Texas: CPS agent reports threat

A Child Protective Services agent was allegedly threatened by a man with a knife when he tried to take custody of the man�s child.

Yeah, people get angry. Its one hell of a job.

I like the way the reporter called him an "agent" rather than a "social worker". That puts things in the right perspective and brings to mind other agents that worked for the government of another country and "just did their jobs" to ruin people's lives.


posted by Linda for FightCPS.Com at 6:08 AM   

 

Wisconsin: Social Worker to Spend Time in Jail

A former La Crosse County social worker is preparing to spend six months in jail for having sex with a teenager.

Susan Aleckson pleaded guilty to having sex with a child. The boy moved in with the Aleckson's when he was 13 and lived with the family for almost five years until the relationship come to light recently. Prosectors say the relationship started last summer just before the child's 17th birthday. Prosecutors say Aleckson would wait until her husband went to bed then go into the boy's bedroom. The victim told police it happened more than 20 times and that he told Aleckson he wanted to stop. But she didn't. The boy also told police Aleckson threatened to commit suicide if he told anyone. Judge Michael Mulroy sentenced Aleckson to six months in the county jail. She must also see a therapist and have no contact with the victim.

I just had to put this here for any of you social workers out there who thrive on thinking you're a cut above the rest of humanity.

posted by Linda for FightCPS.Com at 5:50 AM   

 

Two old links

I'm putting these links here so I can refer back to them. I didn't notice them when they were first posted to the internet.

PoughkeepsieJournal.com - Child Protective Service caseworkers under strain - I love knowing that social workers are feeling some stress. The more that quit, the better life will be.

Women's Quarterly: When the Bough Breaks: Child protective services took little Candace Elmore from her mother. A few years later the little girl died in a bizarre "rebirthing" ritual. - this case haunts me to this day. Candace was taken from her mother for a very trivial reason (late to pick her up at Head Start one day - no car) then killed by the systemites... an adopter and 2 rebirthing therapists. This great article really puts it into perspective.


posted by Linda for FightCPS.Com at 7:35 PM   

 
If you still have doubts about whether your caseworker is truly evil, try running his or her name through the evil finder. That should convince just about anybody.


posted by Linda for FightCPS.Com at 6:29 PM   

 

Wisconsin: CPS caseworker sentenced to 18 years for drinking and driving and killing

A former Dane County social worker was sentenced to 18 years in prison for a drunken-driving crash that killed a college student.

Ramon Medina-Fuentes was driving on the wrong side of the road with his headlights off May 19, 2001, when he crashed into a car driven by Samantha Cullen, 21, a special education major at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.

Reserve Judge William Eich also ordered Medina-Fuentes on Monday to serve 29 years of extended supervision after his release from prison.

Medina-Fuentes, 37, told Eich he had been an alcoholic for a number of years.
'I think the problem here is that even with all your education and training, you couldn't save yourself, and in doing so, you doomed Miss Cullen,' Eich said.

Medina-Fuentes said he was drinking that night because he was upset over a severe child-abuse case that he was handling in his job with the Dane County Department of Human Services.

Some excuse...


posted by Linda for FightCPS.Com at 7:40 PM   

 

Missouri: Judge declines to revoke bond for the man convicted of killing foster child Dominic James

Holden plans to sentence Dilley on Jan. 9 after a jury convicted him last month for the death of his foster son, Dominic James, in August 2002. The jury recommended 15 years in prison for child abuse resulting in death and 5 years in prison for second-degree assault. If Holden follows the recommendation, he will have to decide whether the prison sentences will be consecutive or concurrent.

Two weeks after the trial, prosecutors filed a motion asking Holden to revoke Dilley's $35,000 bond and keep him locked up until his sentencing. Jennifer Dilley, Wesley Dilley�s estranged wife, reported the couple�s three-and-a-half-year-old son Nathan said his father made comments about going �to a place far away� that she interpreted as a plan to flee with their son before the sentencing.

posted by Linda for FightCPS.Com at 7:20 PM   

 

Boy accuser was abused previously

"The minor accusing Dr. William Causey of molesting him was sexually abused at least three years earlier by a respected church leader in north Mississippi, court records show.

Testimony also showed the then-11-year-old boy had no counseling after that molestation, although as a foster child he was in state Department of Human Services' custody and, under DHS policy, should have received it."

....

The foster mother of the 11-year-old testified Reynolds went into the child's room for "devotionals and prayer every night. Yet I didn't know what else was going on. ... I don't know why bad things happen to good people."

So this molestation happened while the child was in state custody fosterincarceration??

Not surprising.


posted by Linda for FightCPS.Com at 7:11 PM   

 

sunspot.net - Filling the gaps

By Susan Burger
Originally published December 2, 2003

THE NEWS MEDIA recently have made many of us more aware of the plight of Baltimore's abused and neglected children, alerting the public to children being harmed in the child welfare system in Baltimore City - a system whose responsibility it is to protect them.

The problem is serious enough that a report has been filed in U.S. District Court in Baltimore asserting that the city's Department of Social Services (DSS) is 'sitting on a time bomb' and is putting children in the system at risk because of 'a lax approach and overburdened caseworkers.'
....
The audit noted that about 10 percent of the children studied were subject to reported abuse or neglect while in foster care. It said there was no evidence in 28 percent of the cases that the child was receiving recommended therapy and there was no documentation in 35 percent of the cases to substantiate that the child was attending school.

Great op-ed article by a CASA director...


posted by Linda for FightCPS.Com at 7:00 PM   

 

Virginia: Superintendent Harris addresses 80 educators at 'teacher town meeting'

Almost two months ago, teacher Ronald Mayfield committed suicide while on administrative leave after a student accused him of assault.

At last week's meeting, several teachers expressed their anger and frustration over feeling abandoned and guilty by the school system during such investigations. Tuesday's meeting, which lasted half as long as last week's meeting, resulted in fewer questions, but more promises by Harris to improve communication and re-examine the policy.

One of the main concerns expressed at both meetings was that teachers may be placed on suspension without pay in some cases. They don't receive back pay or reimbursement for lawyer fees until they are proved not guilty.

'I cannot undo what's already been done,' Harris said. 'But I think you're going to see some revisions to this policy.'

Harris said there have been 21 to 24 investigations in the past year, about 11 of which involved a student accusing a teacher. Two of those investigations resulted in serious consequences for the adult; the other allegations were found to be baseless.

Harris said he will ask the school board by February to accept a new policy that prohibits any child from falsely accusing an adult. He is also working on an agreement with Child Protective Services about the speed with which cases are investigated.

I've heard so often about teachers falsely accusing parents to CPS, but this is the first article I've read about the frequency with which children accuse teachers.

I wonder how they expect a law to prevent children from making false accusations against teachers. We can't even get adults prosecuted for that due to stupid mandated reporter laws giving too much immunity.


posted by Linda for FightCPS.Com at 6:58 PM   

 

AccessNorthGa.com - Your Online Local Newspaper

"The state Division of Family and Children Services has replaced the management of child protection offices in three more counties in a continuing shakeup of the welfare agency.

Gwinnett, Muscogee and Paulding counties have had serious problems with poorly conducted investigations into child abuse and neglect, in addition to poor management and employee turnover, officials said Tuesday."

Sounds like they're trying to put a bandaid on a gaping wound. The 'system' is too flawed to be fixable. They're just lining up another contingent of fall-guys.


posted by Linda for FightCPS.Com at 6:45 PM   

 

Gregory Bryant-Bruce, who made news in custody fight as baby, dies - Wednesday, 12/03/03

"Bryant-Bruce and the child's father, Gregory Bryant-Bruce Sr., lost custody in December 1993 after doctors at Vanderbilt University Medical Center said that bleeding around the baby's eyes was evidence that he had been shaken or dropped repeatedly.

The mother had taken the infant to Vanderbilt when he appeared lethargic. Doctors examined him and determined it was a case of possible child abuse. They referred the case to the Tennessee Department of Human Services, which placed him in a foster home.

In February 1995 Cheryl Bryant-Bruce, herself a physician, took her son from a state-sponsored foster-care facility in Nashville and rushed him to Emory University's Egleston Children's Hospital in Atlanta for an independent evaluation.

Doctors there determined his complications were from the disorder.

Bryant-Bruce was arrested on a criminal charge of custodial interference..."

Later she sued Vanderbilt for the misdiagnosis and CPS problems, and received a settlement. What a brave mother she was (and is). I'm sorry to hear Gregory died.


posted by Linda for FightCPS.Com at 6:38 PM   

 

Roseane Machado, a nurse, came from Brazil for a tour of Connecticut - her host, Don Muirhead, is director of a human "services" department. Buried deep in an article about this visit is this telling gem:

For example, Machado said, in Connecticut and the United States in general, child protective agencies are given much greater power to go into people�s homes when abuse is suspected.

�There�s not the same kind of entry into the family, and there�s not the same kind of advocacy,� Muirhead added.

posted by Linda for FightCPS.Com at 6:01 PM   

 

KRT Wire | 12/01/2003 | Couple accused of starving adopted sons

"Dr. Jean Mercer, a psychology professor at Richard Stockton College in Pomona, N.J., read voraciously about the Jackson case. The details sounded hauntingly familiar.

Mercer has studied a controversial, unorthodox form of therapy - often called attachment therapy - that is used to help build a bond between parents and children. Mercer is a staunch critic of these methods, which can include food restrictions, holding children so tightly they can't move, even pinning them to the floor, and forcing them to do meaningless, difficult chores as punishment.

She co-authored the book 'Attachment Therapy on Trial: The Torture and Death of Candace Newmaker,' describing the suffocation of a 10-year-old girl during a therapy session in Golden, Colo., in April 2000."

Candace was a child who'd been placed in foster care at the age of five because her mother was unable to pick her up at Head Start one day. (no car to get there) ...after five years of fosterincarceration and adoption and many medications and chemical restraints, she was killed in a rebirthing therapy session in the presence of her adopter, a nurse-practitioner. The 'therapists' were sentenced to prison.

The passage quoted above is from an article about the adopted boys in New Jersey whose adopters are accused of starving them. The neighbors and their friends have different opinions on what took place. Interesting article. Time will tell if there will be a conviction in this case. It seems the Jacksons had good intentions but now are paying the price for dealing with the child welfare system. Its another example why I advise prospective fosterers and adopters to forget it - and just learn to be happy with the life God's given them.


posted by Linda for FightCPS.Com at 5:07 PM   

 

Guardian Unlimited Politics | Special Reports | Ministers at odds over domestic violence bill

"In one recent case a four-year-old boy was found with 54 wounds on his body, including adult bite marks. His foster parents were sentenced to eight years for child cruelty but could not be charged with murder because the police could not prove who struck the fatal blow."

I found this in a UK article about domestic abuse laws.


posted by Linda for FightCPS.Com at 4:25 PM   

 

sunspot.net - Filling the gaps

By Susan Burger
Originally published December 2, 2003

THE NEWS MEDIA recently have made many of us more aware of the plight of Baltimore's abused and neglected children, alerting the public to children being harmed in the child welfare system in Baltimore City - a system whose responsibility it is to protect them.

The problem is serious enough that a report has been filed in U.S. District Court in Baltimore asserting that the city's Department of Social Services (DSS) is 'sitting on a time bomb' and is putting children in the system at risk because of 'a lax approach and overburdened caseworkers.'
....
The audit noted that about 10 percent of the children studied were subject to reported abuse or neglect while in foster care. It said there was no evidence in 28 percent of the cases that the child was receiving recommended therapy and there was no documentation in 35 percent of the cases to substantiate that the child was attending school.

Great op-ed article by a CASA director...


posted by Linda for FightCPS.Com at 3:45 AM   

 

Changes need to be made in our laws to hold child protective, court appointed Attorney's and Judges accountable for their actions Petition

Sign the petition!!


posted by Linda for FightCPS.Com at 2:01 AM   

 

There is Life Beyond the Grave - I Shall Not Die But Live, by Crystal Yvonne Dixon

Have a look at this beautiful book written by a survivor of CPS family destruction!


posted by Linda for FightCPS.Com at 1:56 AM   

 

Australia: Foster children sue for $12m [December 02, 2003]

A GROUP of 12 former foster children who allege they suffered sexual, physical and emotional abuse is suing the State Government for $12 million in damages.

It happens in Australia too.

While in his temporary foster placement from time to time, the man said he was raped and otherwise physically and verbally abused.

Pretty typical of foster care, from what I've heard. I'll never forget Rose on the Frontline program who said every foster child she knew (as she was one, she knew quite a few) had been abused mentally, physically, sexually, etc.

The bottom line is that fosterincarceration is no place to raise a child. Children need to go home to their true parents who love them.


posted by Linda for FightCPS.Com at 10:26 PM   

 

Florida: Lawyers want money to represent foster children

"Although every one of the 100,000 juveniles who get arrested statewide each year are automatically guaranteed legal counsel, studies by the American Bar Association have shown that most public defenders are too overworked to adequately represent all their clients."

Interesting article about the plight of attorneys for fosterincarcerated children in Florida. Of course since its a puff piece for "we want money" lawyers... the writer had to make parents look really bad. Other than that, it does contain a few tidbits of usable information.


posted by Linda for FightCPS.Com at 2:20 PM   

 

Texas: Ex-foster child needs helping hand 12/01/03

"He became a ward of the state when he was a baby.

He has faced some horrific situations. When Mr. L was a child he witnessed his foster mom shoot - and kill - his foster dad."

Now, that is sad...


posted by Linda for FightCPS.Com at 2:03 PM   

 

Washington State - Fosterers Abused by CPS After Foster Child Assaults Their Son

Clever CPS drones decided to charge fosterers with neglect to silence them after a six-year-old foster child sexually assaulted their two-year-old son.

posted by Linda for FightCPS.Com at 4:41 PM   

 

Brian and Ruth Christine Notes, Letters, News

The November 2003 issue of the Christine's newsletter is online now, with a picture of Brian.


posted by Linda for FightCPS.Com at 4:09 PM   

 

New Jersey: Child Advocate has uncommon power

'We have the power to make a public demand for corrective action,' said Ryan, an attorney who previously had worked for Covenant House, the largest privately funded childcare agency in the United States.

He can, for example, sue state agencies and review sensitive files."

If you have problems with New Jersey CPS, you might want to take your complaints to this 'child advocate' office.


posted by Linda for FightCPS.Com at 4:06 PM   

 

Connecticut: Our Broken Home

"I have represented the youth in the class-action lawsuit involving the conditions of confinement within the juvenile detention centers and the inability of these kids to get mental health treatment. I have seen firsthand the fragmentation of our state systems for kids. And having represented the individual kids themselves in juvenile court, I have witnessed the emotional pain we are inflicting upon them and their families."

Lawyer who's seen children in deplorable conditions in state custody speaks out. I don't agree with all her conclusions. Children should be sent home, not kept in prisons because there's not enough people willing to be fosterincarcerators these days.


posted by Linda for FightCPS.Com at 12:24 PM   

 

Arizona: CPS reform still awaits action in Legislature

"Arizona has about 1,900 foster homes and about 7,000 children in foster care, so kids are staying in shelters. A child in a foster home costs the state $13 a day. Shelters charge as much as $90 a day."

Let's see... 7000 children at $13 per day is $91000 dollars per day, and that's just one small state! Your tax money at work to keep children from their parents, and that's just the tip of the CPS money iceberg... it doesn't include caseworker salaries, psychological evaluations of parents, counseling fees, and all the other BS that goes into a CPS case.

With costs like that you'd think taxpayers would be wanting to know why the hell so many children are in fosterincarceration facilities and what their parents are charged with! We family rights activists and falsely accused parents are denouncing the CPS practice of putting children in foster homes for trivial reasons. Children belong with their parents. If there's a problem, help the parents resolve it and quit taking kids to get the federal funding streams started. You're ruining American families!!


posted by Linda for FightCPS.Com at 11:52 AM   

 

Mystery Surrounds Teen's Life And Death

More on the tragic death of foster-child, Kimberly Holton. The article gives a peek inside her foster home with the fosterers breaking up and filing charges against each other, and the two teen girls having problems with arguing, jealousy, etc.


posted by Linda for FightCPS.Com at 11:41 AM   

 

New Zealand: Family blames CYF for child's death

The grandfather of a three-year-old boy who was killed by his foster father says the family blames the Child, Youth and Family service.

Eru Pokaia says social workers did not properly check out the background of Huntly man Michael Waterhouse, 41, who was found guilty on Wednesday of the manslaughter of Tamati Pokaia in April last year.

Eru Pokaia says when he raised his concerns with CYF before the child's death, he was "fobbed off".

CYF says its investigation so far shows that approval processes were followed, but it admits new information has come to light about Waterhouse since Tamati's death.

The department says it checks with police, GPs, schools and family when considering a potential foster parent.

But National Party welfare spokesperson Katherine Rich says CYF should be providing Tamati's family with an explanation and an apology.

"When CYF makes the ultimate decision to remove children from their biological parents, they should be making damn sure they're going to a better home," says Rich.

More on this... And more...


posted by Linda for FightCPS.Com at 11:23 AM   

 

New Jersey: New method of fosterer recruitment?

"State officials and advocates say they see more foster parents leaving the system because they are adopting their children and then closing their homes to other foster children.

Other foster parents got weeded out as the state started scrutinizing applicants more carefully. Still others go because they find the state bureaucracy too difficult to navigate and too distant to support them when they need help caring for a child."

Other fosterers leave the system when they become victims of false (or true!) child abuse accusations.


posted by Linda for FightCPS.Com at 10:35 AM   

 

Georgia: Meth's forsaken children

More foster children exploited by the media to puff CPS... more proof they are not truly concerned with confidentiality of children. Yet they want the juvenile courts and records closed to press and public against the rules set in our US Constitution... and cry 'confidentiality' every time you ask them a question.


posted by Linda for FightCPS.Com at 10:05 AM   

 

Washington DC: Principal Arrested - NE Charter School Chief Charged With Sexual Assault of a Foster Child

Fairfax County police arrested the principal of a D.C. charter school on charges that he repeatedly sexually assaulted a foster child in his care.

Desmond Kirk Pierre-Louis, 45, who supervises high school students at the Village Learning Center in Northeast Washington, was being held without bond in Fairfax County jail in connection with assaults that allegedly took place nearly three years ago in his Franconia home, according to Fairfax County police.

Police said that between May and December of 2000, a boy who was then 14 spent several weekends at the home of Pierre-Louis, a respite foster parent.

Another article on this case... And another...


posted by Linda for FightCPS.Com at 9:48 AM   

 

Ray Thomas: BC0190 Child Abuse on a Grand Scale- Sierra Times.com

"...about 650 Florida foster children, including some that are not under the care of a pediatrician, have been given mind-altering drugs. Drugs that have not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use with small children. "

Another of Ray Thomas' fine articles in the Sierra Times... read it all. Weep for the children incarcerated by CPS agencies all over this country. It isn't just in Florida that they're being kept in chemical restraints.


posted by Linda for FightCPS.Com at 9:41 AM   

 

Missouri: Dixon foster parent arrested on charges of molestation

"...there were allegations of sexual misconduct involving a male juvenile that had been in Ward's custody. The molestation was to have taken place from July 2003 until October 2003."

"I am saddened because children were removed from a home due to possible abuse from a foster parent and the local Department of Social Services did not notify my office at any time that there could be possible criminal activity in the City of Dixon," he said. "And when they do that it makes it hard for me to do my sworn duty of protecting citizens of Dixon of all ages."

Over the past year, Ward has had custody of at least six children.

Did you get that? CPS in Missouri tried to protect itself by not reporting (to law enforcement) the fosterer's alleged molestation of a child in their care. CPS - perpetrators of injustice. They don't care about kids; they care about their jobs, their money.


posted by Linda for FightCPS.Com at 9:34 AM   

 

Kansas City: Foster children have their picture in the news

"Warfield was treating seven foster children, who ranged in age from 3 to 13 brought his way by WDAF-TV's FOX 4 Love Fund for Children, to an afternoon of the big picture."

Juvenile courts are closed obstensibly to protect the privacy of children fed to the system monster. So why are these children featured in the news? Where's the confidentiality now?

The confidentiality is there to protect judges and caseworkers who take children away from their parents on way-too trivial grounds. Do you think taxpayers would fund this sytem if they knew their money is being wasted and innocent families destroyed?


posted by Linda for FightCPS.Com at 9:12 AM   

 

UK: Another report of a fake caseworker

"Kathy Chalmers, 39, had been in Turkey just three days when her partner rang to say that a social worker had called at their house and accused him and her mother of being unable to look after her four children. She flew home four days later.

Police said today that they believed the bogus social worker was the same woman who had tricked another Leeds couple during three visits to their home in the same area.

They fear the woman has a sexual motive or may be planning to snatch a child."

The child welfare industry has so oppressed people, they are now becoming victims to a new kind of criminal who tricks them into illegal home entry. I've heard of cases where fake caseworkers kidnapped children. Remember Rilya Wilson of Florida? Nobody knows what happened to that child... except the perpetrator(s)


posted by Linda for FightCPS.Com at 9:04 AM   

 

Nebraska: Giving children a sense of place 11/29/03

"Strong noted some foster children -- who are in 'the system' as part of the state's child protective service system -- can end up back in the system as adults.

That might be the court system because of criminal activity, divorce, out-of-wedlock births, paternity actions and domestic violence situations."

She forgot one part of the system they end up in again - the child welfare system. Many adult victims of CPS are ex-foster children.

In the article referenced above, Strong's first adopted child, now age 18, has a 16 month old baby daughter. And who has legal custody? The adopter. Not the true parent. So right there is an indication of how the child-mother has recycled into the system.

Another example - my children's father - the one CPS ran out of my life 14 years ago. Most of our thick case file consisted of his foster care records. They claimed they had evidence of him being violent from the age of five. Now think about that. Here's someone who was processed through the system and all along, people are writing a little report on this, a little report on that... and eventually you've got a huge case file of the entire childhood life of someone... all kinds of trashy complaints and documentations of every time the kid had a temper tantrum. And in adult life, this cannot be escaped because child welfare bureaucrats can delve back into these files and use the paperwork there as evidence to take their babies away.

Big Brother government at its worst, destroying families and lives.


posted by Linda for FightCPS.Com at 8:40 AM