KINGSTON, Jamaica, The Office of the Children’s Advocate (OCA) report 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.
Media reports here said that the information was prepared following an investigation by the Office of the Children’s Advocate 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 told Parliament that the decision to submit the report to the police is to ascertain whether charges can be laid against anyone who is found to have abused or facilitated the abuse of children.
She said that the CPFSA chief executive officer Rosalee Gage-Grey had 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 the 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 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 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.”
Williams noted that the OCA investigation lays bare the many contact points Robanske had with the girls at Father’s House physically and virtually.
“The Government has taken the first steps that it can take. The situation is untenable. It cannot be defended. At the same time, I acknowledge that there has to be due process. There are two offices, that of the Permanent Secretary and the Public Service Commission, that are the constituting authorities to assess these matters and make the right decision,” Williams told legislators.
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