NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — The head of the Tennessee Department of Children's Services told lawmakers her department has made major progress in the year since a scathing audit detailed numerous deficiencies.
Commissioner Margie Quin told lawmakers that DCS had lowered caseloads for case managers and reduced staff turnover.
Republican lawmakers heaped praise on Quin while Democrats asked about recent NewsChannel 5 investigations.
One report revealed a quiet change in policy that expanded the use of handcuffs to include children who have not been charged with a crime.
A separate report raised questions about a cover-up culture in the department.
Republican lawmakers seemed to circle the wagons and show support for the commissioner.
"What Margie Quin tells you, you can take to the bank," said Senator Rusty Crowe, (R), Johnson City.
Commissioner Quin was not questioned about a picture from two months ago which shows a security guard handcuffing a 70-pound, 12-year-old boy with intellectual disabilities.
Internal emails obtained by NewsChannel 5 Investigates reveal the child was handcuffed on multiple occasions while he stayed at a transitional home in Northeast Tennessee.
One time the child was double-cuffed - leading an employee to call it a "hog-tying."
DCS has said the incident is under investigation.
Jeff Strand with the Tennessee Disability Coalition was among those shocked by the picture and upset DCS quietly changed its policy to allow the handcuffing of dependent and neglected children in their custody.
"If you are going to change policies behind closed doors then you need to be accountable for what happens with that policy," Strand told NewsChannel 5 Investigates last week.
After the hearing, the commissioner said the department can change policies without public notice.
NewsChannel 5 Investigates asked, "Why did you change the policy in such a private way?"
Commissioner Quin responded, "Our policies don't have to be publicly noticed, but our rules do. So, that's why we changed the policy."
When asked to explain what she meant, Commissioner Quin said, "Our policies were changed to protect the kids in our care, the staff who care for them, and the general public."
State Senator Heidi Campbell, (D), Nashville, is concerned by the direction DCS is taking by saying even traumatized kids taken into custody because of abuse can be handcuffed.
"Seeing children as perps and looking at all children in a juvenile justice capacity is not creating good outcomes for us down the road," Senator Campbell said.
Commissioner Quin also pushed back on what longtime DCS employee Brenda Myers said happened when she was director of a DCS unit that inspected foster care facilities.
Myers told NewsChannel 5 Investigates that Commissioner Quin said she was "not a team player" after she wrote a memo detailing dangerous conditions at the state-run transitional home in Davidson County.
"During that inspection, we found that the conditions were deplorable, that children were not safe in this environment," Myers said.
Myers wrote a memo on July 6, detailing how kids slept on the floor.
It stated many kids did not get their medications and a toilet was not bolted down to the floor.
But the very next day Myers said her supervisor told her to write a new memo taking back the criticisms.
"He told me that I needed to write a new report that would mitigate the findings from the first, so that if there was a media request, that he could give an updated report to the media that would show the conditions weren't as bad," Myers said.
She said reluctantly wrote a new memo dated July 7, and then left the department.
The July 7 memo stated that many of the problems identified the day before were "no longer an area of concern" based that on what she was told by DCS leadership.
But the commissioner told lawmakers no staff member was ever asked to change a report.
NewsChannel 5 Investigates asked her after the meeting, "Are you saying she's a liar?"
The Commissioner responded, "That employee was never told by me to change any report. I would never tell an employee to change a report, and that's my story, and I'm sticking to it."
NewsChannel 5 Investigates followed, "Was she told by her supervisor to change her report?"
Quin responded, "No one in my department will ever be told to change a report, never, that will never happen in this department."
NewsChannel 5 Investigates asked again, "Then how do you explain the report she wrote the very next day?"
A staff member cut off the interview and said, "That's it."
The commissioner said, "Thank you, Ben," and walked away refusing to answer the question as it was repeated.
