Legislature to study social worker safety in wake of tragedy

CHARLESTON -- A legislative interim committee will examine ways to improve social worker safety after a Hamlin woman who was allegedly killed during a home visit last month at a couple's Cabell County home.

House Speaker Rick Thompson and Senate President Earl Ray Tomblin authorized a select committee's request last week to study social worker safety throughout the course of the West Virginia Legislature's interim meetings.

Interim committees meet three days a month when the Legislature is not in session. The Select Committee on Children, Juveniles and Other Issues will study social worker safety. It consists of 15 delegates and 11 senators, but none of whom are from Cabell or Wayne counties.

Thompson said the deaths of social worker Brenda Yeager and a woman who was fatally shot at a Taco Bell by an estranged boyfriend in Kanawha County have prompted the committee to look at social worker safety and establishing an updated registry of domestic violence protective orders.

Police believe Yeager, 51, of Hamlin, was attacked and sexually assaulted July 30 when she was scheduled to make a home visit on Mount Union Road.

Three people -- Steven Anthony Foster Jr., 23, Rosemary Forney, 22, and Steven Anthony Foster Sr., 51 -- were charged with crimes connected to Yeager's death and the disposal of her body. The younger Foster and Forney lived with their infant child at the Mount Union Road address.

Foster Jr. and Forney were charged with murder, and Foster Sr. was charged with third-degree arson, conspiracy and disposal of a body.

The West Virginia chapter of the National Association of Social Workers has called for legislative action since Yeager's death. It wants to see policies and staff levels that ensure social workers never go alone into potentially violent situations. The chapter also says social workers should have self-defense training and technology to ensure their safety.

The West Virginia Legislature adopted passed a bill earlier this year that increases penalties for crimes committed against state social workers and other job classifications. The bill does not apply to Yeager's case, however, because she was not a state employee, an association spokesman has said.

In 2007, the Kentucky Legislature passed the "Boni Bill" to provide $6 million to hire additional social workers and improve safety. The bill was named for social service aide Boni Frederick, who was killed in Henderson, Ky., while on a home visit in 2006.

The Kentucky law aimed to beef up security at social workers' offices, provide social workers with technology to increase safety and give employees 24-hour access to criminal records.