Social Work

WHAT CAN be done to reduce the chances of another Danieal Kelly case? We asked some interested parties - and here's what they had to say: Chad Lassiter, president, Black Men at Penn School of Social Work: We need committed, compassionate workers who will go to any length to protect our most vulnerable population. That entails ongoing training to help prevent burnout. We have lots of workers working in DHS for extended periods of time who don't have the interest of young families at heart - and there are times when the old guard is threatened by a new infusion of energy.

AS A Philadelphian, I'm horrified at what happened to Danieal Kelly. But I strongly disagree with the headline "How We Failed Danieal. " It should have been "DHS Causes Death of Danieal. " We did not fail that child, the city government did. If I did something wrong, I'd take the blame, but I had nothing to do with the child's death. Ronald Moskovitz, Philadelphia I'm a DHS social worker, but I never met the two workers who've been indicted. From the indictment, it seems the two DHS workers did not do their job to the best of their ability.

In high school, everyone could see Rebecca Dewar's challenges. A drunken-driving accident at age 7 left her quadriplegic, able to move only her mouth, chin and eyelids. Her wheelchair marked her as different, but she said it also let her travel through various high school cliques. "I didn't really fall into that peer pressure, and it didn't bother me. I could be friends with anybody," Dewar said. As a peer counselor at Interboro High School, she would talk to students about their problems, including having suicidal thoughts and pressure to have sex. "A few of the worst kids in my school - or so they were called - would really open up to me. " Now 26, Dewar wants to spend her working life helping people with their problems.

In May 1966, John D'Amico was ordained a Roman Catholic priest and then spent most of his brief priesthood at St. Patrick's parish in Kennett Square. But, he said in a recent interview, he realized that he needed "a new route to becoming myself. " Next January will mark 30 years since D'Amico left the priesthood. But that hasn't prevented Immaculata, a Catholic university, from hosting an annual evening for his jazz trio, the latest happening tomorrow. In the years since he left St. Patrick's, it might be said, D'Amico has continued tending to those wearied of the world.

Marie E. Costello, 97, who had a prominent career as a social-services administrator despite physical handicaps, died Sunday at Stapeley, a retirement residence in Germantown. The cause of death was listed as failure to thrive. Born with cerebral palsy, Dr. Costello had limited mobility on her right side and a speech impediment. Her Irish-immigrant mother made her hang clothes to strengthen her arms and taught her self-reliance, her family said. It worked. She lived independently, mostly in Center City, until she was 93, when she moved to Stapeley.

To thousands of working parents and their children, Marni Sweet - head of the renowned Parent-Infant Center in West Philadelphia - was among the most important people in the world for the last 25 years. The 66-year-old director of the progressive child-care center died of brain cancer Sunday at Cathedral Village, where she had been for three months after being diagnosed with a rapidly spreading form of the disease. Miss Sweet lived in West Mount Airy. As the daughter of a schoolteacher in Ohio, Miss Sweet never stopped working to make the world a better place for children.

Richard Ferree Smith Sr., 85, of Chestnut Hill, a humanitarian who worked with Quaker and other groups in Palestine, South America and Philadelphia, died of a bacterial infection Wednesday at Bryn Mawr Hospital. Born in West Mount Airy, Mr. Smith graduated in 1940 from Germantown Friends School. While earning a bachelor's in history from Harvard University (Class of 1944), he met Virginia Meyer, a native of Chestnut Hill and a student at Wellesley College. They married in 1945.

Different paths. Alicia Callejas Sanchez came to the States from El Salvador 21 years ago to find work. Joanna Hazel Dyer came from Trinidad and Tobago three years later to attend what is now Philadelphia Biblical University. A week ago, they stood among 23 others from 19 countries - alphabetically from Belgium to the former Yugoslavia - at the Chester County Courthouse to be sworn in as citizens of the United States of America. January always brings the smallest group, said Penny S. First, "but this was small even for January.

When a child on the Department of Human Services' watch is killed by a caregiver, city and state officials comb through case files and interview social workers to find out what went wrong. But the public never hears the results of those investigations. Officials say the so-called "death reviews" are kept confidential by law to protect children, families and witnesses. Critics contend that the secrecy serves another end: to shield the agency from embarrassment and accountability.

In September, five months shy of her second birthday, Alayiah Turman was pummeled to death after she interrupted a video game. Marrieon Currie, 11 weeks old in January, took his final breaths as he was being doused in hot water, thrown down stairs, and beaten with a mop handle. Bryanna Redmond, a skinny 2-year-old known as "Princess," died last year from a punch that split her spine. Before they were killed - each by a parent, police say - all three children had come under the scrutiny of the city's child-protection agency, the Department of Human Services, which has the power to remove children from abusive homes.