Tuesday, April 30, 2013

I feel for these people....

A friend of mine forwarded this news story and I just have no words...

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/04/29/im-going-to-grab-your-baby-and-dont-resist-cops-barge-into-cali-parents-home-take-their-baby-after-they-seek-2nd-medical-opinion-and-its-on-video/

Actually, I have a lot of words.  Many of them are not nice.

When our daughter was a toddler, she would fly into fits of rage that could not be contained.  As a toddler, she did structural damage to a home and once launched a recliner three feet in the air a distance of almost 10 feet.  At these times, she was a little ball of uncontrollable fury.  Our doctors were unwilling to make a full diagnosis based on her age.  Autism was still a dirty word.  We were given many numbers for local organizations that could (in theory) help, but really did nothing but send a college kid to the house who could not help or would not help.  We also had a number of call to the police to assist in catching her (4 year olds can run fast!) and ambulance trips to the children's ward at several local hospitals.  We finally ended this run at a children's ward that seemed to get it.  However, after being there for three days, and despite our warnings about her behavior, we came in to find here in deplorable conditions.  We complained, were apologized to and the situation was rectified.  Two visits later, we find that she cannot walk since they washed her slippers, didn't dry them, and then made her wear them.  Her feet were a mess from this and they accused us of mistreating her.  I pointed out that she was in their care for over a week and the issue was not present when she arrived.  We documented everything we could and returned the next day to speak to the head nurse.  This was Friday night, we returned on Saturday morning.  We demanded to see the head nurse to register our complaint.  A woman appeared and identified herself as the head nurse, which we confirmed by clearly asking her again.  We then lay out our grievance and requested that the situation be addressed.  She then informed us that really she was just the person in charge of the desk for the shift and that we had to come in Monday to speak to the actual head nurse.  We were livid.  We were also told that since the child was there on a 5150 referral, we could not just sign her out.  Come Monday, we call to make an appointment and are told that our daughter would be discharged that afternoon.  So, while I am at work, my wife spends all day completing tasks that they asked her to complete.

At 4:45 she gets a call from CPS stating that our daughter's case had been referred to them and that they would be taking custody of the child from the children's ward.  My wife was hysterical.  I was livid.  This was the beginning of over two years of complete bullshit.  CPS owned the case and we had no redress until we got into court.  They placed our daughter in a county children's shelter that is notorious for child molestation by staff and predatory children housed there.  We only got to see her three times before we got into court.  CPS was arrogant, telling us that we would be lucky if we ever got her back.

Then we got to court.  The judge read the case files and was incredulous that we had even reached this point.  She was doubtful that this case was even credible, and was not entirely satisfied with the CPS agent's answers.  The public defender was not even aware of our names and really did us no service.  The case was continued to another date.  We were then treated poorly by CPS until the next hearing.  We only got to see our daughter three times during that time.

Then came the second hearing.  However, we had a real lawyer, not the public defender.  When the lawyer announced he was representing up, the arrogant CPS agent immediately stated to the judge that they were looking to fast track returning the child to the family.  Victory, right?  Nope.  Due to how things work, despite being cleared of all possible wrongdoing, we still had to follow forms and procedures.  So, our daughter remained in foster care for another 8 months while she was "transitioned" back to our home.  Then we had another 6 months of follow up meetings.  So much for the term "Fast Track".

So, I hope for the best for the couple in Sacramento.  They likely have a long hill to climb.  In the meantime, the rest of you should think on the actual power wielded by agencies like CPS, who can have the police completely blow past your rights and seize not just your property, but your children, and they really will suffer no consequences when they are proved wrong.

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