Child Protective Services Tyrannical?

[JohnPaulTwoToo]

…local and county law enforcement work hand in glove with the child protection-social service bureaucracy. By this association and their role in training police, this bureaucracy transmits their pathological anti-parent, “big brother knows better,” children-as-government-property mentality to law enforcement…

The Department of Health and Human Services concluded that there are over a million false child abuse reports a year. Various studies and authorities have shown that upwards of 65% are flatly unfounded. In Ohio in 1994, the state was forced to purge 78% of the names in its central child abuse registry, where the names of supposed abusers (mostly parents) are entered, for lack of proof. The state’s child protective agencies apparently just routinely entered anyone who was even accused, no matter how outrageously.

 Families are routinely investigated by agency social workers, and in some cases have their children legally abducted, for home schooling (even though it is legal in all states), spanking (even though no state forbids it), determining that preteens are too young to babysit their younger siblings (the laws impose no limits), having home births (even when legal), botched medical diagnoses of burns—which just had to have come from parents--when a child really has a rash (and assorted other emergency room blunders), misinterpreted comments and behaviors of a child, and a million other things. My favorite is when an agency took custody of a toddler because she pulled the buttons off her shirt. Somehow, this indicated sexual abuse to them.

 The child protection agencies bubble when officials like the Jefferson County sheriff urge people to snitch on their neighbors. It means more business and helps them to justify their budgets. They have convinced the American people that they are essential to fight the “epidemic” of child abuse, even though they do little of that in any real sense and mostly impose their childrearing preferences on innocent parents. Even a former director of the Jefferson County agency admitted a few years ago that the cases of serious physical abuse were rare.

The Tyrannical Character of the ‘Child Protective Service’

This essay originally appeared in Defending the Family: A Sourcebook, edited by Paul C. Vitz and Stephen M. Krason (Steubenville, Ohio: Catholic Social Science Press, 1998,pp. 235-267. It will also appear in The Public Order and the Sacred Order, an anthology of Krason’s writings (forthcoming).

A longer essay on this subject by Steve Krason, entitled, “A GRAVE THREAT TO THE FAMILY: AMERICAN LAW AND PUBLIC POLICY ON CHILD ABUSE AND NEGLECT.”

Courtesy of Society of Catholic Social Scientists

 

[JohnPaulTwoToo]

I’ve found a little goldmine of articles on Family issues:

F.I.R.S.T. Library

You can find items related to CPS in the index under: Articles->Family->Children’s Aid

The information is mostly Canadian, but also includes some US sources.

 

[lak611]

Then again, if Child Protective Services do not get involved, we could have a repeat of the Asa Coon tragedy. From that article:

By the time Asa Coon stepped into the corridor on the fourth floor of SuccessTech Academy on Wednesday and started shooting, he had spent years stewing in his own home-brewed poison.

His family knew he was troubled. Someone had abused him when he was 9 years old.

It’s unclear, for example, whether the juvenile justice system told Asa’s school about his suicide attempt and his other problems at home, which might have given his outbursts at school a more accurate context. It’s unclear whether the child welfare system was sufficiently involved in Asa’s chaotic home life: A social worker should have been notified about the front yard of his West 43rd Street home, which was littered with debris and dog feces.

 

[JohnPaulTwoToo]

Then again, if Child Protective Services do not get involved, we could have a repeat of the Asa Coon tragedy. From that article:

His family knew he was troubled. Someone had abused him when he was 9 years old.

So, who did the abusing?

Teacher abuse crisis

Do you suppose CPS ever goes after a member of the teachers’ unions? They seem to go for the easiest, most convenient targets. This is unaccountable government intrusion at its worst.

 

[iamrefreshed]

So, who did the abusing?

Teacher abuse crisis

Do you suppose CPS ever goes after a member of the teachers’ unions? They seem to go for the easiest, most convenient targets. This is unaccountable government intrusion at its worst.

Having come from a background of abuse I disagree with you.

Are there unscrupulous CPS employees? Maybe.
Do they make mistakes? I’m sure they do.

However, they are there to help. These people take very low paying jobs to try and help children.

The problem is really the people who use CPS as some sort of revenge tool. It happens all too often. I know of a couple who bickered with their neighbors and then came to find out that the neighbor made a call to CPS. It was completely unwarranted. It was done out of spite.

I’m afraid that we will always need CPS. Truly sad.

 

[ljprevo]

Having come from a background of abuse I disagree with you.

Are there unscrupulous CPS employees? Maybe.
Do they make mistakes? I’m sure they do.

However, they are there to help. These people take very low paying jobs to try and help children.

The problem is really the people who use CPS as some sort of revenge tool. It happens all too often. I know of a couple who bickered with their neighbors and then came to find out that the neighbor made a call to CPS. It was completely unwarranted. It was done out of spite.

I’m afraid that we will always need CPS. Truly sad.

I agree we need CPS, however false reporting should be illegal.

I fell into that trap. I had a girlfriend that called CPS on me when I broke it off with her (I know it was her) Told them I beat my children, which I do not, spank them yes, but beat them, no.

The CPS worker showed up, was very nice. I asked who reported me. She said she could not release that info. I don’t agree totally with that.

However I told her that yes I do spank my children when they need it. She said it was not against the law to spank your child. You can’t leave marks on them.

She did not find anything wrong. The kids were attent and happy.

I was the victim of a false reporting.

 

[lak611]

So, who did the abusing?

Most likely his older brother. CPS did nothing even though he had cigarette burns and bruises on his body.

 

[Melissa]

I agree we need CPS, however false reporting should be illegal.

I agree (and also was a victim of a malicious false report–it was so incongruous that the worker said “Who are your enemies?”). In my case, the accusation was neglect (accused of ‘failing to get services’ for middle son who was, according to my accuser ‘hearing impaired and speech delayed’. For the record, middle son is/was neither.)

The real crime is that these malicious people who make trumped up charges to spite whomever are part of the CAUSE of why CPS fails so many truly abused children. The worker spent under five minutes in my home (and that is fairly typical)–anyone can put on a good front for five minutes. Estimates are that 60-80% of all CPS calls are malicious (not just unfounded, but the worker knows before the home visit that the call is bogus–but the law requires a home visit).

Imagine if the caseload of a worker was only a fifth of the current (only the cases where someone might legitimately think that there was abuse/neglect and the cases where there IS abuse/neglect). It would be much harder for the actual abuse/neglect cases to slip through the cracks than it is today when the worker’s time is stretched too thin.

I think truly anonymous reporting should be illegal (the name doesn’t have to be revealed to the accused if there’s substantiated reason to believe there will be retaliation), and anyone who makes a completely unsubstantiated accusation should be charged with ‘falsely reporting an incident’ (Class A misdemeanor, repeat offenses should become a lowest-rung felony).

 

[Pug]

I think truly anonymous reporting should be illegal (the name doesn’t have to be revealed to the accused if there’s substantiated reason to believe there will be retaliation), and anyone who makes a completely unsubstantiated accusation should be charged with ‘falsely reporting an incident’ (Class A misdemeanor, repeat offenses should become a lowest-rung felony).

Perhaps I could go for a somewhat non-anonymous reporting if a child is still protected so that they can call the hotline and not have the agency turn around and tell the parents that the child was the nark.

In a number of cases, the person who suspects abuse would then have to make a choice between reporting and being cut off from the family, or not reporting and being able to stay as a positive influence on the child. This could be a real choice since there is no guarantee that DCFS will actually help the child.

 

[Ray_Scheel]

In my experience with false reports, my impression of the local CPS office was one of competence and really looking out for the best interest of the kids. By the third call (of 5 made by my ex and/or her affiliates after she left), I was at ease in dealing with the accusations, even changing to a new investigator then only took a short time (like 5-10 minutes) in talking to her with the kids present for her to figure out that there was no way the report she was handling could have been accurate or even recent.

 

[iamrefreshed]

I think truly anonymous reporting should be illegal (the name doesn’t have to be revealed to the accused if there’s substantiated reason to believe there will be retaliation), and anyone who makes a completely unsubstantiated accusation should be charged with ‘falsely reporting an incident’ (Class A misdemeanor, repeat offenses should become a lowest-rung felony).

I support this suggestion 100%.

 

[JohnPaulTwoToo]

The sociologists may make it all look dry and clinical but the grassroots have plenty of life, beat up as they are:

Fight CPS is a family rights website that seeks to assist parents and others who are falsely accused of child abuse and neglect. Many people have asked why I would try to help people whose children were taken away from them by Child Protective Services. Here are a few of my reasons:

1. Many accusations of abuse or neglect are false. False accusations can come from anonymous callers, doctors, nurses, neighbors, school teachers, or even the social workers themselves. People who are falsely accused and have their children taken are devastated, and need legal information and social support. Fight CPS helps with both those needs.

1. A large percentage of the young parents falsely accused of child abuse or neglect are impoverished, and must rely on court appointed attorneys for representation in juvenile court settings. These court appointed attorneys are notorious for doing almost nothing to help their CPS clients. They seem like they’re there to guide people through the court process, but don’t provide any type of aggressive defense. So my site, Fight CPS, fills in the gap by showing people how to provide their own evidence and legal paperwork.

1. When parents are sent to juvenile court they are denied constitutional rights such as the right to a jury trial, the right to a public trial, and the right to be confronted by their accusers. Yet they stand to lose their children, one of the saddest and most heartrending losses know to humankind. This lack of constitutional safeguards leaves child detention hearings open to gross injustices, the like of which few people believe could happen in America - unless they’ve been through it.

1. Federal statistics show that children in foster homes are about ten times more likely to be abused sexually, physically, emotionally, and mentally than children in their natural family homes. They are even more likely to be killed. A recent study concluded that foster children are more likely to have teen pregnancies and to become juvenile delinquents. The study said that children are better off when left with their natural families, even if those families have severe problems.

1. Social work should be a process of helping families resolve and recover from problems, not a process of tearing families apart forever and traumatizing children for life. This imbalance in the social work profession has been caused by federal legislation that gives financial incentives in the form of federal funding and social security reimbursements when children are torn from their homes and placed in foster homes.

More can be found here: Fight CPS

and here: Fighting Child Protective Services False Allegations

 

[JohnPaulTwoToo]

Here’s another competent, professional assessment of the situation:

Throughout the country stories seep through the liberal media blockade, describing social workers and judges granting child custody to abusive caretakers while both the executive and legislative branches ignore or condone this burgeoning appearance of widespread social service corruption.

Who does ‘child-protective services’ protect?

 

[Phemie]

Having come from a background of abuse I disagree with you.

Are there unscrupulous CPS employees? Maybe.
Do they make mistakes? I’m sure they do.

However, they are there to help. These people take very low paying jobs to try and help children.

The problem is really the people who use CPS as some sort of revenge tool. It happens all too often. I know of a couple who bickered with their neighbors and then came to find out that the neighbor made a call to CPS. It was completely unwarranted. It was done out of spite.

I’m afraid that we will always need CPS. Truly sad.

I agree that they are very much needed. And sometimes the accusation is baseless though not done maliciously.

For example, an aboriginal family I am familiar with had their kids taken away when a teenage babysitter reported bruises on the baby. The babysitter did see what she thought were bruises and did the right thing. Unfortunately, the social workers didn’t.

A visit to the ER would have immediately identified the marks as ‘mongolian spots’ a common birth mark in certain ethnic groups. The link shows the buttocks of a baby with the mark.

Instead, the children were put in foster homes and a doctor wasn’t consulted for 4 or 5 days. I start to hyperventilate at the thought of what those parents must have gone through when they got home from grocery shopping to find their children gone, police waiting and then were 4 days without knowing where they were or what was happening to them.

 

[zjl56]

It truly amazes me at how highly inept the government can be at times concerning the situation. While the agency serves a necessary function, it goes about it its business blindly and goes after the “easiest” targets, usually simple families with minor problems, instead of dealing with large groups. Is it fathomable that calling in a child sick for 1-2 weeks can usually bring an agent check up on the child, yet it took the feds years to stop the pain painstakingly obvious abuse happening in the FLDS compounds.

 

[Jerusha]

In LDS-dominated areas, CPS (or whatever the state or province calls them) is more active and punitive and accepts false reports as truth when the target family is non-LDS, ex-LDS or minority. (Source: In Mormon Circles by Coates) This can explain the inaction easily.

Phemie, if you are in Western Canada, that could explain your example quite easily.

 

[Phemie]

In LDS-dominated areas, CPS (or whatever the state or province calls them) is more active and punitive and accepts false reports as truth when the target family is non-LDS, ex-LDS or minority. (Source: In Mormon Circles by Coates) This can explain the inaction easily.

Phemie, if you are in Western Canada, that could explain your example quite easily.

No, it was in New Brunswick. The same province where a child starved to death on a military base in 1994. Perhaps it was because they had that case fresh in their minds that CPS in the same city overreacted to the Mongolian spots.

 

[Jerusha]

Ah, yes. Perhaps there are so few Natives in that area that they were ignorant of that basic fact.

 

[Phemie]

Ah, yes. Perhaps there are so few Natives in that area that they were ignorant of that basic fact.

No there are a few reserves in the area. But unless they’ve had training, the average person wouldn’t know what they are looking at. I first saw this birth mark on a 2 day old Greek baby in the nursery – the instructor pointed it out – then I saw them on the Indian child I was babysitting, his mom almost had a heart attack when I pointed them out and called them by name, I think she first thought I was saying something about Down’s Syndrome.

The problem with CPS in that case is that they had a ‘bruised’ child and didn’t take him to the hospital to be checked out.

 

[ALLGIRLS]

My bi-racial (1/2 black 1/2 white) daughter had a mongolian spot right above her butt when she was little (she’s almost 20 now, I don’t know if it’s gone away, I haven’t looked there in years ). I just happened (Grace of God?) to read an article about birth marks and moles and such right after she was born, so I knew what it was. Some family members would see it and ask (suspiciously) why she had a “bruise” there. I guess I’m lucky everyone believed me and no one ever called DFS on me about it. I was a teenage mother on welfare, I’d have probably lost her for sure .

In Christ,

Ellen