06/27/08 DJJ fires “Nurse Jane”: She
expected us to care about the kids; to be honorable, says the department
Special to Appropriated Press
TALLAHASSEE --Providers who put profits before kids must be rejoicing today. DJJ executives have removed yet another employee who saw too much as she did her job too well, a person who advocated for the kids and refused to "go with the flow" of the currents of corruption in DJJ. They have fired my friend and mentor, Nurse Jane, the Registered Nurse Consultant who worked in QA [Quality Assurance], after 4 years of continuous harassment and retaliation against her, following her testimony in the Omar Paisley case.
For her, it may be a blessing that she need no longer face the workplace hostilities she has endured for so long and which undoubtedly have had a negative impact in all areas of her life. Someone posted on this blog not too long ago about DJJ senior management reviewing a security tape of her experiencing a neurological emergency in the lobby of HQ. The poster reported hearing them laugh so hard at her that one person nearly choked, presumably on a donut. Does anyone besides me see the irony there?
I've known Nurse Jane a long time and have seen her suffer an episode that was probably similar to that she suffered in the lobby, and I did not see anything to laugh at as she struggled to maintain control of her body and her speech. There is something inherently wrong with anyone who finds humor in another person's pain and disability. We all know what it says about DJJ management and some of their support staff that they used the tape of this woman's medical emergency for entertainment. These are the same people who mock this blog and laugh at our fear for the safety of incarcerated children. They must be howling with laughter today, feeding like hyenas on the carcass of Nurse Jane's 13 years of faithful, professional service to DJJ. People of that ilk cannot be rehabilitated by anything we say to them.
They cannot be salvaged from their own baseness by any human agency or intervention. They will be brought to their knees only by adverse life events visited upon them or upon someone they love by fate, or by God. I leave this to God's judgment, with faith that He will deliver the necessary lessons in His own time, and knowing that they will one day quake in His presence as they are called to account for their actions. But I am human enough to hope that I live to see their comeuppance, and Christian enough to pray that by the time it happens I will have outgrown the need to enjoy the spectacle.
Today, I ask for your prayers for Nurse Jane, who fought the good fight for the kids imprisoned in DJJ facilities and, at least in my mind, was victorious. She maintained her integrity and ethics to the end and never once let up advocating for the safety of the kids. I also ask you to pray for the incarcerated kids who will bear the brunt of this good woman's absence. Intelligent and principled, she stood alone in her fight for the kids. That she had to fight her boss and other provider advocates in the executive suites of DJJ to maintain at least minimum standards of healthcare for the kids is a disgrace. That she had to suffer their ridicule, sarcasm, unwarranted accusations, scathing attitudes and scheming in retaliation for her honesty and attention to detail is heinous.
I join with others in condemning DJJ for its dismissal of yet another good person who fought their attempts to silence her, who never wavered in her ethics and commitment to the kids, and who refused to parrot the DJJ party line. Recalling the way DJJ executives dismissed Steve Meredith, a man of sterling character and impeccable honesty and dignity, when he refused to participate in the spin about MLA's [Martin Lee Anderson] death, we should all have seen Nurse Jane's dismissal coming.
There is no doubt in my mind that she was fired for her diligence, her vigilance and because others felt threatened because she did her job so well. Her dismissal is one more piece of evidence that this agency is decaying into nothing more than a host for corrupt parasites. It is atrocious that this capable, highly credentialed woman with over 30 years of nursing and teaching experience, with a Masters degree in nursing and certified as an Advanced Registered Nurse Practitioner (ARNP), would be fired from QA, leaving behind only a wheeler-dealer glorified salesman to oversee the medical safety of the kids; a man whose reputation has suffered badly from his allegedly flaccid QA reviews and from his association with the Texas consulting imbroglio. There is no other person in QA at HQ who can or will do the difficult job Nurse Jane did; no one with her strength of character, her love for and commitment to the kids, no one with credentials to match hers.
In her absence, QA opportunists in the DJJ-Provider Complex will be free to do their business without oversight from anyone with a conscience standing as witness or in opposition. We have lost one of our best.
To Miss Jane, I say thank you for your honorable service and devotion to the incarcerated children of Florida. Thank you for your courage and for telling the truth about DJJ's responsibility for Omar's death. Thank you for setting an example of morality and professionalism that many of us will try to model. Thank you for all the help and guidance you gave us, and for your speedy and courteous replies to our calls for assistance. By your unfailing honesty and vigilant presence you illuminated both what is wrong at DJJ and what must be done to make it right, and you made it possible for others to see this too. I've no doubt this was held against you by your "superiors," and that it contributed to your dismissal.
We will miss you and will remember you for all that you taught us and for your goodness. I pray that in time the injustices done to you at DJJ will somehow be set right, and that the responsible parties will be exposed and held accountable. For now, I hope you can rest peacefully, get well, and enjoy living without the torment you have suffered at the hands of DJJ's amoral executives. These people who for so long have censured you, tied your hands, and censored your speech are no longer a threat to you, my friend. Go with God, Miss Jane, and let your light shine.
Posted by honoring nurse Jane to Juvenile Justice Florida Style! at June 26, 2008 3:25 PM [Rant and Rave II]
