Sen. Roach’s 'Alexis Stuth Act' receives public hearing today

Sen. Roach’s 'Alexis Stuth Act' receives public hearing today

Today, 10:51 AM


Sen. Pam Roach, R-rural Auburn, has introduced two pieces of legislation regarding child welfare and the Child Protective Services.

Both bills will receive a public hearing at 3:30 p.m. today in the Human Services and Corrections Committee in Senate Hearing Room 1 at Olympia.

SB 6416, the Alexis Stuth Act, would give certain grandparents and relatives legal standing in child welfare cases where a parent has been declared unfit to parent the child.

SB 6417 would create a legal presumption that placement with relatives, in dependency cases, is in the best interests of the child.

The legislation was introduced in response to the Stuth case, which received statewide media attention. Doug and Anne Marie Stuth from Enumclaw had essentially raised their granddaughter Alexis until she was taken out of their care and put into foster care by DSHS. The Stuths did not have legal standing to defend themselves or their granddaughter. After months of heartache, Alexis was finally placed back with the Stuths and they have since adopted her.

"The Stuth case shows how crucial this legislation is,” said Roach. “We must place children with caring relatives first and we must give relatives who have been caring for a child that is stuck in the system a say in any placement decisions.”


For more information contact Senator Pam Roach at 360-786-7660 or via e-mail at Roach.pam@leg.wa.gov


http://www.pnwlocalnews.com/south_king/aub/news/82271357.html

How CPS Victimizes Families

How CPS Victimizes Families
January 20, 2010 yvonnemason
Thus C.P.S victimizes those families that have no means available, to properly investigate C.P.S corrupt activities directed at their family. Since Federal and state matching funds generate the budget for C.P.S, the single means utilized to elevate the budget is to increase foster care and adoption caseloads. Bonus incentives for adoptions are currently $8,000 per child. $4,000 is given to the foster parents and another $4,000 is placed in a general fund, to reward workers for completing their job duties. Workers in this county, state that they do not personally financially benefit from this fund. Thus it leads us to believe, that other neighboring agencies are benefiting form this fund, in return for deceptive practices that support C.P.S decisions.

BABY TRAFFICKING False Allegations of drug abuse have been logged against mothers and their newborn infants as a means to place these infants into protective custody. The hospital staff has allowed C.P.S to remove infants (a hospital violation) prior to verification of blood and urine drug screen tests. C.P.S is mandated to secure verification of drug allegations via blood and urine results, prior to removing the newborn infant from the hospital. All cases known to us resulted negative for the mother and the newborn, but these infants were never returned, and were adopted outside of kinship. In the past year, the FBI has arrested and imprisoned C.P.S workers who were actively involved in baby trafficking for profit. These C.P.S workers knowingly abducted infants from the hospital where they in turn networked them into legal adoption agencies.

Augustus Fennerty, FBI director for Crimes against Children (Washington D.C) can verify this information. (202) 324-3000 CHILD SEX TRADE INDUSTRY Southern California FBI District has videotape recorded CPS workers placing foster care children onto planes via LAX, destination Europe for child sex trade industry. This can be verified through Ted Gunderson, (retired) FBI Director Southern California (310) 477-6565. SEXUAL VICTIMIZATION IN FOSTER CARE For the families in relation to our group in San BernardinoCounty, it has come to our attention while comparing similarities, that approximately half the children in foster care have been molested. These children were not sexually abused by their parents, but by the foster fathers or others in the foster home. It was also noted that these foster homes are still operating in the same capacity prior to complaints, without any investigation into these allegations. C.P.S officials were made aware of these accusations by the children, but failed to follow through with a criminal investigation. In conclusion, Child Protective Service is nothing more than an “oasis’’ for child molesters, to make a profit, while at the same time committing a crime, only to be protected by a malignant system that delivers a never ending supply of victims .

SYSTEMATIC FRAUDULENT MANEUVERS UTILIZED TO ENHANCE C.P.S BUDGET C.P.S manufactures multiple nonexistent /fictitious abuse case scenarios to offset true statistical abuse case information. C.P.S concurrently processes these children from foster care to adoption, in order to obtain perverse monetary incentives in the form of bonuses. C.P.S provides a market to neighboring agencies and the courts ( commissioners, psychologists, monitors, court mandated behavioral class instructors, court appointed legal counsel), in order for them to financially benefit from the foster care/adoption system. C.P.S victimizes innocent impoverished families, draws them into a corrupt system to utilize their children as pawns for commerce.

MALICIOUS OPERATIVE TECHNIQUES C.P.S is utilized by family court officials, as an adverse tool to extricate children from one parent to the other, with reference to “parent alienation syndromeâ€. Where, in truth, caseworkers are never allowed to testify in family court under the cloak of C.P.S authority, due to possible misuse or conflict of interest related to the right to privacy laws. C.P.S utilizes coercive measures to persuade parents to submit to statements of prior alleged abuse, when these actions were nonexistent. In other words, forcing desperate parents to “plea bargain†to a C.P.S fabricated crime, for the return of their children from foster care. C.P.S fabricates portions of investigations, where such duties have never been physically performed, to purposely mislead or direct a case. C.P.S knowingly abandons children into foster care, conscious of the fact that some foster care parents and or individuals in the home physically and sexually abuse the children in their protective custody. C.P.S intentionally fails to prosecute parents accused of child abuse, since in the majority of cases, no initial crime has been committed. C.P.S represents themselves in positive personas, by omitting, altering, and falsifying documents, so as to mislead the public and or government of their true actions as listed above. Thereby publicly grandstanding, displaying an inaccurate social martyrdom for the well being of children. C.P.S ignores crimes committed in foster care, such as the atrocious acts of unexplained deaths. C.P.S fails to question these individuals for their abusive conduct, whereby, if itwere not a foster care parent, these individuals would be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

SHOULD CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICE BE RESTRUCTURED? The police should determine if a child has a true need for protection from his parents, since child abuse is a criminal offence. Thus, C.P.S should be incorporated with Crimes against Children Units that are currently located within police, sheriffs and FBI agencies. The merging of the two would reduce the amount of false allegations reported, since complaints made to a police unit is a criminal offence. Also, the police have the training and resources needed to conduct a thorough investigation. This allows them to determine that if a crime has been committed that warrants the need for foster care. A parent/guardian under the suspicion of the crime “Child Abuse†would meet the criteria for removal. This would activate the foster care system. Only then would the foster care system be utilized as a response to a possible or suspected crime. Thus in turn, this would eliminate the unnecessary utilization of the foster care system that has been grossly misused in the past. Unwarranted victimization of children and their families would be greatly reduced and soaring costs would be contained. This would minimize the number of future cases that fall through the cracks and get lost in the system.

WHAT ROLE SHOULD THE SOCIAL WORKERS PLAY IN THE NEW CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICE? All caseworkers must have a bachelor’s degree in social work from an accredited college. All states must create bachelor level licensing for social workers. All workers must have a current license to work within any state or county in the United States with reciprocity. All social workers must have a preceptor for at least three months prior to individual casework. WHO SHOULD BE A MEMBER OF THE CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICE TEAM WITHIN THE CRIMES AGAINST CHILDREN UNITS? Other members from various agencies should be inclusive to this unit, since they bring their specific expertise to complete a proper investigation. It is our opinion that the following individuals who should comprise this team are as stated: Registered Nurse, School Principal, Detective, and Social Worker..

SHOULD AN OUTSIDE AGENCY SYSTEMATICALLY REVIEW THE CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICE TEAM’S PERFORMANCE? All agencies must have an outside quality control board that monitors case investigations on a random basis and when requested by the public. This Board must include members similar to the Child Protective Service team, with the addition of an individual from the public. No member may be employed more than three years, to maintain the integrity of the boards’ unbiased decisions. SHOULD WE MAINTAIN A CHILD ABUSE INDEX LIST? The child abuse index list shall be maintained only when an individual has been prosecuted and convicted by a court of law for a crime against a child. Today’s said list shall be destroyed, so as to prevent harm to those currently listed who have been accused of a crime against a child, but that have never been prosecuted or convicted. And, children should never be placed on any list that would categorize them in an adverse manner, such as this. SHOULD THERE BE NEW RULES AND REGULATIONS RELATED TO FOSTER CARE? There should be a limited number of children allowed to be placed in any single home under foster care, including adoption. No single family shall be allowed to adopt or provide foster care to more than two children at any time. The only exception shall be when siblings number more than two and are placed in the same single dwelling. This will eliminate the financial incentive for monetary gain related to housing foster children and adoptions.

——————————————————————————– Redlands, California 92373 Yucaipa, California 92399 July 12, 2004 U.S. House of Representatives Washington, DC 20515-0542 To our Honorable U.S. House of Representatives, It is unfortunate that Child Protective Service officials have mislead the government into believing, that increased funding is necessary to solve the multitude of problems that encompass C.P.S. This agency is utilizing the funding issue as the scapegoat for their problems, when in actuality the workers themselves, the lack of their personal accountability, are the source of the problem. Further funding will not solve C.P.S’S current crisis, only the restructuring of this agency will provide a solution. Sincerely, Cynthia Huckelberry Sushanna Khamis

http://protectingourchildrenfrombeingsold.wordpress.com/

Child abuse: when family courts get it wrong

Child abuse: when family courts get it wrong
States must reform a system that too often awards custody to the abusive parent.
by Kathleen Russell

San Rafael, Calif - When a parent harms his or her own child, family courts are supposed to step in and safeguard the victim.

Can you imagine what a tragedy it would be if courts awarded custody to the wrong parent – the abuser?

Actually, according to one conservative estimate, more than 58,000 children per year are ordered by family courts into unsupervised contact with physically or sexually abusive parents following divorce in the United States.

The fact that this type of scandal is taking place in the American justice system defies the imagination. Not since the Roman Catholic Church pedophile scandal has the US seen this level of institutional harm inflicted on innocent children.

Consider the case of Jonea Rogers, a hairstylist from Marin County, Calif. During her costly divorce, she sought help from numerous law enforcement, child protection, and family court authorities to protect her daughter from what medical evidence and reports by the child and her baby sitter suggested could be ongoing neglect or sexual abuse or both by the girl's father or grandfather.

None of the authorities she approached would effectively intervene to protect her daughter. So in 2000, Ms. Rogers eventually felt that she had no choice but to flee with her child to protect her.

More than three years later, this protective mother was caught and jailed for five months, while her daughter was immediately handed over to her alleged abusers. Rogers faced criminal charges for violating a court order by fleeing with her child. After considering the evidence in her case, a jury of her peers completely exonerated her of all wrongdoing.

The very same evidence that exonerated her in the criminal court had been called "frivolous" by the family court judge and disregarded. Despite her acquittal, Rogers was never granted custody of her daughter, who lives with her alleged abusers to this day. She is now forced to pay a fee to visit with her daughter a few times a month in a supervised visitation facility.

As we see in many cases across the country, even when physical or sexual abuse of children is alleged during a divorce, American family courts routinely award custody to the parent with an established record of domestic violence restraining orders, child abuse, neglect, alcoholism, addiction, dangerous mental illness, or a combination.

Meanwhile, the child's other parent, commonly referred to as the "protective parent," is typically demonized by court professionals as an "alienator" for bringing evidence of child abuse to the court's attention.

This happens because the reigning paradigm in family courts across the country is an unscientific, discredited theory known as "Parental Alienation Syndrome," or PAS.

PAS and its many derivatives suggest that the parent who asks the court to protect his or her child by limiting the alleged abuser's access to that child is "alienating" the child from the other parent.

The theory suggests that a parent "coaches" a son or daughter to fabricate false abuse allegations, and the court's attention immediately shifts away from investigating an alleged crime and instead focuses on the "uncooperative parent" who refuses to share custody of the child with the alleged abuser or molester.

PAS is tricky for the courts because parents in heated custody battles often badmouth each other and sometimes exaggerate claims of neglect, and children overhear their parents complaints about each other. Though rare, false allegations of abuse do occur. Research on child sexual abuse indicates that close to 98 percent of children who claim sexual abuse in the context of a high conflict divorce are telling the truth, yet family courts routinely proceed as if the opposite were true.

Protective parents not only lose custody of the children they are trying to protect, but they lose their life savings, too. Many cannot even afford a lawyer to represent their interests, but are saddled with hefty supervised visitation fees and often threatened with a loss of custody if they object to paying the bevy of court-appointed experts that the judge assigns to their case.

Fees quickly add up to tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars. Many such parents go bankrupt, making court appeals impossible. The family law "machine" operates as Big Business, and a sophisticated cottage industry has sprung up that appears to be preying on desperate parents and children who are trying to escape family violence.

Four factors conspire against protective parents:


1.Family law judges are granted broad discretion in their decision-making;
2.Juries are nonexistent in most family law courtrooms;
3.Costly appeals are out of reach for most litigants; and
4.Children are not afforded a voice in these important proceedings that determine their future. As a result, nothing short of a major overhaul of the family court system will suffice.

Here in California, home to some of the most egregious cases, the Center for Judicial Excellence and its partner organizations in the Safe Child Coalition recently worked with State Sen. Mark Leno (D) of San Francisco to unanimously pass an audit request through the California legislature to address this growing problem.

The request asks the state auditor to investigate the procedures used by family courts to appoint, train, evaluate, and discipline the plethora of professionals they use in cases in Marin and Sacramento counties.

The legislature should also pass two sensible bills in 2010. Assemblyman Jim Beall (D) of San Jose has proposed a bill that would outlaw PAS in state family courts, and a bill by Assemblywoman Fiona Ma (D) of San Francisco would allow children to have a voice in family court proceedings.

Other states must open their eyes to this problem. Family courts are being manipulated in ways that tragically undermine their mission.

We must ensure access to justice for all who find themselves in our nation's family courts. There are at least 58,000 reasons to get serious about reform today.

Kathleen Russell is a cofounder and staff consultant to the Center for Judicial Excellence in Marin County, Calif.

http://www.stopfamilyviolence.org/info/custody-abuse/custody-news/child-abuse-when-family-courts-get-it-wrong

Children given wrong drug doses

Children given wrong drug doses Hospital doctors make mistakes in more than one in 10 prescriptions they write for children according to a new study


Sarah Boseley The Guardian, Tuesday 19 January 2010 Article historyHospital doctors make mistakes in more than one in 10 prescriptions they write for children, far more than was previously thought, according to an authoritative study published today.

Errors were made in 13.2% of prescriptions written for children, according to the study covering five London hospitals and carried out by the School of Pharmacy, University of London. Even more mistakes were made by nurses who had to administer drugs, a task often entailing mixing up a solution to be injected. The study found that almost one in five drugs (19.1%) were wrongly administered.

Most of the mistakes were picked up by pharmacists who cross-checked the prescriptions, and most of the errors that did get through led to no long-term harm, though some could have been lethal.

Ian Wong, a professor and one of the authors of the study, reported in Archives of Disease in Childhood, said one child was prescribed a dose of anti-convulsants, for epilepsy, that was 10 times higher than it should have been.

Wong said of the incident: "It was over the weekend so the pharmacist wasn't around and nobody checked the prescription. On the Monday the pharmacist noticed straight away and stopped the treatment." Fortunately, the child had received only one dose.

The biggest problem in prescribing is that drugs used in hospitals have never been tested on children. They are not licensed for that use and are not in doses appropriate for children. Doctors are required to make a calculation for the dose based on the weight of each child.

Often the doctors on the children's wards are juniors, who could have just completed time on an adult medical ward or even surgical ward. "Sometimes they write exactly the same dose as they would in adults," said Wong, who added that doctors on their first day in a paediatric ward were permitted to write a prescription for a child.

The high rate of administration errors had much to do with drugs being far more often for injection to children rather than administered in tablet form, he said.

"All these things take a lot of time to do and you need to do the calculation absolutely right," said Wong.

He and his colleagues recommend that pharmacists should make up the injections, leaving nurses more time to care for patients. The study found that errors occurred in the prescription of many different drugs, but the biggest problems seemed to be with painkillers and anti-epileptics. The report noted another child who had a lucky escape when a prescription for morphine that was four times too high a dose was spotted in time.

Researchers visited and observed 11 paediatric wards. On some occasions they intervened on the wards to stop children being given the wrong dose.

That factor made the study more accurate than other surveys that relied on reports of errors after the event, said Wong.

The only two previous observational studies were much smaller and estimated prescribing errors at between 1.2% and 5.1%. During the study period pharmacists reviewed almost 3,000 prescriptions intended for 444 children.

In all 391 prescribing errors were made, giving an overall rate of 13.2% (one in eight), and ranging from 5% to 31.5%, depending on the ward. Incomplete prescriptions were the most common mistakes, followed by dosing errors.

The authors recommend that electronic prescribing systems be widely introduced. Computers can be used to check calculations and alert doctors to possible errors, although the authors point out that they are not foolproof and that paediatric systems are not yet readily available. In the meantime doctors should be vigilant when writing prescriptions, they said.
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editor@societyguardian.co.uk Report errors or inaccuracies: reader@guardian.co.uk Letters for publication should be sent to: letters@guardian.co.uk If you need help using the site: userhelp@guardian.co.uk Call the main Guardian and Observer switchboard:
article appeared on p8 of the UK news section of the Guardian on Tuesday 19 January 2010. It was published on guardian.co.uk at 00.05 GMT on Tuesday 19 January 2010.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/jan/19/children-given-wrong-prescriptions-hospital

Is Drugging Our Children The Answer Or Could A Natural Supplement Magnesium Help?

Supplement Magnesium Help? Is Drugging Our Children The Answer Or Could A Natural Supplement Magnesium Help?
January 17th, 2010
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) has been a commonly diagnosed illness occurring in children since the 1980s. Many people argue that ADHD should not be categorized as a disorder, but rather a set of problems that are normal to childhood. Either way, ADHD’s symptoms consist of wandering attention, nervousness, and hyperactivity. These symptoms can be extremely troubling for the parents and teachers that have to work with children suffering from ADHD. Drugs like Ritalin have been promoted ADHD treatments for many years, but have been found to have highly dangerous side effects and not be a solution to everything. Meanwhile, many nutritionists have discovered that many of the answers to ADHD can be found in a child’s diet in the form of food additives, sugar, and the missing essential nutrients.

One child who was horribly hyperactive, out of control, and diagnosed with ADHD by a school psychologist was taken off any foods that contained a particular red dye. Almost immediately, the child’s hyperactivity ceased and he began paying attention and living the life of a normal child. A study recently completed at Yale University School of Medicine supported this result, showing a direct connection between food additives and hyperactivity. This study consisted of 297 children who were given drinks that contained common artificial food colorings and additives that are usually found in food and candy. Meanwhile, a control group was given drinks without additives. The children who drank the additive-enhanced drinks showed a significantly greater amount of hyperactivity and had shorter attention spans.

Another common cause of ADHD symptoms in children is overdosing of sugar. With all the snack-like breakfast cereals available and the high sugar-constant treats, hyperactivity should be expected. Once a child consumes a large quantity of sugar, he will hit a high of out-of-control hyperactivity and then quickly become grouchy and prone to tantrums. This is often called a “sugar rush” and can easily be solved by taking children off sugar.

After removing chemical additives and processed sugar from the diet, ADHD symptoms have also been traced to a lack of mineral magnesium. This nutrient is essential and often missing from most diets today. Kids who drink a lot of soda or fruit juices are getting high amounts of sugar but not magnesium. Those children without magnesium often suffer from irritability, insomnia, and constipation. These symptoms, which are commonly diagnosed as ADHD, can be cleared up quickly by putting your child on a magnesium supplement. Most nutritionists agree, believing that many ADHD symptoms come from a high sugar diet and a magnesium deficiency. Sugar and over-stimulation, such as stress, actually exhausts a child’s nervous system. This can be cured with a magnesium supplement which allows the nervous system to rebuild. In addition, this supplement will assist the child in relaxing. Since children are the future for our society, helping them to survive in the best way possible, naturally, is something each and every one of us should take much more responsibility for. Magnesium and other natural supplements can be found at your local or internet vitamin store.
http://bestherbsforstress.com/is-drugging-our-children-the-answer-or-could-a-natural-supplement-magnesium-help/

Young children prescribed antipsychotic drugs

Young children prescribed antipsychotic drugs Friday, January 15, 2010



January 15, 2010 (WLS) -- The number of young children diagnosed with bipolar disease has doubled in the past decade.

Research in the journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry also finds that children between the ages of 2 to 5 have been prescribed powerful antipsychotic drugs.

The research suggests that it is still rare to prescribe the drugs to 2-year-olds, but the practice is becoming more frequent.

Diagnosing young children with this disorder has been controversial. Bipolar disorder was once thought to emerge only during adolescence or later.

Many doctors say they try other interventions before turning to strong medications.


http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/health&id=7221525

Study Finds Disconnect Between Brain Regions in ADHD

Study Finds Disconnect Between Brain Regions in ADHD
January 15, 2010 – 11:24 am.New research shows that two brain areas fail to connect when children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) attempt a task that measures attention. Researchers at the UC Davis Center for Mind and Brain and M.I.N.D. Institute made this discovery by analyzing the brain activity in children with ADHD, and their paper appears in the current online issue of the journal Biological Psychiatry.

“This is the first time that we have direct evidence that this connectivity is missing in ADHD,” said Ali Mazaheri, postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Mind and Brain.

Mazaheri and his colleagues measured electrical rhythms from the brains of volunteers, especially the alpha rhythm. When part of the brain is emitting alpha rhythms, it shows that it is disengaged from the rest of the brain and not receiving or processing information optimally, Mazaheri said.

In the experiments, children with diagnosed ADHD and normal children were given a simple attention test while their brain waves were measured. The test consisted of being shown a red or blue image, or hearing a high or low sound, and having to react by pressing a button. Immediately before the test, the children were shown either a letter “V” to alert them that the test would involve a picture (visual), or an inverted “V” representing the letter “A” to alert them that they would hear a sound (auditory).

The experiments were conducted by researchers in the laboratories of Ron Mangun, professor of psychology and neurology, and Blythe Corbett, associate clinical professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and a researcher at the M.I.N.D. Institute.

According to current models of how the brain allocates attention, signals from the frontal cortex—such as the “V” and “A” cues—should alert other parts of the brain, such as the visual processing area at the back of the head, to prepare to pay attention to something. That should be reflected in a drop in alpha wave activity in the visual area, Mazaheri said.

And that is what the researchers found in the brain waves of children without ADHD. But children with the disorder showed no such drop in activity, indicating a disconnection between the center of the brain that allocates attention and the visual processing regions, Mazaheri said.

“The brains of the children with ADHD apparently prepare to attend to upcoming stimuli differently than do typically developing children,” he said, adding that children with ADHD did improve their reaction times when properly cued, but they don’t seem to allocate resources as efficiently.

This is the first evidence from brain electrical patterns for a functional disconnection in cortical attention systems in ADHD, he said. Current definitions of ADHD are based only on behavior.

The research was originally inspired by a desire to combine laboratory and clinical research to go beyond existing measures of ADHD and get a better understanding of the condition, Corbett said.

“Clearly the crosstalk from bedside to bench has been fruitful,” she said.

Other co-authors on the paper are staff research associate Sharon Corina, postdoctoral fellow Evelijn Bekker and research assistant Anne Berry.

The study was funded by the grants from the National Institutes of Health, the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research, the Perry Family Foundation, the Debber Family Foundation and the Aristos Academy.

http://www.elementsbehavioralhealth.com/behavioral-health-news/study-finds-disconnect-between-brain-regions-in-adhd/