PLEDGE OF SOLIDARITY FOR THE RIGHTS OF SELF-REPRESENTED LITIGANTS! Petition
Please click on the link to sign this Petition
Category: Law Reform
Region: United States of America
Target: State & Federal Courts and Legislatures - U.S.A.
Background (Preamble):
The Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution has been interpreted to provide EVERY AMERICAN with the CONSTITUTIONAL right to self-representation, if they so choose. That privilege, like all other constitutional rights, should be enjoyed without fear of harassment, prejudice or abuse. Furthermore, no law, regulation, or policy should exist to abridge or surreptitiously extinguish that right.
Self-Represented Litigants have no less of a right to FAIR and MEANINGFUL due process under the federal and state constitutions as those individuals who choose to utilize an attorney for their legal affairs and issues. In fact, NOWHERE in any state or federal constitution does it specify that the hiring of a lawyer is a prerequisite to exercising one's due process rights. Democratic principles dictate that we have the right to freely choose between self-representation and hiring a lawyer to handle our legal matters without suffering humiliation, prejudice or penalization. After all, it is the parties to the litigation that ultimately have to deal with the consequences of the case's outcome, and not the judge or the lawyers involved in the matter.
Contrary to the view of certain judges and lawyers, those who opt to litigate their own legal matters without an attorney are NOT second-class citizens deserving of contempt and injustice. Instead, they are BRAVE AMERICANS with an inalienable right to have their legal causes adjudicated objectively and justly -- with or without a lawyer. Self-representation can be a difficult, time-consuming, and often frightening experience, especially for those burdened by demanding work schedules, family responsibilities, and other obligations of day-to-day living. Accordingly, those who engage in the difficult task of self-litigation should be REVERED for their COURAGE and DEDICATION, not scorned or abused.
In support of the foregoing ideals, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization called PEOPLE UNITED FOR LEGAL SYSTEM EQUALITY (P.U.L.S.E.) was founded. PULSE’s mission is to protect the People's right to self-representation, protest undue prejudice and abuse against self-litigants, and advocate for fair and meaningful reforms that will foster equitable treatment for the self-represented. We seek to accomplish this agenda through grassroots mobilization, community awareness and education, policy reform, peaceful public protests, and providing support and assistance to certain "high profile" cases which offer the potential for favorable appellate rulings that honor self-litigation.
For PULSE to be effective, an active network of like-minded, vocal, influential, financially-generous, and politically-expressive supporters and activists from every state in the country must be created. To that end, we submit the following PLEDGE OF SOLIDARITY for your consideration. We hope you will sign it, and respectfully request that you kindly distribute the PLEDGE to all of your friends, family members and other contacts who genuinely support the ideals of FAIRNESS and JUSTICE regarding the legal process.
PLEASE HELP US IN OUR PEACEFUL AND CONSTRUCTIVE EFFORT TO DEMONSTRATE TO THE LEGAL SYSTEM THE PUBLIC'S DESIRE FOR UNBIASED SELF-REPRESENTATION! We also need to amass momentous opposition against those persons, agencies, and institutions who, in the interest of protecting huge profits, careers, and prestige, subject self-litigants to a hostile and often abusive litigation atmosphere calculated to suppress self-representation and force people to become completely and financially dependent on lawyers to gain "paid" access to a taxpayer-funded legal system.
PLEASE .... STAND UP AND BE COUNTED by signing the Pledge of Solidarity! The more signatures collected, the more credibility the courts, legislatures, and the media will attribute to our efforts to expose the many painful, life-altering injustices suffered by self-represented litigants, as well as our demands for meaningful relief and corrective reforms.
THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR SUPPORT!
Petition:
WE, THE UNDERSIGNED ... in support of PEOPLE UNITED FOR LEGAL SYSTEM EQUALITY and its mission to protect the right of ALL AMERICANS to self-representation in state and federal courts without penalty, prejudice, or abuse .... hereby state the following:
WE BELIEVE every citizen has a constitutional right to self-representation in any legal proceeding, if he or she so chooses, and WE BELIEVE the judiciary has a constitutional duty to honor, protect, and meaningfully accommodate that right.
WE BELIEVE that it is the litigants accessing the legal system, and not the judges, lawyers, or court personnel, who solely endure the consequences, good or bad, that result from the adjudication of their legal claims. Therefore, WE BELIEVE that it should only be the litigants themselves who should chose whether to act as self-represented litigants or secure attorney representation and neither choice shall suffer bias, prejudice, or penalty.
WE BELIEVE that since the right to self-representation is constitutionally protected, the choice to utilize non-attorney tools, products, resources, and service providers to aid the self-litigant are equally protected as an expression of that right. Therefore, any offering of such resources to Self-Represented Litigants should not be criminalized, outlawed, or otherwise discouraged by the courts or the government.
WE BELIEVE that anyone who chooses to exercise the right of self-representation should be able to do so free of harassment, humiliation, intimidation, retribution, or bias from any judge, attorney, or court personnel.
WE BELIEVE that the courts are public, taxpayer-financed institutions dedicated to the just, equitable, and affordable adjudication of legal claims, and not a venue that prioritizes the professional and commercial interests of lawyers over the right of the public to access the courts without prejudice or bias.
WE SUPPORT the revision of “Unauthorized Practice of Law” statutes and regulations such that non-attorney tools, products, resources, and service providers are not discouraged or intimidated from assisting Self-Represented Litigants.
WE BELIEVE that the “Unauthorized Practice of Law” statutes and regulations should be revised so that they are restricted to regulating the conduct, standards, and practices of attorneys, law firms, and the paralegals, legal assistants, and legal secretaries who are in their employ.
WE BELIEVE that the judiciary has a legal and moral obligation to make the courts more user-friendly, hospitable, accountable, and reasonably accommodating to citizens exercising their right to self-representation.
WE OPPOSE any rule, regulation, statute, appellate opinion, or governing policy which compels litigants to hire lawyers, obstruct, or prevent the right to self-representation, and/or discourages the utilization of non-attorney tools, products, resources, and service providers which exist to aid citizens in their self-representation efforts.
WE SUPPORT reforms that promote fair and equitable treatment of Self-Represented Litigants, and seek the abolishment of policies and practices that grant lawyers special benefits or preferential treatment.
WE SUPPORT reforms that authorize court personnel to provide Self-Represented Litigants with the same information, guidance, and assistance that they readily provide to attorneys and their staff, including the dispensing of procedural information.
WE OPPOSE any case law or judicial policy which punitively obligates Self-Represented Litigants to “think, speak and act” like attorneys and to handle their cases with the same speed and competence as a lawyer. Although Self-Represented Litigants may lack the education, training, and experience attributed to lawyers, WE BELIEVE that, in accordance with the constitutionally protected right to due process, they are still entitled to a fair and equitable adjudication of their legal claims.
Isabella Brooke Knightly and Austin Gamez-Knightly
In Memory of my Loving Husband, William F. Knightly Jr. Murdered by ILLEGAL Palliative Care at a Nashua, NH Hospital
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Prison for Rocklin woman (Former CPS Worker) in extortion case
Prison for Rocklin woman in extortion case - Roseville California News including Rocklin & Placer County
A former Yuba County child protective services worker who falsely accused a Placer County man of child molestation in an effort to extort money from him is headed to state prison for nine years and four months.
Yolanda Perez Fryson, 43, of Rocklin, who was also found guilty of other crimes during a recent jury trial, was given the prison term Wednesday by Placer County Superior Court Judge Joseph O’Flaherty, who called her extortion attempt “close to the worst crime I’ve seen in my 21 years on the bench.”
“A public official picked out a completely innocent victim for monetary reasons,” O’Flaherty said. “It’s a despicable crime. You can’t ignore the evilness of this conduct.”
The victim of the crime, a 40-year-old Roseville man, attended the sentencing and fought back tears as he told the court how being falsely accused of child molestation had turned his world upside down.
The victim said he spent “three days of hell” wondering what to do and kept imagining being led away in handcuffs by police or having people point to him in the false belief that he was a child molester. He said he even briefly contemplated suicide.
He said he still has nightmares about being arrested and losing his family.
The victim eventually told an attorney about Fryson’s accusation. The attorney referred him to the Placer County Sheriff’s Office, which set up a sting operation in which the victim met with Fryson in a parking lot to hand over $10,000 in exchange for the alleged molestation issue being dropped.
Fryson was immediately arrested when she accepted the money.
At the time, Fryson was on administrative leave from the Yuba County CPS Office because of an arrest for a scheme known as “check kiting,” in which a person deposits worthless checks into bank accounts and quickly withdraws money before the insufficient funds can be confirmed.
During the extortion attempt on the victim, Fryson, despite being on leave from her job and out on bail for the check fraud charges, displayed her CPS badge, which she had previously reported to her office as having been lost or stolen.
Prosecutor Stephanie Macumber of the Placer County District Attorney’s Office said the defendant continued to commit crimes even after the check kiting and extortion incidents.
Macumber said Fryson, again out on bail and making an attempt to get out of the check fraud charges, forged a letter absolving her of wrongdoing and signed the name of a 29-year veteran bank employee on it.
Fryson also pressured at least two other bank employees to write letters stating the overdrafts were bank errors and not her fault, Macumber said.
Fryson’s trial on 16 felony counts took place in October, and the jury returned on Nov. 1 with guilty verdicts on all counts, which included such crimes as the attempted extortion, check fraud, falsifying evidence, forgery and accepting a bribe.
A former Yuba County child protective services worker who falsely accused a Placer County man of child molestation in an effort to extort money from him is headed to state prison for nine years and four months.
Yolanda Perez Fryson, 43, of Rocklin, who was also found guilty of other crimes during a recent jury trial, was given the prison term Wednesday by Placer County Superior Court Judge Joseph O’Flaherty, who called her extortion attempt “close to the worst crime I’ve seen in my 21 years on the bench.”
“A public official picked out a completely innocent victim for monetary reasons,” O’Flaherty said. “It’s a despicable crime. You can’t ignore the evilness of this conduct.”
The victim of the crime, a 40-year-old Roseville man, attended the sentencing and fought back tears as he told the court how being falsely accused of child molestation had turned his world upside down.
The victim said he spent “three days of hell” wondering what to do and kept imagining being led away in handcuffs by police or having people point to him in the false belief that he was a child molester. He said he even briefly contemplated suicide.
He said he still has nightmares about being arrested and losing his family.
The victim eventually told an attorney about Fryson’s accusation. The attorney referred him to the Placer County Sheriff’s Office, which set up a sting operation in which the victim met with Fryson in a parking lot to hand over $10,000 in exchange for the alleged molestation issue being dropped.
Fryson was immediately arrested when she accepted the money.
At the time, Fryson was on administrative leave from the Yuba County CPS Office because of an arrest for a scheme known as “check kiting,” in which a person deposits worthless checks into bank accounts and quickly withdraws money before the insufficient funds can be confirmed.
During the extortion attempt on the victim, Fryson, despite being on leave from her job and out on bail for the check fraud charges, displayed her CPS badge, which she had previously reported to her office as having been lost or stolen.
Prosecutor Stephanie Macumber of the Placer County District Attorney’s Office said the defendant continued to commit crimes even after the check kiting and extortion incidents.
Macumber said Fryson, again out on bail and making an attempt to get out of the check fraud charges, forged a letter absolving her of wrongdoing and signed the name of a 29-year veteran bank employee on it.
Fryson also pressured at least two other bank employees to write letters stating the overdrafts were bank errors and not her fault, Macumber said.
Fryson’s trial on 16 felony counts took place in October, and the jury returned on Nov. 1 with guilty verdicts on all counts, which included such crimes as the attempted extortion, check fraud, falsifying evidence, forgery and accepting a bribe.
Real Pro-Life Heroes: Courageous Woman Refuses Abortion | LifeNews.com
Real Pro-Life Heroes: Courageous Woman Refuses Abortion | LifeNews.com
I received a moving response to my post last week and the author requested I share her story through the blog.
I hope and pray that others who read this are inspired by this young woman’s courageous choice in the face of great adversity. She is a pro-life hero and here is her story.
Hello,
I was reading your “choose life” column and I was wondering if you could post my story of choosing life.
I was 14 years old when I conceived my son. I was in a relationship with a 16 year old guy who had already had one son who he didn’t see much. I figured since he already had a child, he was mature. It turned out he was very controlling and abusive, so I decided to leave him. Two days after my15th birthday, I found out I was pregnant. I was so scared and confused but he said he’d be there and take care of everything.
Just three weeks later, he told me he wanted nothing to do with me and I haven’t seen him since. I hadn’t told my father or older sister yet, and the child’s father wasn’t my way out anymore. I had no clue what to do.
When I was about 9 weeks pregnant, my high school called my dad and told him. My sister came storming in my room telling me she’d drive me to an abortion clinic, but I refused. For the next two weeks, I was told I’d have to move and was threatened to be pushed down the stairs and beat up by my sister if I didn’t abort the baby. Finally I cracked and agreed; my sister had had an abortion and if it was so bad she would tell me and not want the same for me, right?
I spent the next couple days crying and depressed. I came to the conclusion I was in love with this little baby inside me, and he would be my whole word soon. I was scared to tell my sister so I drove to the clinic with her. They took us into an interview room and a woman who worked there asked me why I came to the clinic.
Before I could get a word out, my sister told them I wanted an abortion. I started to cry. I think the lady sensed what was going on and told my sister to leave the room. She asked me if I wanted this. I told her no, but added that I thought I had to. Then she told me that the medical staff was going to ask me if I wanted this, and if I didn’t say yes, they wouldn’t do it. I asked her if it was a baby and if the baby would feel it. She told me, no, it wasn’t really a baby yet and it would not feel pain.
I thought about it one last time, and ran out of the clinic. I told my sister she had to get over it or she wouldn’t be in my life. On November 3rd, I had my beautiful baby boy via c-section and am living with my dad with his support, and returning to school next year. I am so in love with my baby. I cry at the thought of ever even thinking about ending his life. I thank God everyday for helping me see the light through the darkness.
I received a moving response to my post last week and the author requested I share her story through the blog.
I hope and pray that others who read this are inspired by this young woman’s courageous choice in the face of great adversity. She is a pro-life hero and here is her story.
Hello,
I was reading your “choose life” column and I was wondering if you could post my story of choosing life.
I was 14 years old when I conceived my son. I was in a relationship with a 16 year old guy who had already had one son who he didn’t see much. I figured since he already had a child, he was mature. It turned out he was very controlling and abusive, so I decided to leave him. Two days after my15th birthday, I found out I was pregnant. I was so scared and confused but he said he’d be there and take care of everything.
Just three weeks later, he told me he wanted nothing to do with me and I haven’t seen him since. I hadn’t told my father or older sister yet, and the child’s father wasn’t my way out anymore. I had no clue what to do.
When I was about 9 weeks pregnant, my high school called my dad and told him. My sister came storming in my room telling me she’d drive me to an abortion clinic, but I refused. For the next two weeks, I was told I’d have to move and was threatened to be pushed down the stairs and beat up by my sister if I didn’t abort the baby. Finally I cracked and agreed; my sister had had an abortion and if it was so bad she would tell me and not want the same for me, right?
I spent the next couple days crying and depressed. I came to the conclusion I was in love with this little baby inside me, and he would be my whole word soon. I was scared to tell my sister so I drove to the clinic with her. They took us into an interview room and a woman who worked there asked me why I came to the clinic.
Before I could get a word out, my sister told them I wanted an abortion. I started to cry. I think the lady sensed what was going on and told my sister to leave the room. She asked me if I wanted this. I told her no, but added that I thought I had to. Then she told me that the medical staff was going to ask me if I wanted this, and if I didn’t say yes, they wouldn’t do it. I asked her if it was a baby and if the baby would feel it. She told me, no, it wasn’t really a baby yet and it would not feel pain.
I thought about it one last time, and ran out of the clinic. I told my sister she had to get over it or she wouldn’t be in my life. On November 3rd, I had my beautiful baby boy via c-section and am living with my dad with his support, and returning to school next year. I am so in love with my baby. I cry at the thought of ever even thinking about ending his life. I thank God everyday for helping me see the light through the darkness.
DYFS AGENT ACCUSED OF SLURS AGAINST MUSLIMS | Society, Social Assistance & Lifestyle > Religion & Spirituality from AllBusiness.com
DYFS AGENT ACCUSED OF SLURS AGAINST MUSLIMS | Society, Social Assistance & Lifestyle > Religion & Spirituality from AllBusiness.com
Ads By Google
Restaurant Insurance
Providing Restaurant Owners low cost insurance. Competetive Rates
RestaurantINS.Obreyinsurance.com
PATERSON -- Muslim community leaders Tuesday demanded an investigation of a caseworker for the state's Division of Youth and Family Services who they say insulted Muslims when he allegedly hurled racial and religious slurs at them at a local restaurant.
Sandra Damrah and Mohamed Metwaly Khalil of Woodland Park filed complaints with DYFS and Paterson Municipal Court against the caseworker, whom they identified as Ezeadi Kelechi, after a Nov. 23 incident at Uncle Lou's Restaurant in Paterson.
The caseworker saw Khalil and Damrah at a table and allegedly shouted, "Terrorist!" and asked, "Do you have your bomb belt?" and "Are you going to slit my throat?" recalled Khalil, an artist who works as assistant curator at the Paterson Museum. Khalil added that the man was accompanied by a DYFS colleague, who did nothing to halt the abuse.
Khalil identified Kelechi as a caseworker who had handled his attempt to regain custody of his son, who is in the DYFS foster care system and separated from his father for a year.
Lauren Kidd, a DYFS spokeswoman, said the agency is aware of the incident and investigating but confidentiality laws prohibit DYFS from commenting on specific cases.
The restaurant owner, who spoke on condition of anonymity, explained that he didn't see the conflict on Nov. 23 because he was working in the kitchen. However, he said witnesses had told him about it. "The Muslim man started it by calling the DYFS worker the N-word and it just escalated." He added, "This wasn't the first time the guy said stuff against this DYFS worker. They had another conflict two weeks before."
At a press conference Tuesday at the Islamic Center of Passaic County, Damrah and Khalil recalled the incident as Muslim leaders expressed their anger.
"This kind of verbal assault is outrageous," said James Yee, executive director of the New Jersey chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. "We call upon DYFS to address these incidents, which should not be tolerated by state agencies who are supposed to safeguard our children."
Yee said the incident increases the likelihood that Khalil's case was tainted from the start and underscores a suspicion that the agency is biased against Muslims.
Police were called to the scene by the restaurant owner after he heard yelling, said Paterson Police Lt. Alex Popov. The DYFS employee denied the allegations, while one witness at the restaurant backed Khalil's story. Popov described the incident as one of "he said, he said."
Muslim leaders said that the incident raises questions about how DYFS handles Muslim children, who, in the leaders' view, are often separated from their families and placed in non-Muslim homes by the agency. "Other families from the area have come out with complaints," Yee said.
Added Mohamed El Filali, outreach director of the Islamic Center of Passaic County, "If every Muslim child will be taken away from their family, we have a crisis."
Kidd, the agency spokeswoman, said the agency is committed to serving the Muslim community. "Religion and ethnicity are among the many important factors considered when determining the best placement for a child," she said. She also noted that the agency has scheduled cultural awareness training for selected staff to be facilitated by CAIR in January.
E-mail: yellin@northjersey.com
Ads By Google
Restaurant Insurance
Providing Restaurant Owners low cost insurance. Competetive Rates
RestaurantINS.Obreyinsurance.com
PATERSON -- Muslim community leaders Tuesday demanded an investigation of a caseworker for the state's Division of Youth and Family Services who they say insulted Muslims when he allegedly hurled racial and religious slurs at them at a local restaurant.
Sandra Damrah and Mohamed Metwaly Khalil of Woodland Park filed complaints with DYFS and Paterson Municipal Court against the caseworker, whom they identified as Ezeadi Kelechi, after a Nov. 23 incident at Uncle Lou's Restaurant in Paterson.
The caseworker saw Khalil and Damrah at a table and allegedly shouted, "Terrorist!" and asked, "Do you have your bomb belt?" and "Are you going to slit my throat?" recalled Khalil, an artist who works as assistant curator at the Paterson Museum. Khalil added that the man was accompanied by a DYFS colleague, who did nothing to halt the abuse.
Khalil identified Kelechi as a caseworker who had handled his attempt to regain custody of his son, who is in the DYFS foster care system and separated from his father for a year.
Lauren Kidd, a DYFS spokeswoman, said the agency is aware of the incident and investigating but confidentiality laws prohibit DYFS from commenting on specific cases.
The restaurant owner, who spoke on condition of anonymity, explained that he didn't see the conflict on Nov. 23 because he was working in the kitchen. However, he said witnesses had told him about it. "The Muslim man started it by calling the DYFS worker the N-word and it just escalated." He added, "This wasn't the first time the guy said stuff against this DYFS worker. They had another conflict two weeks before."
At a press conference Tuesday at the Islamic Center of Passaic County, Damrah and Khalil recalled the incident as Muslim leaders expressed their anger.
"This kind of verbal assault is outrageous," said James Yee, executive director of the New Jersey chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. "We call upon DYFS to address these incidents, which should not be tolerated by state agencies who are supposed to safeguard our children."
Yee said the incident increases the likelihood that Khalil's case was tainted from the start and underscores a suspicion that the agency is biased against Muslims.
Police were called to the scene by the restaurant owner after he heard yelling, said Paterson Police Lt. Alex Popov. The DYFS employee denied the allegations, while one witness at the restaurant backed Khalil's story. Popov described the incident as one of "he said, he said."
Muslim leaders said that the incident raises questions about how DYFS handles Muslim children, who, in the leaders' view, are often separated from their families and placed in non-Muslim homes by the agency. "Other families from the area have come out with complaints," Yee said.
Added Mohamed El Filali, outreach director of the Islamic Center of Passaic County, "If every Muslim child will be taken away from their family, we have a crisis."
Kidd, the agency spokeswoman, said the agency is committed to serving the Muslim community. "Religion and ethnicity are among the many important factors considered when determining the best placement for a child," she said. She also noted that the agency has scheduled cultural awareness training for selected staff to be facilitated by CAIR in January.
E-mail: yellin@northjersey.com
Belgian man alleges abuse by nuns at foster home | World | Reuters
Belgian man alleges abuse by nuns at foster home | World | Reuters
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - A Belgian foster home asked potential victims of sexual abuse to come forward on Monday after a man said nuns had abused him there as a child in the 1960s.
The anonymous Belgian, now in his fifties, told local media on Monday that he was abused by nuns for several years from the age of five while he lived at the Stella Maris home in the town of Kortrijk, western Flanders.
Belgium's Roman Catholic Church has been repeatedly damaged by accusations of sexual abuse, part of a wider scandal which has shaken the Church and set off protests around the world.
The management of Stella Maris said it was aware of other allegations of abuse that occurred in the 1990s and asked possible other victims to come forward.
"The news has shocked the staff," the home said in a statement emailed to Reuters. "We have sent a letter to the parents of the children at Stella Maris asking everybody to make public any facts they are aware of.
"We hope the truth will come out and we will pass on all the information that the authorities require."
The police said they could not comment on whether anyone had registered a complaint of sexual abuse.
The man described to Belgian radio graphic abuse by several nuns from 1965 to 1970 and said the memories still haunted him. Reports of child abuse elsewhere had finally given him the courage to come forward, he added.
Elsewhere in Belgium, the former bishop of Bruges, Roger Vangheluwe, admitted last year to sexually abusing his nephew while a priest in the 1980s. Continued...
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - A Belgian foster home asked potential victims of sexual abuse to come forward on Monday after a man said nuns had abused him there as a child in the 1960s.
The anonymous Belgian, now in his fifties, told local media on Monday that he was abused by nuns for several years from the age of five while he lived at the Stella Maris home in the town of Kortrijk, western Flanders.
Belgium's Roman Catholic Church has been repeatedly damaged by accusations of sexual abuse, part of a wider scandal which has shaken the Church and set off protests around the world.
The management of Stella Maris said it was aware of other allegations of abuse that occurred in the 1990s and asked possible other victims to come forward.
"The news has shocked the staff," the home said in a statement emailed to Reuters. "We have sent a letter to the parents of the children at Stella Maris asking everybody to make public any facts they are aware of.
"We hope the truth will come out and we will pass on all the information that the authorities require."
The police said they could not comment on whether anyone had registered a complaint of sexual abuse.
The man described to Belgian radio graphic abuse by several nuns from 1965 to 1970 and said the memories still haunted him. Reports of child abuse elsewhere had finally given him the courage to come forward, he added.
Elsewhere in Belgium, the former bishop of Bruges, Roger Vangheluwe, admitted last year to sexually abusing his nephew while a priest in the 1980s. Continued...
How to Report Unfit Foster Parents | eHow.com
How to Report Unfit Foster Parents | eHow.com
Foster parents can be a blessing for neglected children. They provide the necessities and love for these children who would otherwise not have anyone there to do that for them. But with the many happy stories about foster care comes many unhappy stories about these homes, where children deal with large bouts of abuse from foster parents and other foster children in their houses and sometimes even abuse and neglect from the very people they were placed with to get away from abuse and neglect. It then becomes vital for that child's well-being to report unfit foster parents.
Difficulty: Moderate
Instructions
Things You'll Need:
Contact info for the local Department of Children and Families
1
Contact the local authorities or school resource officers. If any sort of neglect or abuse is suspected, then it needs to be reported to the proper authorities so that it can be further investigated. Because this type of investigation involves children, some states have laws that only allow a limited number of adults to inquire about alleged neglect or abuse once it is suspected and any questioning period that follows that has to be with the parents. For example, in Florida, a child can not be asked about suspected neglect or abuse more than three times or by more than three adults. Once they have, the authorities are obligated to contact the child's guardian and if the child is questioned a fourth time and reveals something, that information is void. Any information you can obtain from a child about his well-being is important so this is why once abuse is suspected, those who know how to deal with it should be contacted.
2
Contact the state's Department of Children and Families (sometimes called Department Health and Human Services). The Department of Children and Families, or DCF, strives for the safety and welfare of all children within the state. They also handle all foster-care services and each foster child is given a case worker. Though there will be a report made with the authorities, it needs to also be documented with the child's case worker and the department. You want there to be multiple accounts of this neglect or abuse so that it can be dealt with sooner rather than later.
3
Make sure to receive documentation of your reports. Demand copies of your reports or put the claims in writing and keep a copy for yourself, just in case there is a claim that nothing was ever reported. With the amount of work case workers have, claims can be lost, reports misplaced or, worse yet, discarded so you want to make sure that these children's welfare is kept a top priority.
Read more: How to Report Unfit Foster Parents | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_7720021_report-unfit-foster-parents.html#ixzz1A7iCDoTY
Foster parents can be a blessing for neglected children. They provide the necessities and love for these children who would otherwise not have anyone there to do that for them. But with the many happy stories about foster care comes many unhappy stories about these homes, where children deal with large bouts of abuse from foster parents and other foster children in their houses and sometimes even abuse and neglect from the very people they were placed with to get away from abuse and neglect. It then becomes vital for that child's well-being to report unfit foster parents.
Difficulty: Moderate
Instructions
Things You'll Need:
Contact info for the local Department of Children and Families
1
Contact the local authorities or school resource officers. If any sort of neglect or abuse is suspected, then it needs to be reported to the proper authorities so that it can be further investigated. Because this type of investigation involves children, some states have laws that only allow a limited number of adults to inquire about alleged neglect or abuse once it is suspected and any questioning period that follows that has to be with the parents. For example, in Florida, a child can not be asked about suspected neglect or abuse more than three times or by more than three adults. Once they have, the authorities are obligated to contact the child's guardian and if the child is questioned a fourth time and reveals something, that information is void. Any information you can obtain from a child about his well-being is important so this is why once abuse is suspected, those who know how to deal with it should be contacted.
2
Contact the state's Department of Children and Families (sometimes called Department Health and Human Services). The Department of Children and Families, or DCF, strives for the safety and welfare of all children within the state. They also handle all foster-care services and each foster child is given a case worker. Though there will be a report made with the authorities, it needs to also be documented with the child's case worker and the department. You want there to be multiple accounts of this neglect or abuse so that it can be dealt with sooner rather than later.
3
Make sure to receive documentation of your reports. Demand copies of your reports or put the claims in writing and keep a copy for yourself, just in case there is a claim that nothing was ever reported. With the amount of work case workers have, claims can be lost, reports misplaced or, worse yet, discarded so you want to make sure that these children's welfare is kept a top priority.
Read more: How to Report Unfit Foster Parents | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_7720021_report-unfit-foster-parents.html#ixzz1A7iCDoTY
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)