Local attorney recognized for advocating for abused children
Attorney Versel Rush's work protecting children is not easy in many ways. She has seen babies test positive for drugs through no fault of their own, and kids beaten so much the bruises blend into each other.
But she is passionate about her job and knows it's what she should be doing. Rush is a Child Protective Services lawyer who advocates for abused and neglected children in North Texas.
She recently won the Fairy Davenport Rutland Award for Distinguished Service to Children and Families, an honor bestowed by the State Bar of Texas Child Protection Law Section.
“I love this job," Rush, a native Wichitan, said in an interview. "We are protecting the children, and I am extremely proud and happy to represent the department and to work with the people I work with."
She was quick to share credit for the award with her legal assistant, Lauren Havins.
"She deserves this as much if not more than I do," Rush said. "She is irreplaceable."
Rush received the blown-glass award with a marble base March 24 at the 2023 Advanced Child Protection Law Conference in Houston.
"Versel is passionate in her advocacy for abused and neglected children and no one deserves this award more than her," said Lamar County Court-at-Law Judge Bill Harris, who is from Wichita Falls and is vice chair of the Child Protection Law Section.
"Seeing her receive this award meant a great deal to me as we have been friends for over 30 years," Harris said in a message.
During the award presentation, Harris said he told Rush how proud all of her friends were and how much her late husband, Bob, and the late John Curry, longtime chief Wichita County public defender, would have been, too.
Harris and Sandra Hatchem, chair of the Child Protection Law Section, presented the award to Rush.
A regional attorney for the Department of Family and Protective Services, Rush spends much of her time in court representing CPS and advising the agency in Archer, Clay, Eastland, Montague, Young and Wichita counties.
“What I do determines the safety of children," Rush said.
She said CPS gets criticism from people who incorrectly assume, for instance, that the agency removes children because a parent spanked them or because they fell in the playground and got a boo-boo.
“You can walk into any CPS hearing around here at any point, and that's not what happens," Rush said.
She said she wishes people would walk in and hear that 1-year-olds, 3-month-olds and newborns are testing positive for methamphetamine.
Rush said she always asks investigators, "You're not telling me you think the 7-month-old is smoking meth, right?"
No, they test positive because they were exposed to the drug through parents, caregivers or others, Rush said. As for spanking, photos may show bruises left from a child being spanked with a two-by-four.
"Or the bruises are so many that they can't tell when one stops and another begins," Rush said.
"I really don't like the way that people think about CPS, but I can't make them change their minds," she said.
Child Protective Services is a state agency that becomes involved with kids and families when they are referred by the DFPS Investigations division, which probes allegations of child abuse and neglect.
In addition, the DFPS chose 2Ingage to provide case management, foster care placement and support services for children in the foster care system in a 30-county area including Abilene and Wichita Falls.
Rush has been in many roles through the years from legal secretary to assistant public defender to private practice attorney to assistant district attorney in Wichita County.
She was born in Wichita Falls, moved to Bowie at 5 years old, grew up and graduated from Bowie High School. She earned a bachelor's degree at the University of Texas at Austin and planned to be a teacher.
Instead, Rush ended up working for Great Lakes Carbon Corp. in Port Arthur, doing inventory control and plant buying.
She got laid off amidst the boom-and-bust economy and later worked nearly three years for Wichita Falls attorney Joe Shaddock.
She was at the copier one day when she thought, "You know, I can do this."
Rush bought a book and studied for the Law School Admissions Test, aced it and got into UT Law School. She worked three jobs most of the time before graduating with a juris doctor, a three-year graduate degree.
"I come from a very poor family," she said. “We lived below the poverty level my whole life when I was growing up."
Even though she worked a lot, Rush played intercollegiate sports and had fun during her time studying law at UT.
"I'm the only human being in the history of law school who had a wonderful time at law school," she said.
Rush has worked as a CPS lawyer over 17 and a half years altogether. She left the DFPS in December 2019 to take a job as an assistant Wichita County DA the following January. She thought it was her dream job.
During her stint in the DA's Office, Rush won a conviction from a jury against Christopher Wayne Morriss in March 2020 for child sex crimes.
Eighty-ninth District Judge Charles Barnard sentenced Morriss, 42, to life in prison for continuous sexual abuse of a child under 14 and 20 years for indecency with a child. The case was upheld on appeal.
For Rush, another issue was at play regarding her CPS work, but she didn't realize it until later.
"I burned out, and I didn't know I had burned out," Rush said. "I needed to get away, and I got away for about a year and a half and realized, yeah, I want to do it again.”
She happily went back to work as a CPS lawyer in September 2021. Rush is still enthusiastic about practicing law.
"I love being a lawyer, and that's not something most people say nowadays," Rush said. "I still love it."
Trish Choate, enterprise watchdog reporter for the Times Record News, covers education, courts, breaking news and more. Contact Trish with news tips at tchoate@gannett.com. Read her recent work here. Her Twitter handle is @Trishapedia.
This article originally appeared on Wichita Falls Times Record News: Attorney recognized for advocating for abused, neglected children
