Teen girl catches child protective services telling her to become a prostitute, report says
HOUSTON (TND) — A 14-year-old girl in Texas allegedly caught a Child Protective Services (CPS) employee on video advising her to sell her body to make money.
The incident reportedly led to the commissioner of the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services personally apologizing to both the teenager and her mother.
Speaking with KRIV News, the teen girl's mother, Keisha Bazley, said she had turned to CPS for help with her 14-year-old daughter. Bazley is a mother of nine children, KRIV News added.
Bazley's teen daughter had reportedly been running away from home and causing trouble at school.
CPS was housing Bazley's daughter at a hotel, the local report explained, adding that she's one of many foster children living in hotels in Harris County, Texas.
According to Bazley's teenage daughter, one employee with CPS was actively encouraging her to take up prostitution. As Bazley told KRIV News, this prompted her teen to secretly record an interaction with the employee.
My daughter told me that the worker had been telling her she should do these things, so she said she decided to video her," Bazley reportedly said.
In the video obtained by KRIV News, the girl can be heard asking for food. The CPS employee can then be heard encouraging the girl to consider prostitution as a means to make money.
Bazley tells the news station that if she said that, she'd face fierce scrutiny.
If me, the parent, was to do something like this to my child, I would be bashed," Bazley told KRIV News. "I would be called a horrible parent. I would lose my kids."
The video led to Bazley filing a complaint with CPS, which led to a personal apology from Commissioner Jamie Masters.
Family law attorney Mike Schneider reportedly says that personal apology is something he's never seen before.
I've never seen that happen before where the commissioner of CPS comes in from Austin, just to apologize about something horrible that's been done to a child involved with CPS," Schneider told KRIV News. "It's bad enough if it's just one bad rogue worker. It concerns me that it may be bigger than that, and they need to make sure it's not just one person, and they've got to find a way to protect these kids.
A spokesperson for Texas DFPS has reportedly said that the department is aware of the video and has "taken action."
Spokesperson Melissa Lanford told KRIV News that the person caught on camera telling the teen to consider prostitution has been "dismissed from her position."
The safety and appropriateness with which children in care must be treated is our paramount concern," Lanford reportedly added. "Nothing less will be tolerated."
When asked by KRIV News if CPS would remove a child from a home that was actively encouraging that child to take up prostitution, family law attorney Mike Schneider said "they should, and they would."
