The criminalization of parents

Exclusive: Stephen Baskerville slams 'government behemoth' destroying families

Published: 03/14/2008 at 12:00 AM
World Net Daily(WND)

The California appeals court decision criminalizing parents who homeschool their children is only the tip of an iceberg. Nationwide, parents are already being criminalized in huge numbers, and it is not limited to homeschoolers.

During the Clinton years, the trend toward turning children into tools for expanding government power increased rapidly. Otherwise indefensible programs and regulations are now rationalized as “for the children.”
As a result, government now has so many ways to incarcerate parents that hardly a family in America has not been touched. The criminalization of parents is highly bureaucratic, effected through a bureaucratic judiciary and supported by a vast “social services” machinery that few understand until it strikes them. They then find themselves against a faceless government behemoth from which they are powerless to protect their children or defend themselves.

Homeschoolers are usually accused of “educational neglect,” a form of child abuse. Like other child abuse accusations, it does not usually involve a formal charge, uniformed police, or a jury trial. Instead the accusations are leveled by social workers, whose subjective judgment is minimally restrained by due-process protections. As Susan Orr, head of the federal Children’s Bureau points out, these social workers are in effect plainclothes police – but they are not trained or restricted like regular police.

Homeschoolers are not alone. Any parents can be charged with “child abuse” on the flimsiest of pretexts, because child abuse has no definition. Because of our presumption of innocence, crimes are generally defined as they are adjudicated: A crime has been committed if a jury convicts. But the roughly 1 million cases of child abuse annually (out of 3 million accusations) are “confirmed” or “substantiated” not by jury trials but by social workers or (sometimes) judges. Most such parents are not imprisoned. They merely lose their children.

Virtually every American can now tell of a relative or friend visited by the feared Child Protective Services because of a playground injury or a routine bruise. Too many dismiss these frightening ordeals as aberrations. In fact, they proceed from a bureaucratic logic that is driven by federal funding. The more “abuse” the social workers find, the more money they get to combat it.

But serious as this is, it is still mild compared to the largest sector of semi-criminalized parents: the involuntarily divorced. The moment one parent files for divorce, even when no grounds are evinced, the government automatically and immediately seizes control of the children, who become effectively wards of the state. Astoundingly, they are then almost always placed in the “custody” of the parent that initiates the divorce, placing the divorcing parent and the state in collusion against the parent that is faithful to the marriage and family. The non-divorcing parent, even if legally unimpeachable, can then be arrested for unauthorized contact with his or her own children. Here too abuse accusations can be readily fabricated out of thin air, further criminalizing the innocent parent. He (it is usually, though not always, the father) can then be arrested, even without a shred of evidence that any abuse has occurred. He can also be arrested if he cannot pay child support that may consume most or even all his income. He can even be arrested for not paying a lawyer or psychotherapist he has not hired.

But what is most striking here – in contrast to homeschoolers – is the absence of opposition. The genius of the feminists is to vilify fathers in terms designed to incur the revulsion of decent people – “pedophiles,” “batterers,” “deadbeat dads” – and too many conservatives and Christians are fooled.
In fact, the social science data are clear that these alleged malefactors are rare among biological fathers and almost entirely the creation of feminist propaganda. Accused fathers are no more likely to be criminals or child abusers than are homeschooling parents. They have merely fallen into the clutches of another sector of the child exploitation bureaucracy.

Indeed, it is well-known among scholars that true child abuse takes place overwhelmingly in single parent homes – homes without fathers. By removing fathers under trumped-up abuse accusations, the child abuse apparatchiks create the environment for real abuse, further expanding their business.

 Campaigns against homeschoolers and fathers are only the extreme manifestations of the larger attack on all parents. They indicate where we all may be headed if we do not take a united stand for parental rights against a judicial-bureaucratic machine that is not only destroying families but justifying its own expansion in the process.

Though conservatives often misuse the term, two features used by scholars to define totalitarian government were its highly bureaucratic methods and its willingness to invade and destroy the private sphere of life, particularly family life. Both these tendencies come together in the governmental leviathan that now administers our children: the education establishments, family courts, child protective services, child support enforcement agents, “human services” agencies, counseling services, domestic violence programs and much more.

The very idea that the criminal justice system has been diverted from its role of protecting society from dangerous criminals and instead used to threaten law-abiding parents with jail for educating or raising or simply being with their children should be seen by all Americans as a serious threat to our families and our freedom.

*The posts made in this blog are of our opinion only* Without Prejudice UCC 1-207

WND EXCLUSIVE Child 'protectors' accused of destroying families. Statewide audit launched in response to deaths, tales of abuse.

California lawmakers have voted unanimously to order an audit of the state’s powerful Department of Child Protective Services after testimony from parents who stunned their representatives with testimony of atrocities.
“It’s the most helpless feeling in the world when this happens to you. It feels like there is no hope left. I have not seen my daughter since December… she doesn’t even look like the same child any more. There is nothing in her eyes. She looks hopeless and there is just nothing I can do…”
That was from Dr. Ruby Dillon, whose daughter, Alexis, was removed from her family 16 months ago.
The audit plan passed the committee unanimously, and now the California state auditor, who has subpoena powers, will investigate CPS.
Assemblyman Tim Donnelly, who sponsored the bill and organized parents to speak about their experiences, said it’s a good step forward.
“Now we are going to be able to pull back the veil and see what happened, what went wrong so that we can then gather data on how to fix it.”
Donnelly says a lot has gone wrong.
Child Protective Services is supposed to help children and families overcome stressful events in life, and stay together and healthy. But there are families who say that CPS does anything but that.
Family members testified before the legislative hearing that CPS actually has worked to destroy, not restore, their families. And others suggested there was a profit motive in the situation.
The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) is the federal law that prompts most state and local legislation and funding for child protective services.
CAPTA was a federal mandate enacted in 1988. It directed that Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families provide grants to communities for child abuse prevention programs. It mandated that states implement child abuse laws on their own, in order to qualify for massive funding and federal grants that will match and reward those on the state level.
This experimental federal mandate, backed by significant funding, was intended to keep more families together. However, the National Coalition for Child Protection (NCCPR) reports that the results of CAPTA are quite different than the original intention. NCCPR says that CAPTA, in fact, disrupted more families, and has made life for children in this experimental government program much, much worse.
NCCPR says that the failings of today’s child welfare system “can be summed up by the very rationalization often used to justify the way it works today, an approach that can be boiled down to ‘take the child and run.’”
The parental rights group says that foster care is a bad answer to the suspicion of a problem. Their studies indicate that abuse in foster care is “far higher than generally realized and far higher than in the general population.”
They say orphanage abuse rates are even higher, so that is not the answer, either. NCCPR maintains that its research indicates that in most, but not 100 percent of cases, the best scenario is that the family remains intact until “due process” takes place.
That is not the way states are handling many cases today. One recent example is the Nikolayev case that has made national headlines.
On April 24, Alex and Anna Nikolayev took their young child, Sammy, to Sutter Memorial Hospital in Sacramento, Calif., with flu-like symptoms. Baby Sammy was born with a heart condition, and they knew he would need surgery eventually.
While he was there, the Nikolayevs witnessed a nurse giving him antibiotics – something doctors later confirmed should not have happened.
Shortly afterward, they were told Sammy needed immediate open-heart surgery. Already questioning the treatment their son was receiving, they decided to seek a second opinion before putting their child through such a risky procedure.
They were told, “You can leave the hospital, but your baby cannot.”
The Nikolayevs decided to take Sammy to another hospital, despite the hospital saying they could not do so. Police and CPS agents showed up at the second hospital under the belief that Sammy was in danger. After seeing that the mother was pursuing medical care for her son, they concluded that the child was not in danger.
But that would not be the last the Nikolayevs heard of CPS.
The next day, Child Protective Services showed up at the Nikolayev home with five armed police officers. The mother, a German immigrant, was skeptical of government and captured the incident on video.
One officer can be heard saying, “I’m going to grab your baby, and don’t resist, and don’t fight me, okay?”
Donnelly said he felt compelled to act, as a father, and as a legislator.
“The footage is frightening for parents everywhere to think that your children might be confiscated should CPS disagree with your parental instincts. It’s chilling to think that a government agency can take your child right back to a hospital that you as a parent have lost faith in, but it happened.”
Donnelly began demanding answers. In a letter, he asked Sheri Heller, director of California’s Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees CPS, to account for how this was allowed to happen.
Heller responded that she couldn’t share that information with an assemblyman, unless a judge ordered her to do so. Donnelly responded, “It has become clear that CPS answers to no one, but this abuse of power cannot be tolerated.”
“I’m hearing all kinds of stories about children being horribly abused,” said Donnelly, “and CPS does not rescue the child from that imminent danger, which is why they have this immense power in the first place.”
The mother in the case, Anna Nikolayev, told WND that since that day, Sammy had a doctor’s appointment and is doing very well.
“He is gaining, weight,” she giggled, “he is even getting a little bit chubby!”
But in her case, a hearing has been delayed for 60 days, and she worries.
“The fear is that they might walk in my house and ask questions again to try to prove their case…(to make them) look good.”
She said that the worst thing that could happen is that “in 60 days (if) he hasn’t gained weight, they could say, ‘oh, she’s probably not holding him the right way, not feeding him correctly…’”
She said that she and her husband “always, always worry about that.”
Her hope is for quick resolution, but the court has ordered eight more visits, inside and outside of their home, before CPS makes a decision whether or not to continue their investigation of the family.
Orange County CPS spokesperson Ann Broussard said that she had “no comment” on the Baby Sammy Nikolayev case. But she described the scenario whereby CPS says it is entitled to take children without a warrant:

“We regularly bring police. Sometimes police call us. The term is exigent. If there is imminent danger to the child we do have the legal right, if it is deemed. There would be a social worker on site; they would consult with their supervisors, and the authorities. Often we are called by a hospital. They are mandated reporters. So is a school district.”

Such cases are not isolated. Another, making headlines in Orange County, contends that CPS testified in defense of the abuser.
There, Ruby Dillon’s 7 year-old daughter was removed from her family due to a custody battle, and has been held for 15 months.
Dillon accuses the father of sexual abuse that she says she has on tape. Bryan Claypool, her attorney in the case (who is suing CPS for $1 million per month), contends that CPS does not want the custody battle between the estranged spouses to end because it wants to profit off of the case.
According to a local CBS affiliate, Claypool commented that, “Simply put, the more children that are removed from a household (whether lawfully or not) the more money that flows to CPS through state and federal funding.”
Claypool further alleged that CPS is more motivated to protect its $2.2 billion budget than it is focused on child safety and adoption efforts. He calls it a “legal kidnapping.”
Claypool told WND the institutionalized corruption goes much deeper, and farther than the cases he represents. “Every word we have said we can back up,” he said.
CPS declined to comment on the case.
And yet another case alleged that two young girls were taken away from their mother based on a social worker’s fabricated story.
Deanna Fogarty won a $4.9 million judgment against Orange County, which ultimately paid $11 million after losing appeals all the way up to U.S. Supreme Court.
Orange County has never admitted to any wrongdoing although the court found the social worker involved had filed false reports and suppressed evidence that would have cleared Fogarty. That same employee was later promoted to supervisor in charge of training other social workers.
Appeals court justice William Bedsworth wrote in his opinion, “the evidence adduced at trial obviously caused both the jury and the judge to conclude not only that something seriously wrong was done to Fogarty-Hardwick in this case, but also that the wrongful conduct was not an isolated incident.”
Fogarty told WND the case destroyed her life, and that no amount of money changes that. She has become a volunteer spokesperson for the cause, because she says that “child abuse has become an industry that actually pays states to legally abduct your children and put them up for adoption.”
She continued, “Counties can bring in big dollars for each child in foster care. Lack of accountability allows unbridled access to this revenue creating more incentive to remove children from their families.”
She notes that these kinds of profits are hard to resist for these CPS workers, and also the foster parents.
Broussard declined comment on the case.
Fogarty warned other parents that something as minor as a trip to the ER, or a scrape that a school finds suspicious, can mean the family devastation that she endured.
“The minute CPS is involved or the second the EMTs are called, parents are already labeled as child abusers,” said Fogarty.
“Can you believed this happened in America?” Donnelly said.
“Instead of protecting kids at risk,” Donnelly says that, “CPS has become a rogue agency that is stealing kids away from good parents and returning them to bad ones and needs to be investigated and reformed. We cannot allow a government agency to exercise unlimited power in complete secrecy.”
He said the heart of the dispute really is “who is … in control of your child’s health care? If you don’t like a doctor’s decision, and seek a second opinion, could this nightmare happen to you? I’m afraid this is a foreshadowing of things to come as the government becomes more involved in health care.”
He said the problem in nationwide, too.
In Connecticut, he said, judges and court workers are accused of setting up businesses, then ordering children before the court to patronize those vendors, and families are ordered to participate in organizations where judges sit on the board of directors.

WND EXCLUSIVE

*The posts made in this blog are of our opinion only* Without Prejudice UCC 1-207

Child Protective Services Under Fire!

 This is an awesome video and speaks volumes of truth.

*The posts made in this blog are of our opinion only* Without Prejudice UCC 1-207

3-year-old prescribed six psychotropic drugs in CPS' care

Published on May 24, 2012

HOUSTON (FOX 26) -
Updated: May 16, 2012 9:39 PM CDT
Randy Wallace, Investigative Reporter

Here's 4-year-old Rachel Harrison before Child Protective Services took her away from her parents.

Once CPS takes over, you can see the drastic changes for yourself.

"And as a parent it's very hard to deal with because your baby's in trouble and you can't do anything to help," said Rachel's mother Christina Harrison.

Watch as the bubbly little girl starts looking more like some neglected waif while under CPS's care.

"She was never abused or neglected in any way except by CPS," said Debbie Flores, Rachel's grandmother.

In numerous court hearings CPS caseworkers would admit they had no reason to think Rachel's parents ever neglected or abused her.

The only reason CPS took custody was the young parent's recreational drug use.

Something they admitted to and lived to regret.

But ironically Rachel would be the one hooked on drugs while under CPS's watch including Risperdal, a drug used to treat Schizophrenia and Bi-Polar disorder and according to the FDA, should not be given to a child under 10.

"3-years-old, given psychotropic drugs, there's no reason for it none at all," said David Harrison, Rachel's father.

It was 2007 when CPS first entered the family's life.

The state agency took Rachel into protective custody soon after her birth because her mom tested positive for marijuana.

This 2007 home video shows a horrific case of diaper rash Rachel had while in foster care. The baby's awful condition is pointed out to 2 CPS caseworkers but neither decides to seek immediate medical attention.

Even after a judge ordered the foster mom to get Rachel to a doctor A.S.A.P., CPS failed to make sure that happened. Later CPS admitted to making big mistakes.

Fast forward to July 2010.

"I went to the hospital to get my appendix out and tested positive for cocaine," Rachel's mother said.

That was enough for CPS to take Rachel again and spend over a year trying to terminate David and Christina's parental rights.

CPS wouldn't allow the family to see Rachel for two months. What they say they saw was a drooling, lethargic emaciated looking little girl who wanted to play a very strange game.

"She was also writing prescriptions, Rachel which is not normal," her mother said. "They might play doctor but she was writing prescriptions on paper, here take your medicine."

The family spent months asking CPS if Rachel was on drugs.

"We kept asking but they kept denying," Christina Harrison said.

"You could just tell there was a physical change between when she was with us and the time they had her at that point." David Harrison said.

CPS's own policy dictates parents must be told within 24 hours about their child needing or receiving medical treatment.

But these parents didn't know for 6 months until it finally came out in a court hearing.

"You're completely powerless," Rachel's mother said.

You're powerless against these people, they hold all the cards and do whatever they want," said Rachel's father.

After the judge started questioning CPS about the little girl's declining condition, CPS gave up trying to terminate the couple's parental right's and gave them their daughter back.

According to court testimony Dr. Owen Osagie is the psychiatrist who prescribed psychotropic drugs to a then 3-year-old.

"He testified he had seen Rachel for approximately 15 minutes," Flores said.

According to the Texas Medical Board, Dr. Osagie prescribed Clonidine to Rachel in excess of the dosing guidelines, while simultaneously increasing her dose of Risperdal, then failed to properly monitor the little girl.

"There's paperwork saying she was screaming for mommy and daddy," Rachel's mother said.

"And the easiest way to handle her acting up was to medicate her," said Rachel's father.

Osagie ignored our attempts to contact him for a response.

According to an agreed order with the medical board Osagie must complete at least 24 hours of continuing medical education and pay a 5 thousand dollar administrative fee.

"I know a lot of other families and a lot of other parents who are going through the same thing," said Rachel's grandmother.

Late last year the United States Government Accountability Office reported these disturbing findings:

"Texas is one of 5 states where children in foster care were prescribed psychotropic drugs 2.7 to 4.5 times more often than children who were not in foster care, with children in Texas foster care being the most likely to receive psychotropic drugs."

CPS wouldn't discuss the Rachael Harrison case with us. According to the Texas Department of Health and Human Services, Dr. Osagie has treated 755 children in CPS foster care and continues to do so.

http://www.myfoxhouston.com/story/184...

*The posts made in this blog are of our opinion only* Without Prejudice UCC 1-207

New foster care law in effect

New foster care law in effect
 By Staff Report / newsroom@newsminer.com Fairbanks Daily News-Miner | Posted: Monday, September 24, 2012 12:03 am

FAIRBANKS — The Alaska Foster Family Protection Act went into effect earlier this month, providing new legal and practice provisions for youths in the custody of the Office of Children’s Services, according to a notice from the agency. The act, sponsored by Anchorage legislators Sen. Bettye Davis and Rep. Les Gara, was supported by Facing Foster Care in Alaska, an advocacy group made up of foster care youth and foster care alumni. The act contains several provisions, among them providing the option for youths to extend custody until their 21st birthday and a requirement that reasonable efforts must be made to place siblings together. Gov. Sean Parnell signed the legislation, Senate Bill 82, into law in June. The act went into effect Sept. 9.

*The posts made in this blog are of our opinion only* Without Prejudice UCC 1-207

Lawyer Taking On OC Child Protective Services

Los Angeles Local News, Weather, and Traffic

Brian Claypool is one of the lead attorneys in the Miramonte child abuse case. Now, he's taking on Orange County's child protective services.  Claypool is accusing CPS of engaging in child trafficking and exposing children to sexual abuse for financial gain.  All of this, after the airing of one of our stories of children "Lost In The System".
Claypool is calling for a state and federal investigation into Orange County's CPS Department.  He says he's filing a federal civil lawsuit against CPS.
Claypool is representing Ruby Dillon. A woman who says her 7 year old daughter was taken away from her after she reported suspected molestation by the father. The father denies the allegations.
Among the allegations by Claypool, that CPS abducted Dillon's daughter by "fabricating evidence, obstructing justice, committing perjury and violating the law." CPS officials wouldn't talk to us on camera but they issued the following statement: We will look into concerns raised and proceed accordingly.
Claypool claims to have proof that Orange County CPS is a motivated by state and federal funding and does not operate in the best interest of the children.

Read more: http://www.myfoxla.com/story/22188922/lawyer-taking-on-oc-child-protective-services#ixzz2T0EZbm2v

 *The posts made in this blog are of our opinion only* Without Prejudice UCC 1-207

CA Lawmaker Demands Audit of CPS After Baby Is Taken From Parents

Read more: http://foxnewsinsider.com/2013/05/03/california-lawmaker-tim-donnelly-wants-audit-child-protective-services-after-baby-taken#ixzz2ScnrDXNK

A California lawmaker is now calling for a full audit of the state’s Child Protective Services after the agency helped police take a 5-month-old baby boy from his parents. As Megyn Kelly reported throughout this week, police ripped little Sammy from his home after his parents, Anna and Alex Nikolayev, told the hospital that was treating him that they wanted a second opinion on his condition.

Unbelievable video captured police, along with a social worker, in the Nikolayev home. One officer can be heard telling Anna, “I’m going to grab your baby and don’t resist and don’t fight me okay?”

Joe Weinberger, an attorney for Anna Nikolayev, joined America Live Friday and said that this happens all too often. “CPS oversteps its bounds, tries to protect its image more than the people they’re charged with the care and custody of,” he said.
Tim Donnelly is the California assemblyman behind the push for an audit of Child Protective Services. “If this mother committed any crime, it’s caring about her child too much […] The mother is the only rational figure here, and so I am demanding answers from CPS.”

Read more: http://foxnewsinsider.com/2013/05/03/california-lawmaker-tim-donnelly-wants-audit-child-protective-services-after-baby-taken#ixzz2ScmspMWX

*The posts made in this blog are of our opinion only* Without Prejudice UCC 1-207