Multiple employees of the Arizona Department of Child Safety lost their jobs for wearing T-shirts that read “Professional kidnapper,” according to a report.
The bright pink shirts that were apparently worn during work hours led to the firing of several staffers last month, the Arizona Republic reports, citing multiple sources in the agency’s Prescott field office and a former unit supervisor.
The back of the shirts, according to photos obtained by the newspaper, read: “Do you know where your children are?”
One former employee confirmed she was terminated for the shirt, but refused to elaborate or identify herself. Her firing and that of other staffers in Prescott left the field office understaffed — purportedly with just one investigator — to look into complaints of child abuse and neglect, according to the report.
The shirts were a misguided attempt to make light of critics who blast DCS workers who remove children from their families, some who have even accused them of being kidnappers, the Arizona Republic reports.
Christina Sanders, a former DCS unit supervisor, said she saw a photo of the investigators posing in the T-shirts and contacted the agency’s director, claiming it showed some of her former co-workers.
In one photo that appeared to be taken in a parking lot outside the Prescott office, several staffers posed to show both sides of the shirt while one employee wore her work ID badge, according to the report.
“They think they’re so untouchable, they don’t think they can get caught,” Sanders told the newspaper.
Claire Louge, executive director of Prevent Child Abuse Arizona, said the message on the shirt “really illuminates that people in the system are biased against parents” in some instances.
A message seeking comment from the agency early Wednesday was not immediately returned, but a spokesman declined to comment late Monday, the Arizona Republic reports.
“The department does not comment on personnel matters,” the spokesman said in an email.