Cocke County DCS “Bad to the Bone”
This story is several years old and as far as I can tell no changes or improvements have been made to DCS, they have become so powerful and well funded that they seem to answer to no one. If they can treat a respected, professional woman with such contempt how are they treating the innocent children and the accused families that they have unlimited power over?
Have you ever called a government agency for help only to be chuckled at and made fun of? Then chances are you have never had to contact the Cocke County Department of Children Services (DCS) located on Heritage Street in Newport, Tennessee.
Such was the case on Monday, July 6, when Renée Lynn, Editor-in-Chief of “The Knoxville Journal,” needed to discuss a dire situation with Kim Ramsey, a case worker at the Cocke County DCS. Mrs. Lynn tried numerous times to reach Ms. Ramsey or anyone in the department to no avail.Finally, Mrs. Lynn got in touch with Ms. Ramsey to converse about a very serious issue concerning information relevant to two foster children under their jurisdiction.
Apparently the information was ignored.
When asked very pertinent questions about the care of these children, Ms. Ramsey began laughing over the phone along with other employees. They just kept on laughing. Ms. Ramsey made no effort to correct her rude behavior with an apology. Mrs. Lynn then informed Ms. Ramsey that this was not a laughing matter, but was a grave set of circumstances. Again Mrs. Lynn was met with snickering.
It just so happened that Mrs. Lynn’s telephone was on speaker phone and at least one other person witnessed the outrageous behavior of Ms. Ramsey.
Mrs. Lynn commented, “It is a sad day when upstanding citizens are being subjected to such disrespect from government employees.”
This is not the first complaint lodged against the Cocke County DCS. This reporter knows of at least one other incident in which the Cocke County office has overstepped their bounds.
Ms. Vicki Hodge, supervisor of the Cocke County DCS did return a call to Mrs. Lynn on Tuesday, July 7, but did not apologize for the offensive conduct of her employees.
--Myra Wheeler
From left, front row, are Amy Clevenger, Kim Ramsey,
Mabel Greenlief, Virginia Harmon, Shedenna Dockery, Rikki Small, Amber Latham,
Karen Thomas, and Laura Forbes. Middle row, from left, are Amy Ball, Pam Henson, Brandy
King, Shirley Ingle, Barbara Ingram, Savannah Hendrickson, Wendy Williamson, and Amber
Barrett. Back row, from left, are Becky Lakins, Rani Good, Todd Mink, David Slagle,
Amanda Dunn, and Duane Powers.
If you have any information about the Tennessee DCS you would like to share:
dcs.tn.putfamiliesfirst@gmail.com
I am sure they would be interested in all the stories in TN, give it a shot.
