Families rally against Children and Youth

Families rally against Children and Youth
BY PETER PANEPINTO (STAFF WRITER)
Published: June 3, 2010




Kristen McAndrew holds a poster and a picture of her daughter Jocelyn at a protest against Children and Youth Services in Wilkes-Barre on June 2.


Fran Schrader, right, holds a poster and a picture of a child during a protest against Children and Youth Services in Wilkes-Barre on June 2. Attorney Jim Hayward, left, is representing the parents.


A group of people hold a protest against Children and Youth Services in Wilkes-Barre Wednesday against a backdrop of the Children and Youth Building on Pennsylvania Avenue.


Attorney Jim Hayward, center, leads a group of protesters out of the Jewelcor parking lot after they were ordered to leave the property during their protest against Children and Youth Services on Wednesday. About 40 people attended the rally.


Image Gallery for Families rally against Children and Youth

About 40 angry parents gathered in a downtown Wilkes-Barre parking lot Wednesday morning to denounce Luzerne County Children and Youth Services, the county agency charged with assuring the safety of children and preserving families.

Some of the protesters said Children and Youth had stripped them of their parental rights without giving them a fair chance to retain custody of their children.

Many of the scorned parents also charged their children were being abused by foster parents; some said the judges who presided over their cases did not give them a fair trial; and other parents said their children were taken away shortly after birth without a court order.

The group was organized by attorney Jim Hayward of Wilkes-Barre. At the rally, Hayward said he is representing most of the parents in their struggles with Children and Youth. He claimed the county agency is abusing its power and keeping children longer than it is supposed to, or without valid reason, in order to continue receiving funding.

In response to the protest, Luzerne County Commissioner Chairwoman Maryanne Petrilla said she supports the agency and the "tremendous work" it does to protect the children of Luzerne County.

"Our job is to protect our children, and there is a process in place that gives us the checks and balances that I believe we need to justify why some children in Luzerne County are in protective services," Petrilla said. "We will fight any lawsuit filed in federal court I believe we will win."

Children and Youth Director Frank Castano could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

At the hour-long protest, held near the Jewelcor Building on Wilkes-Barre Boulevard, parents shared their stories.

Lisa Scoffone, of Hanover Township, said she has been battling Children and Youth since 2008 when the agency took away one of her two children and threatened she would never see him again. She now has visitation rights to see her 7-month-old son for an hour-and-a-half per week and her 9-year-old son every other weekend.

"I'm fighting for the rights for me and my children to be together," Scoffone said. "I'm not doing anything wrong. They just make excuses for me not to see my babies."

Scoffone said this is just the beginning of her ongoing battle with Children and Youth. She has a court date July 9 at the Luzerne County Orphan's Court, where she will ask for custody of both of her children.

"As long as I'm breathing I will not stop until my children are home with me." Scoffone said. "My babies are going to come home without knowing me."

Hayward claimed that Children and Youth is doing everything it can to enter children into the foster care system and keep them there so the agency can continue receiving grant money.

"They are taking them unjustifiably," Hayward said. "If they do have a reason to keep them, they keep the kids for too long."

Brenda Battle, of Wilkes-Barre, said four of her children were sent to foster care 10 years ago by Children and Youth. She said she was in an abusive relationship and she went to the agency for guidance, but instead of helping her, agency officials took the children away because they believed she was an unfit mother.

"Instead of helping me with my kids, they snatched them away," Battle said.

Many of the parents said the rooms in which they visit their children at Children and Youth are "deplorable."

Scoffone's nephew, David Rasmus, 15, of Warrior Run, said he was placed in seven different foster homes by Children and Youth within six-and-a-half years. Rasmus said he's slept on the floor at one home and he couldn't see his father for almost two years after his first placement. He now lives with his father and grandmother, but he said he has anxiety and has been hospitalized six times since he left foster care.

"They ruined my life," Rasmus said. "It really hurt me being away from my family."

ppanepinto@citizensvoice.com, 570-821-2182

http://citizensvoice.com/news/families-rally-against-children-and-youth-1.827885