Editorial: More vigilance to protect foster keiki

Time after time, it’s heartbreaking to hear of children in Hawaii’s foster care system be betrayed by that system, and by the very adults around them who were supposed to protect.

Last year, the heinous case of Isabella “Ariel” Kalua, the 6-year-old allegedly killed by her foster-turned-adoptive parents, was supposed to have raised the bar for the care of foster children. Sadly, the recent criminal case of two young girls allegedly sexually abused for nearly six years while in a Wahiawa foster home only raises alarm about dubious vetting and lax monitoring of kids in the state system.

Bryson “Bula” Mahoe, 30, is facing trial on federal child pornography charges after he allegedly forced the girls to perform sex acts that he filmed in exchange for food; the sisters and their brother were living in the foster care of the suspect’s parents, Peter and Dorothy Mahoe. Federal documents also show the girls accused their foster parents of withholding food, an accusation Peter Mahoe denied.

According to court documents, the sex assaults lasted from July 2016 through this February — for the older girl, starting at age 8 or 9; for her younger sister, starting about age 7 or 8.

The fact that Bryson Mahoe in 2016 pleaded no contest to violation of privacy — taking sexual photographs or videotapes of a person without that person’s consent — raises serious questions about the level of proper vetting of the Mahoe home as a safe foster environment. Further, despite state Child Welfare Services protocols that require, at a minimum, monthly visits with youth in foster care, it is appalling that six alleged years of abuse could go undetected, let alone unreported, until this February.

The absence of red flags lends credence to children advocates’ calls for better oversight and necessary improvements by the state. Attorney Randall L.K.M. Rosenberg, for one, told Star-Advertiser reporter Peter Boylan that protocols should, but do not, require that social workers converse privately with children, if age appropriate, so they can speak more freely to alert a diligent social worker to problems or mistreatment.

The incidents should compel the state Department of Human Services’ (DHS’) Child Welfare Services to review its procedures and tighten monitoring gaps that leave children at risk of predators in the foster homes. As Rosenberg rightly noted: “If a social worker is not turning in reports for each assigned child on a monthly basis, the social worker should be confronted and potentially disciplined.”

State lawmakers must help ease a chronic shortage of qualified social workers. Partly to that end, legislators should try again on House Bill 2424, which passed in this year’s session but was ultimately vetoed by Gov. David Ige.

The so-called “Ariel’s bill” aimed to provide Child Welfare Services with needed funds for training and staff; and sought to expand the state’s authority on families receiving benefits from the adoption assistance program, enabling some follow-up in cases where there are red flags.

HB 2424 required that foster families — and those that adopt foster children — be placed under scrutiny as long as the child is a minor for any complaint, even if determined to be unsubstantiated. Ige’s veto said the added oversight would be too disruptive and intrusive on families.

More than 1,250 children and youth are in Hawaii’s foster care system, and nearly 50% are Native Hawaiian. That dramatic overrepresentation in the system has led to culturally based initiatives to support keiki and build positive foster-parent networks, such as Project Pilina, which was awarded DHS’ recruitment contract in July 2021; and Ka Pili ‘Ohana, a Lili‘uokalani Trust-partnered program working for better outcomes for Native Hawaiian keiki in foster care.

To be sure, there are many good foster families and people who are positive influences in the lives of at-risk children. It’s the bad ones that must be stopped from doing further harm. It does take a village to raise a child — and in the case of vulnerable foster keiki, that includes community vigilance and the early sounding of alarms.