The report from the Office of the Children’s Advocate (OCA) on the questionable relationship between the Child Protection and Family Services Agency (CPFSA) and the US-based organization, Embracing Orphans, has been forwarded to the police for further investigations.
Reports are that the report was prepared following an investigation by the Office of the Children’s Advocate, OCA, into what is believed to be inappropriate sexual exchanges between a minor and the head of the US-based organization, Carl Robanske for which he was sanctioned in the United States.
Education Minister Fayval Williams told Parliament that the decision to submit the report to the police is to ascertain if charges can be laid against anyone, who is found to have abused or facilitated the abuse of children.
She said CPFSA Chief Executive Officer Rosalee Gage-Grey, has been asked to step aside.
“Based on the report from the OCA it is not in the best interest of our children in State care for the CEO of the CPFSA to remain as head of agency while further investigations take place,” Mrs. Williams said.
“So, I call on her to step aside, at least while the Public Service Commission completes its deliberations… it is only decent for that to happen,” she added.
The report followed public revelations on March 2021 that Robanske, founder and chief executive officer of Embracing Orphans, had his teaching license suspended in Washington due to inappropriate conduct with a minor.
Embracing Orphans had a longstanding relationship with CPFSA to provide transitional facilities for young girls preparing to leave state care.
The suspension of the teaching license occurred in 2014, while the lease between the entities for the transitional facility, called Father’s House, dates back to 2011.
Williams told Parliament that when she learned of the suspension of Robanske’s license through the media in March 2021, she gave an “unambiguous directive” to the CPFSA chief executive officer to sever its partnership and collaborative work with Embracing Orphans and Robanske.
She also wrote to the OCA to determine whether Robanske had any inappropriate contact with children in Jamaica.
She said the OCA reported that attempts were made to frustrate its investigations into the matter. The entity recommended that a named manager and house mother should be reassigned “as they have been actively reinforcing to the girls that they should not cooperate and further, that the instruction originated from the CEO of the CPFSA”.
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