More information:
From Parentalrights.org:
The Corrupt Business of
Child Protective Services
Summary: This article’s author worked with around 300 cases in Georgia, along with hundreds across the nation. She shares heart-breaking stories of CPS corruption, including how children are being taken away unnecessarily and put in very abusive situations. Her conclusion is that “there is no responsibility and no accountability in Child Protective Services.”
For almost 100 years, the U.S. Supreme Court has recognized the traditional role of parents in directing the care, custody, and control of their minor children. In Wisconsin v. Yoder, the Court declared that parental rights have been “established beyond debate as an enduring American tradition.” 406 US 205, 232 (1972)
Despite this, many government actors and agencies today are working overtime to substitute a parent’s decisions with the government worker’s own view of what is best for a given child. From schools to hospitals to child welfare investigators, “experts” think they know what’s best for your child better than you do.
And while this has been going on for decades, we have all become painfully aware of it since the recent pandemic, when many learned for the first time just how much power the government wants to have over our children.
Yet, every child is unique; no one knows or loves a child better than his or her own parents. Mom or Dad, you are the expert on your child.
According to parentingscince.com:
If babies are exposed to high levels of the stress hormone, cortisol, they are more likely to develop behavior problems and stress-related diseases later in life (Zijlmans et al 2015; Sanchez et al 2015; Asok et al 2013). In the worst case scenario, toxic stress may alter brain growth and shorten the lifespan.
THE HARM OF CHILD REMOVAL
SHANTA TRIVEDI ¥
ABSTRACT
When the state proves or even merely alleges that a parent has abused or neglected a child, a court may remove the child from the parent’s care. However, research shows separating a child from her parent(s) has detrimental, long-term emotional and psychological consequences that may be worse than leaving the child at home. This is due to the trauma of removal itself, as well as the unstable nature of, and high rates of abuse in, foster care. Nevertheless, the child welfare system errs on the side of removal and almost uniformly fails to consider the harms associated with that removal. Only two jurisdictions require courts to consider the harms that will occur when a child is taken from her family. And while recent federal law recognizes the importance of family preservation and the negative ef- fects of separation, it does not solve the problem by itself. This article is the first to comprehensively examine why the harm of removal should be a featured part of every child welfare decision. After doing so, it continues to analyze existing law and legal practices to demonstrate how consideration of the harms of removal can be built into existing legal frameworks to achieve the stated purpose of the child welfare system and truly protect our children.
Shanta Trivedi, The Harm of Child Removal, 43 New York University Review of Law & Social Change 523 (2019).
Available at: https://scholarworks.law.ubalt.edu/all_fac/1085
Exhibit 1.3-1Immediate and Delayed Reactions to Trauma
Immediate Emotional Reactions
Numbness and detachment
Anxiety or severe fear
Guilt (including survivor guilt)
Exhilaration as a result of surviving
Anger
Sadness
Helplessness
Feeling unreal; depersonalization (e.g., feeling as if you are watching yourself)
Disorientation
Feeling out of control
Denial
Constriction of feelings
Feeling overwhelmed
Delayed Emotional Reactions
Irritability and/or hostility
Depression
Mood swings, instability
Anxiety (e.g., phobia, generalized anxiety)
Fear of trauma recurrence
Grief reactions
Shame
Feelings of fragility and/or vulnerability
Emotional detachment from anything that requires emotional reactions (e.g., significant and/or family relationships, conversations about self, discussion of traumatic events or reactions to them)
Immediate Physical Reactions
Nausea and/or gastrointestinal distress
Sweating or shivering
Faintness
Muscle tremors or uncontrollable shaking
Elevated heartbeat, respiration, and blood pressure
Extreme fatigue or exhaustion
Greater startle responses
Depersonalization
Delayed Physical Reactions
Sleep disturbances, nightmares
Somatization (e.g., increased focus on and worry about body aches and pains)
Appetite and digestive changes
Lowered resistance to colds and infection
Persistent fatigue
Elevated cortisol levels
Hyperarousal
Long-term health effects including heart, liver, autoimmune, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
Immediate Cognitive Reactions
Difficulty concentrating
Rumination or racing thoughts (e.g., replaying the traumatic event over and over again)
Distortion of time and space (e.g., traumatic event may be perceived as if it was happening in slow motion, or a few seconds can be perceived as minutes)
Memory problems (e.g., not being able to recall important aspects of the trauma)
Strong identification with victims
Delayed Cognitive Reactions
Intrusive memories or flashbacks
Reactivation of previous traumatic events
Self-blame
Preoccupation with event
Difficulty making decisions
Magical thinking: belief that certain behaviors, including avoidant behavior, will protect against future trauma
Belief that feelings or memories are dangerous
Generalization of triggers (e.g., a person who experiences a home invasion during the daytime may avoid being alone during the day)
Suicidal thinking
Immediate Behavioral Reactions
Startled reaction
Restlessness
Sleep and appetite disturbances
Difficulty expressing oneself
Argumentative behavior
Increased use of alcohol, drugs, and tobacco
Withdrawal and apathy
Avoidant behaviors
Delayed Behavioral Reactions
Avoidance of event reminders
Social relationship disturbances
Decreased activity level
Engagement in high-risk behaviors
Increased use of alcohol and drugs
Withdrawal
Immediate Existential Reactions
Intense use of prayer
Restoration of faith in the goodness of others (e.g., receiving help from others)
Loss of self-efficacy
Despair about humanity, particularly if the event was intentional
Immediate disruption of life assumptions (e.g., fairness, safety, goodness, predictability of life)
Delayed Existential Reactions
Questioning (e.g., “Why me?”)
Increased cynicism, disillusionment
Increased self-confidence (e.g., “If I can survive this, I can survive anything”)
Loss of purpose
Renewed faith
Hopelessness
Reestablishing priorities
Redefining meaning and importance of life
Reworking life’s assumptions to accommodate the trauma (e.g., taking a self-defense class to reestablish a sense of safety)
Sources: Briere & Scott, 2006b; Foa, Stein, & McFarlane, 2006; Pietrzak, Goldstein, Southwick, & Grant, 2011.
From: Chapter 3, Understanding the Impact of Trauma
Trauma-Informed Care in Behavioral Health Services.
Treatment Improvement Protocol (TIP) Series, No. 57.
Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (US).
Rockville (MD): Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (US); 2014.
NCBI Bookshelf. A service of the National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health.
Take care of Maya documentary on Netflix ( Even though our story is horrific and has created depression and helplessness, it in no way reaches the level of the mother in this documentary)
Hundreds of parents say kids wrongly taken from them after doctors misdiagnosed abuse (nbcnews.com)
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Lehigh County is moving its child advocacy center out of LVHN. Here’s why
Lehigh County is moving its child advocacy center, which investigates claims of child abuse, from Lehigh Valley Health ...
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have launched a class action lawsuit over alleged child abuse misdiagnoses. Families have claimed that Esernio-Jenssen falsely accused them of abusing their children and regularly misdiagnosed ...
Florida's top child abuse pediatrician justifies questionable findings of abuse (youtube.com)
“The Department of Children and Families [does] not care about the worker and since they don’t care about how hard they work the worker, they don’t care about child safety,” another staffer wrote.
Stress, heavy caseloads drive DCF's high turnover rate (mynews13.com)