There is a despicable yet widespread attitude in our country that children in State homes are not “children in the real sense of the word”. The greater misfortune is that this attitude permeates some of the staff who are paid to provide care and attention to these unfortunate children.

In this regard, we side without apology with Children’s Advocate Diahann Gordon-Harrison and Youth and Culture Minister Lisa Hanna for their stance against the callous and unfeeling manner in which 34 children were removed from the Sunshine Child Care facility in Spanish Town, St Catherine, in March this year.

Miss Hanna, on Tuesday, vowed that disciplinary action would be taken against the Child Development Agency (CDA) officers who were involved in that controversial removal, once the process of natural justice has been exhausted. We firmly hope that this matter is not going to fall into oblivion like so many others before.

For those who came in late, it is reported that the manager of the Sunshine Child Care facility, Ms Vivelyn Morgan, had been issued with an eviction notice to vacate the property. She applied to the court for an extension of time, was at first refused, but subsequently succeeded in getting that extension from February to May this year.

In the meantime, officer or officers of the State-run CDA rushed to relocate the children, apparently without making adequate plans for their continued education and ignoring the trauma being experienced by some of the young ones who feared being separated from siblings and friends. Mrs Gordon-Harrison described the removal process as “chaotic”.

We would be hypocritical if we did not admit that the attitude of those State employed officers is par for the course. It is as if children in State care are not deserving of the normal quality of care that children in stable families are afforded. A way must be found to weed these people out. Otherwise, the society will pay dearly when these broken children must leave the homes and try to make a life for themselves as adults.

Miss Hanna instructed the head of the CDA, Ms Rosalee Gage-Grey to convene a disciplinary panel to start proceedings on December 22. Additionally, she convened a three-member task force to “rigorously interrogate the systems that govern the monitoring, protocols and reporting structures as well as the placement and removal of children in the child protection sector” and to report back to her by the end of next February.

We are taking a personal interest in the results of these investigations.