Is it child protection or legal kidnapping?
http://www.examiner.com/a-1413553~Is_it_child_protection_or_legal_kidnapping_.html
WA****NGTON -
Children being taken from their homes, based on tips from anonymous
telephone callers alleging abuse or neglect, has been cast in a harsh
spotlight in the Texas polygamy case, and there’s growing evidence that
more than a few of the 510,000 children placed in foster care annually
don’t belong there.
In February, Georgia state Sen. Nancy Schaefer released a blistering
*****sment of the bureaucrats entrusted to protect children there: “I
believe Child Protective Services nationwide has become corrupt and that
the entire system is broken almost beyond repair. I am convinced parents
and families should be warned of the dangers.”
Armed with court orders and protected by confidentiality statutes that
function as bureaucratic ****eld laws, CPS workers need just one
anonymous phone call to a hot line to swoop in and remove children,
regardless of the facts.
Such calls can be legitimate, coming from a legally mandated re****ter
such as a doctor or teacher. But it could also be a fabrication from a
vindictive ex-spouse, a nosy neighbor or a disgruntled relative. Since
no laws clearly define child abuse and neglect, parents have been
accused of these serious crimes when what they actually did was yell,
withhold TV privileges or “repress” their children by supervising them
too much.
Steven Krason, professor of political science and legal studies at
Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio, is writing a book on CPS
wrongdoing based on two decades of research.
Krason says CPS itself now poses “a grave threat” because “it is
almost
impossible to fully insulate one’s family from ... a system that on very
little pretense can simply reach into the home and take away one’s
offspring.”
He’s convinced the number of real child abuse cases has remained fairly
steady over the last three decades; what has been growing is an
unprecedented government assault on innocent parents.
And if it doesn’t take much to have your children placed in foster care,
getting them back can be another story. An anonymous call about a
10-ounce weight loss by their then 3-week-old daughter triggered a legal
avalanche that buried Arlington residents Nancy Hey and Christopher
Slitor.
Their parental rights were terminated last year by Arlington Judge James
Almand even though Hey and Slitor had been exonerated of all neglect
charges nine months earlier.
In another local case, Georgetown residents Greg and Juliana Caplan had
to spend $75,000 on lawyers and wait two weeks before their children
were returned, even after five doctors confirmed that an injury
sustained by one of their twin daughters was not caused by abuse.
The Caplans are still listed as possible child abusers in D.C., however,
because they refused to submit to psychological counseling. Despite the
stigma, that might have been a wise decision.
The psychological evaluation trap is one of the least expected obstacles
facing parents snared unfairly in the CPS system. Most panicked parents
promise to do anything to get their children back, often agreeing to a
battery of psychological tests they naively believe will prove their
parental competence and end the nightmare. But it doesn’t always work
out that way.
Arlington social workers told Hey that she had to undergo psychological
testing before she could get her baby back, so the longtime Federal
Communications Commission employee readily agreed.
She was diagnosed with two clinical disorders by Giselle Hass at the
Multicultural Clinical Center in Springfield. This psychological
evaluation was cited in the court ruling terminating Hey’s parental
rights. But an independent, expert analysis of the re****t obtained by
The Examiner included scathing critique of the methodology used to
evaluate Hey, saying it “reads more like advocacy than a professional
psychological *****sment ... clear and frequent evidence of error. ...
Any graduate student who turned in as poorly scored and interpreted a
test as did this evaluator would probably have failed the first
semester.”
Besides violations of standard practice and professional rules of
ethics, the analysis noted numerous illustrations of bias in the
psychological profile and “a consistent failure to include data that
would be favorable to Mrs. Hey,” including 17 computer-generated scores
on the Parental Stress Index that were all in the normal range.
This was a significant omission, given that Judge Almand cited Hey’s
tendency of “freezing ... in times of stress” as one of the main
reasons
she could not be trusted to raise her own child.
Hey — who has never been convicted of either abuse or neglect — has
had
no contact with 3-year-old Sabrina since Judge Almand allowed her to be
adopted by the same foster family Arlington CPS workers originally
selected to care for her baby.
Barbara F. Hollingsworth is The Wa****ngton Examiner’s local opinion
editor.
An Inconvenient Truth about Child Protective Services, Foster care, and
the Child Protection "INDUSTRY"
Child Protective Services Does not protect children...
It is sickening how many children are subject to abuse, neglect and even
killed at the hands of CPS.
every parent should read the free handbook from
connecticut dcf watch...
http://www.connecticutdcfwatch.com
Number of Cases per 100,000 children in the US
These numbers come from The National Center on
Child Abuse and Neglect in Wa****ngton. (NCCAN)
Recent numbers have increased significantly for CPS
Perpetrators of Maltreatment
Physical Abuse CPS/Foster care 160, biological Parents 59
***ual Abuse CPS/Foster care 112, biological Parents 13
Neglect CPS/Foster care 410, biological Parents 241
Medical Neglect CPS/Foster care 14 biological Parents 12
Fatalities CPS/Foster care 6.4, biological Parents 1.5
Imagine that, 6.4 children die at the hands of the very agencies that
are supposed to protect them and only 1.5 at the hands of parents per
100,000 children. CPS perpetrates more abuse, neglect, and ***ual abuse
and kills more children then parents in the United States. If the
citizens of this country hold CPS to the same standards that they hold
parents too. No judge should ever put another child in the hands of ANY
government agency because CPS nationwide is guilty of more harm and
death than any human being combined. CPS nationwide is guilty of more
human rights violations and deaths of children then the homes from which
they were removed. When are the judges going to wake up and see that
they are sending children to their death and a life of abuse when
children are removed from safe homes based on the mere opinion of a
bunch of social workers.
THIS IS AMERICA'S HIDDEN HOLOCAUST
Currently Child Protective Services violates more constitutionally
guaranteed liberties & civil rights on a daily basis then all other
agencies combined, Including the National Security agency/Central
intelligence agency wiretaping programs…
THE CORRUPT BUSINESS OF CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES
BY: Nancy Schaefer Senator, 50th District of Georgia
http://www.senatornancyschaefer.com/articles.php?filter=6
This is Child Protection?
By Gregory A. Hession, J.D.
http://www.jbs.org/node/4632
Mercenary Motherhood: "Memoirs of a Babystealer."
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-callahan16oct16,0,5019944.story?coll=la-opinion-rightrail
FOSTER CARE IS A 80 PERCENT FAILURE:. A Brief Analysis of the Casey
Family Programs. Northwest Foster Care Alumni Study. By Richard Wexler
http://www.nccpr.org/re****ts/cfpanalysis.doc
HOW THE WAR AGAINST CHILD ABUSE BECAME A WAR AGAINST CHILDREN
http://www.nccpr.org/issues/1.html
Adoption Bonuses: The Money Behind the Madness
DSS and affiliates rewarded for breaking up families
By Nev Moore Massachusetts News
http://www.massnews.com/past_issues/2000/5_May/mayds4.htm
A recent study has found that 12-18 months after leaving foster care:
30% of the nation’s homeless are former foster children.
27% of the males and 10% of the females had been incarcerated
33% were receiving public assistance
37% had not finished high school
2% receive a college degree
50% were unemployed
Children in foster care are three to six times more likely than children
not in care to have emotional, behavioral and developmental problems,
including conduct disorders, depression, difficulties in school and
impaired social relation****ps. Some experts estimate that about 30% of
the children in care have marked or severe emotional problems. Various
studies have indicated that children and young people in foster care
tend to have limited education and job skills, perform poorly in school
compared to children who are not in foster care, lag behind in their
education by at least one year, and have lower educational attainment
than the general population.
*Casey Family Programs National Center for Resource Family Sup****t
80 percent of prison inmates have been through the foster care system.
The highest ranking federal official in charge of foster care, Wade Horn
of the Department of Health and Human Services, is a former child
psychologist who says the foster care system is a giant mess and should
just be blown up.
http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=2017991
Four rigorous studies have found that at least 30 percent of America’s
foster children could be home right now if their parents had decent
housing.
This study found thousands of children already in foster care who would
have done better had child protection agencies not taken them away in
the first place.
Front-page story in USA Today.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-07-02-foster-study_N.htm?csp=34#Close
Read the studies online.
Casey "alumni" study: "Improving Family Foster Care: Findings from the
Northwest Foster Care Alumni Study,"
www.casey.org/Resources/Publications/NorthwestAlumniStudy.htm
MIT study: "Child Protection and Child Outcomes: Measuring the Effects
of Foster Care,"
www.mit.edu/~jjdoyle/doyle_fosterlt_march07_aer.pdf
Texas comptroller's "Forgotten Children" re****ts:
www.window.state.tx.us/forgottenchildren
The bottom line? - Child Protective Services and the Foster Care system
for the most part turns out young adults that are nothing more than
walking wreckage...
CURRENTLY CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES VIOLATES MORE CONSTITUTIONALLY
GUARANTEED LIBERTIES & CIVIL RIGHTS ON A DAILY BASIS THEN ALL OTHER
AGENCIES COMBINED INCLUDING THE NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY/CENTRAL
INTELLIGENCE AGENCY WIRETAPPING PROGRAMS....
CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES, HAPPILY DESTROYING THOUSANDS OF INNOCENT
FAMILIES YEARLY NATIONWIDE AND COMING TO YOU'RE HOME SOON...
BE SURE TO FIND OUT WHERE YOUR CANDIDATES STANDS ON THE ISSUE OF
REFORMING OR ABOLI****NG CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES ("MAKE YOUR CANDIDATES
TAKE A STAND ON THIS ISSUE.") THEN REMEMBER TO VOTE ACCORDINGLY IF THEY
ARE "FAMILY UNFRIENDLY" IN THE NEXT ELECTION...
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