Describing a “lost” Tennessee Department of Children’s Services engaging in “tyranny,” witnesses testified Tuesday, Sept. 21, in favor of a bill that would prohibit anonymous reports of child abuse.

While some argue anonymity provides safety for those at risk of retaliation, the witnesses told emotional stories of the state taking their children away based on false, anonymous reports.

At a hearing of the House Children and Family Affairs Subcommittee, Chad Farley said officers in tactical gear surrounded his house and took his son away, denying them due process.

Proposed legislation would prevent anonymous reports of child abuse

He said what the state did was “nothing short of tyranny.”

“I beg you to support the change in this law,” Farley told lawmakers. “Demand better from this extremely lost state agency.”

The bill, sponsored by state Rep. Clay Doggett (R-Pulaski) and state Sen. Janice Bowling (R-Tullahoma), would require DCS to take the name and contact info of the accuser. With “good cause,” the accused could ask a court to reveal that identifying information.

But the bill could result “in otherwise preventable prolonged abuse,” according to the General Assembly’s Fiscal Review Committee.

Connie Reguli, a lobbyist with the Family Forward Project, organized the witnesses. The committee was more amenable to the bill than it was in March, when it sent the bill to summer study. The bill is likely to be taken up by the General Assembly when it meets in January. Doggett said a compromise might be part of a broader package of legislation related to DCS.

In an interview after the hearing, Farley said accusers shouldn’t fear retaliation.

“If it’s a worthy cause, why would you be worried if you’re saving a child’s life?” he said. “I’m gonna save a child before myself.”

Abigail West said she was “absolutely not” granted due process. She said a “nasty, nasty divorce” and an anonymous report led DCS to take custody of her baby.

She said the case was eventually “non-suited,” which she said is not quite a dismissal, and that she was reunited with the baby.

“An anonymous call created an unneeded avalanche of trauma,” she said.

In an interview after the hearing, Doggett said his goal isn’t to discourage people from reporting abuse but to cut down on “frivolous” reports. At a hearing in March, he said anonymous reporting was used as “a tool of harassment.”

DCS continues to oppose the bill.

Drew Wright, executive director of legislation and policy for DCS, said the bill “would chill child abuse reporting at the expense of children.”

When it goes unreported, Wright told the committee, “that abuse escalates.”

“We might lose one (report) that might protect a child from dying,” he said, “and that’s not worth the risk.”

Wright said he didn’t recall prosecuting anyone for filing a false report during his time as an assistant district attorney general in southern Middle Tennessee.

He also noted laws criminalizing false reports.

“We don’t like that any more than anyone who’s testified here today,” he said.

State Rep. Torrey Harris (D-Memphis), one of the lawmakers most involved with DCS, supports anonymous reporting but said there were some compromises he would be willing to make regarding the interviews and investigations DCS conducts.

“I think that we, for the most part, will agree that anonymous reporting is going to stay,” he told The Daily Memphian. “Changing legislation like this is going to hurt a child.”

DCS took heat from lawmakers and witnesses for conducting interviews with children before notifying adults, a practice Wright said is designed to get a “fresh” story uninfluenced by adults.

Harris asked DCS Deputy Commissioner Carla Aaron if she thought the bill would lead to unreported abuse.

“Yes, I do,” she said.

Tennessee is a mandatory reporting state, meaning that, according to the DCS site, “Any person with reasonable cause to believe a child is being abused or neglected must, under the law, immediately report to (DCS) or to local law enforcement.”

Filing a false report and failing to report known abuse are both illegal in Tennessee and in many other states.

Retaliation against whistleblowers comes with civil penalties, according to Tennessee law, if the accused “causes a detrimental change in the employment status of the reporting party.” A handful of other states have civil or criminal penalties for retaliation against accusers, including Arkansas, Connecticut, North Dakota and Oklahoma.

In a column on the site Social Work Today, social worker Nancy Guardia and psychologist Franne Sippel wrote that mandatory reporters often face obstacles to reporting. They wrote that abuse went on for years at Penn State University, USA Gymnastics, the Catholic Church and other institutions in large part because of retaliation by superiors.

“Child abuse within powerful institutions and organizations... occurs in a culture of silence,” they wrote, “where the people in the best position to identify and respond to abuse do not have the ability to make direct reports to law enforcement. Instead, they must report suspected child abuse to their superiors.”

To report suspected child abuse or neglect, call 1-877-237-0004. In non-emergency situations, submit a report online using this link. Also, training can be accessed on how to recognize signs of abuse and neglect, and it can be reported here.