And almost predictably the results were terrible. Svercauski denied it, and he never faced criminal charges because prosecutors couldn' t find any corroborating evidence and didn' t think the girl would make a credible witness. But licensing officials finally had a legal reason to close a foster home they had suspected for years was not a good place. Ed Svercauski declined to talk about the allegations. However, in the lawsuit his attorney said the case was nothing but blackmail by a girl who wanted someone to pay for her promiscuity.
Little things hurt too The truly abhorrent stories of abuse are exceptions.
More common are the stories that generate little attention but devastate the children just as much. There' s the foster mother who would lock her children out of the house on Sunday mornings while she attended church, and another who would let her foster babies sit in wet pants because she alloted them only so many diapers a day. One foster parent' s idea of punishment was to force children to stand in a garage with their arms outstretched until she thought they had learned a lesson. Still another mother limited children to one bowl of breakfast cereal before school, while another made her foster children pay for sodas they took from the refrigerator. Complaints against foster parents such as these documented in licensing files more than doubled between 1994 and 1997, the last year figures were available.