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Where are your children, Fern? Even adoption Magazine notes CPSstate abuses of children
Fern,
Where are your children. Fern5827 wrote: Not only children but families unjustly targeted by CPS and the *child abuse industry*. Courts are beginning to recognize this overreaction by government, and act to curb the injustices perpetuated by DSS, ACS, DCF etc. http://e-magazine.adoption.com/artic...ctive-services -reform.php Adoption Week e-Magazine Article CPS Reform Lawrence P. Adams I have written a number of articles previously of the need for foster care reform. One area of the system I have not spoken of before is Child Protective Services. One cannot consider foster care reform without looking at CPS. They need to be considered as one entity. Without reform in this area full reform of the system is not possible. I have looked at cases as well as received e-mails from across the country that can only be considered as abuse by CPS. Abuse to children as well as biological parents. Today it seems extremely easy for CPS to be called and have them remove children from a home. At first CPS contact, a parent enters a distorted mirror image of what our legal system is supposed to be. Everything is backwards. There are no Miranda warnings, yet everything one says will be used against them, and perhaps even some that one hasn’t. The accuser can choose to remain anonymous, which makes little difference, as one has no right to know who is accusing them. The confidentiality of the reporter is guaranteed by law. The parent is presumed guilty and must prove innocence. "There's definitely an assumption of guilt. People who commit murder have more rights than a family that has its children taken away," said Republican Senator Parley Hellewell, according to a Sunday, January 18, 2003, Salt Lake Tribune article by Kirsten Stewart and Rebecca Walsh. The entire investigative process is built upon coercion and a deliberate misleading of families as to their rights. CPS workers won’t mention that parents do not have to let them in, nor do they have to submit themselves or their children to interrogation without a warrant and in many systems case workers are directed by superiors to deny that these rights even exist. This, despite Supreme Court constitutional interpretations and rulings to the contrary. Yet, even if parents are aware of the few constitutionally protected rights that they do have at that first knock on the door, it frequently becomes clear that by asserting these rights, they run a risk of an immediate retaliatory removal for at least 72 hours. The case worker has up to three days after the removal to get what is often a rubber-stamped court order for an emergency removal – yet another subjective concept - from a busy and overburdened system that doesn’t devote much time to a real consideration of individual circumstances. In addition to the purely arbitrary nature of that initial removal, the CPS worker pays no consequences for a wrongful removal, not even if a child is hurt or killed while in state care. There are no unform codes or guidlelines used across the country for determining removal of a child from their home. Each locality, county and state define in their own fashion when CPS should be called, how CPS determines if removal is necessary. There appears to be no enforcement mechanism in place to see that CPS follows the guideleines of their specific area. Far too many children are removed from homes than necessary. Too many biological parents are forced with the agony of seeing their children removed. Far too often the battle to regain their children is lost before the battle is even engaged. Being poor or of low-income are not justifiable grounds to have your children removed. As long as parents are able to provide the basic needs of their children in a safe setting while being nurturing and loving, the children should remain in their home. If a parent needs some parenting classes or other services, this can be done while the children remain in the home. The system should be offering help to families in need. Many families benefit from these services. Many families need help in times of crisis. CPS MUST be extremely careful when allegations are made against the parents, whether it be the children, family members, neighbors or whoever. Children removed from their homes due to alleged abuse or neglect by their families are too often only further victimized by "the system" that is supposed to protect them. This is a matter of chronic, long-standing and unavoidable reality. The system perversely encourages instability in the lives of abused and neglected children. Despite mountains of evidence showing that every new move a foster child makes leaves emotional and psychological scars. The law in many states keeps the children moving. If children settle into a home, they're moved. If their lives improve in foster care, they're moved. If their lives get worse in foster care, they're moved. Some are moved time and time again until they age out of the system. Then they are told to move one more time, as they are now on their own and the system "washes its hands" of them. They are supposed to go from unstable environments to being everyday normal youth and then adults. These expectations, after what the system has put them through, are insane as well as inhumane...like something out of a horror movie. Once a child becomes a part of the foster care merry-go-round via CPS; it is extremely difficult to get off, in some cases it never happens. Far too many children become just a pawn within a system they do not understand. They are moved at will, they are lost, subject to abuse far worse than may have occurred within their own homes...a number of them trgically get off the merry-go-round only through death, painfully suffered through the system that was to protect them! Yes, children are dying while within the system. The circumstances surrounding a child's death become more wrenching with examination. But dwelling on them misses the larger point: the children abused by CPS are not merely the fault of "bad" caseworkers. They are not restricted to one state. The bodies of dead children demand we ask: is CPS harming...not helping...children? The carelessness with which the Florida CPS "loses" children became a national scandal last year. In California, even the state's Department of Social Services admits families are being aggressively torn apart and children unnecessarily placed in foster care. The problem is federal and systemic. The problem is not the intentions of individuals but the structure and rules of the CPS, such as confidentiality. As long as those rules remain, the institution will harm children. We like to say, "Children are our most valuable asset," but our actions do not show it. The popular phrase today is to "leave no child behind." Yet thousands of children are left behind in the foster care system each and every year. We cannot allow thousands of lives to be discarded into the dumpster of failure. We have a moral obligation to make "leave no child behind" a reality. It seems to me that our "real" attitude towards children was summed up long ago when W. C. Fields uttered that classic line, "Go away, kid--you bother me!" But children don't just go away. Maybe it is time for those who were failed by the system to sue those same state and private agencies for the damage done to them. Maybe if they were forced to pay for their failures, they might concentrate more on providing the best possible care for each child placed in their care. In "the best interest of a child" we owe them our best effort. We can pay now or pay more later. What society is putting these children through is not fair. It is cruel and unusual. It is a sin! Congress MUST improve its role in the system. They, through the federal government, MUST hold states accountable for the treatment of children in their care. States, for their part, MUST first assume a more child-centered policy posture. It is America's abused and neglected children who need our protection, not "the system" that has failed to do so for decades. States MUST hold ALL child care providers accountable for their actions, including criminal charges and possible prison when warranted. These providers can no longer be allowed to hind behind the false cloak of the need for confidentiality and secrecy. The CPS does not need more confidentiality, more difficult access and less accountability. There is no overriding reason for silence: the deaths of children do not threaten national security or compromise the witness protection program. They raise questions that threaten the structure of an institution that may be complicit in killing the very children it was constructed to protect. On a national level, even using the most conservative of government figures, one simple fact stands out. Children in the custody of the state are more likely to be neglected, abused, sexually assaulted or killed than they are in the general population. The sheer number of children who go into the system, many without real cause, and come out beaten, maimed, sexually assaulted, emotionally disabled or damaged is more than shocking. It is the abuse of human rights on a broad scale. Short of deconstructing CPS, the solution is more -- not less -- accessibility and the imposition of criminal liability for the gross misconduct of caseworkers and superiors. States need to also provide comprehensive and flexible services, not merely piecemeal programs with competing and rigid categorical boundaries. States, counties, cities and private agencies MUST move beyond their failed ideas of the past. Many children are being left behind and to them being an asset to our society or a future leader is a cruel hoax. Rather than contemplating being an asset or leader their daily worry is mere survival mentally, emotionally and in some cases physically. In many states those that age out of the system at eighteen, whether they have a support system in place or not, are cast into the world to fend for themselves. The list could go on and on. If we truly believe in the slogans so freely stated today, our foster care system, including CPS, MUST be completely overhauled! I wonder how many men and women within our prison systems or cemeteries today started life within the foster care system. Yes, as adults we are each responsible for the decisions in life that we make. However, children look to adults to provide the tools necessary for making the right decisions. In many cases the system fail these young people in supplying those tools and we have seen the results of that failure. We as a nation can no longer afford to allow the CPS and foster care system to continue on its present course. We cannot allow thousands of lives to be discarded into the dumpster of failure. We have a moral obligation to make "leave no child behind" or "in the best interest of the child" a reality. Please bear in mind; I am not an advocate for biological, foster or adoptive parents. I take none of their sides in a dispute. My one and only interest is the children. It is them that need an advocate. It is them that need protection. I may be an aging adult today, however, my childhood memories of the system are still fresh in my mind. My wish is that no child ever has to go through the childhood I did or worse. To read further information as well as see what other interersted parties are saying or doing about foster care system along with CPS there are numerous resources on the Internet. Here are just a few suggestions you may feel free to join: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/childprotectionreform/ http://www.fosterparents.com (From Editor: Comments/responses to this article can be posted at http://forums.adoption.com/t167690.ht m l.) Postscript: ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Lawrence P. Adams, a former foster child of the Michigan Foster Care System (1950-1968). He is the author of the book entitled; "Lost Son? A ******* Child's Journey of Hope, Search, Discovery and Healing" released by Publish America. You can reach the author by e-mail at . Back to e-magazine.adoption.com |
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