worse than a home-schooler with "well and healthy" children.

In fact, in the horrifying case of Banita Jacks, now charged with murdering the children and leaving their bodies to decompose in the home, the CFSA did more. Even though the police found nothing wrong, a caseworker returned -- with police -- the following day, but no one answered the door. The next day the worker tried again.

What else should the CFSA have done?

-- Break down the door? That's illegal in America.

-- Get the police to break down the door? Still illegal.