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Just one anonymous call to destroy a family



 
 
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  #1  
Old May 17th 04, 02:46 PM
Fern5827
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Just one anonymous call to destroy a family

National Coalition for Child Protection Reform / 53 Skyhill Road (Suite 202) /
Alexandria, Va., 22314 / / www.nccpr.org
HOW CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES WORKS

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
------

"Most of the time, I was taking their kids away for no good reason" --A New
York City CPS worker.[1]

All it takes to begin the potential destruction of a family is a call to one of
the child protective "hotlines" in every state. The call can be made
anonymously, making the hotlines potent tools for harassment. More often,
however, false allegations are well-meaning mistakes made by people who have
taken the advice of the child savers.

Though state laws generally encourage -- or require -- reports if you have
"reasonable cause to suspect" maltreatment, child savers urge us to call in our
slightest suspicions about almost any parental behavior. (And that sort of
advice is not limited to adults. One group has published a comic book
effectively telling children to turn in their parents to "other grown-up
friends" if they get a spanking).[2] The hotlines then forward the calls to
Child Protective Services (CPS) agencies who send workers to investigate. These
workers can go to a child's school or day care center and interrogate them
without warning. Such an interrogation can undercut the bonds of trust
essential for healthy parent-child relationships and traumatize children for
whom the only harm is the harm of the investigation itself.

Workers can search homes and strip-search children without a warrant. Child
savers insist such searches are rare. But in the course of defending against a
lawsuit, the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services acknowledged
how common they really are. In its legal papers, the department said that any
effort to restrict strip-searching "would immediately bring the child abuse
hotline investigations to a halt."[3] Such a statement can be true only if
strip-searching is routine.

Then it is up to the worker to decide if the case will be "substantiated" and
the accused will be listed in a state "central register" of suspected child
abusers. Workers make these decisions on their own. There is no hearing
beforehand, no way for the accused to defend themselves. (In some states, they
can try and fight their way out of the register after the fact).

No proof is required to "substantiate" a case. In most states, "substantiated"
means only that there is "some credible evidence" of maltreatment, even if
there is more evidence of innocence.

And what if parents object to all this? What if they want to defend their
children against a strip-search, for example? Technically, in some
circumstances, they can say no to a CPS worker (though the worker doesn't have
to tell them this -- there is no equivalent of a "Miranda warning"). But if
they do say no, the worker can wield the most feared power of all -- the power
to remove a child from the home on the spot.

Workers have that power in 29 of America's 55 states and territories. In all
but four of the rest, they need merely call the police to do it for them.[4]
Parents then must go to court to try and get their children back. In most
states, there is supposed to be a hearing in a matter of days, but often it
takes far longer before that child's parents get their day in court.[5]

And it is a very short day. Such hearings tend to be five-minute assembly line
procedures with a CPS lawyer who does this for a living on one side, and a
bewildered, impoverished parent who just met her lawyer five minutes before --
if she has a lawyer at all -- on the other. Children are almost never returned
at these hearings. If the children are lucky, they may get to go home after the
next hearing in 30 or 90 days. Or maybe they will never go home at all.

And who are the CPS workers who wield this enormous power? In most states, a
bachelor's degree in anything and a quickie training course devoted largely to
how to fill out forms are the only requirements for the job. Turnover is
enormous and caseloads are crushing. And the worker will find little guidance
in the law, which is so broad that almost anything can be deemed abuse or,
especially, neglect (See Family Preservation Issue Paper 5, Child Abuse and
Poverty). Given all that, it's easy to see why so many children are needlessly
removed from their homes.

But that is not the only tragedy. Enormous caseloads dominated by false and
trivial cases steal workers' time from children in real danger. That's the real
reason children sometimes are left in unsafe homes. See Family Preservation
Issue Paper 8 .

There is a CPS worker who allegedly told several parents "I have the power of
God." Even more frightening than the thought of a worker saying such a thing is
the fact that it's true. CPS workers do have the power of God. And rarely is
the power of God accompanied by the wisdom of Solomon.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------
------


DESCRIPTORS; DCS, ACS, DSS, DYFS, FIA, DSHS, SCF, ACF, CPA, DCF, DFYS, TDPRS,
PRS, DPSS, CYS, CYF, DHS, DCYF, DHR, DCS, DFACS, DCFS, ILDCFS, HHS
  #2  
Old May 21st 04, 03:23 AM
Carlson LaVonne
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default So what is your solution, Fern?? was Just one anonymous call todestroy a family

So let's hear your solution.

LaVonne

Fern5827 wrote:

National Coalition for Child Protection Reform / 53 Skyhill Road (Suite 202) /
Alexandria, Va., 22314 / / www.nccpr.org
HOW CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES WORKS

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
------

"Most of the time, I was taking their kids away for no good reason" --A New
York City CPS worker.[1]

All it takes to begin the potential destruction of a family is a call to one of
the child protective "hotlines" in every state. The call can be made
anonymously, making the hotlines potent tools for harassment. More often,
however, false allegations are well-meaning mistakes made by people who have
taken the advice of the child savers.

Though state laws generally encourage -- or require -- reports if you have
"reasonable cause to suspect" maltreatment, child savers urge us to call in our
slightest suspicions about almost any parental behavior. (And that sort of
advice is not limited to adults. One group has published a comic book
effectively telling children to turn in their parents to "other grown-up
friends" if they get a spanking).[2] The hotlines then forward the calls to
Child Protective Services (CPS) agencies who send workers to investigate. These
workers can go to a child's school or day care center and interrogate them
without warning. Such an interrogation can undercut the bonds of trust
essential for healthy parent-child relationships and traumatize children for
whom the only harm is the harm of the investigation itself.

Workers can search homes and strip-search children without a warrant. Child
savers insist such searches are rare. But in the course of defending against a
lawsuit, the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services acknowledged
how common they really are. In its legal papers, the department said that any
effort to restrict strip-searching "would immediately bring the child abuse
hotline investigations to a halt."[3] Such a statement can be true only if
strip-searching is routine.

Then it is up to the worker to decide if the case will be "substantiated" and
the accused will be listed in a state "central register" of suspected child
abusers. Workers make these decisions on their own. There is no hearing
beforehand, no way for the accused to defend themselves. (In some states, they
can try and fight their way out of the register after the fact).

No proof is required to "substantiate" a case. In most states, "substantiated"
means only that there is "some credible evidence" of maltreatment, even if
there is more evidence of innocence.

And what if parents object to all this? What if they want to defend their
children against a strip-search, for example? Technically, in some
circumstances, they can say no to a CPS worker (though the worker doesn't have
to tell them this -- there is no equivalent of a "Miranda warning"). But if
they do say no, the worker can wield the most feared power of all -- the power
to remove a child from the home on the spot.

Workers have that power in 29 of America's 55 states and territories. In all
but four of the rest, they need merely call the police to do it for them.[4]
Parents then must go to court to try and get their children back. In most
states, there is supposed to be a hearing in a matter of days, but often it
takes far longer before that child's parents get their day in court.[5]

And it is a very short day. Such hearings tend to be five-minute assembly line
procedures with a CPS lawyer who does this for a living on one side, and a
bewildered, impoverished parent who just met her lawyer five minutes before --
if she has a lawyer at all -- on the other. Children are almost never returned
at these hearings. If the children are lucky, they may get to go home after the
next hearing in 30 or 90 days. Or maybe they will never go home at all.

And who are the CPS workers who wield this enormous power? In most states, a
bachelor's degree in anything and a quickie training course devoted largely to
how to fill out forms are the only requirements for the job. Turnover is
enormous and caseloads are crushing. And the worker will find little guidance
in the law, which is so broad that almost anything can be deemed abuse or,
especially, neglect (See Family Preservation Issue Paper 5, Child Abuse and
Poverty). Given all that, it's easy to see why so many children are needlessly
removed from their homes.

But that is not the only tragedy. Enormous caseloads dominated by false and
trivial cases steal workers' time from children in real danger. That's the real
reason children sometimes are left in unsafe homes. See Family Preservation
Issue Paper 8 .

There is a CPS worker who allegedly told several parents "I have the power of
God." Even more frightening than the thought of a worker saying such a thing is
the fact that it's true. CPS workers do have the power of God. And rarely is
the power of God accompanied by the wisdom of Solomon.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------
------


DESCRIPTORS; DCS, ACS, DSS, DYFS, FIA, DSHS, SCF, ACF, CPA, DCF, DFYS, TDPRS,
PRS, DPSS, CYS, CYF, DHS, DCYF, DHR, DCS, DFACS, DCFS, ILDCFS, HHS


 




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