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
Saturday, January 8, 2011
What is Happening to our Culture? Our Values?
"America, The Land of the Free and The Home of the Brave"
My blog deal's mainly with Family issues and I am faced with the need to express my feeling's of discontent as to how our culture and our values are drastically changing.
Changing the Passport's to "parent 1 and parent 2", are what pushed me into writing this post.
First off, This is America. I am an American and proud of it. Why must we make changes to benefit other's who believe differently than we do, or other's who live outside the norm? Why can't we leave well enough alone? No matter who the parent's are, there is a Mommy and a Daddy, period.
People come here from other countries in search of a better life. Living in America is a privilege, so why must we change our way's to accommodate the belief's of other's we welcome into our Country? Why must we be instructed to press 1 for English? Isn't English the language of America? Why aren't the instruction's;press 1 for Spanish, or press 1 for French and so on?
Why are we instructed to say "Happy Holiday's" instead of "Merry Christmas" and "Happy New Year"? Whenever I hear "Happy Holiday's", I correct the speaker and tell them, "No, it's Merry Christmas" and "Have a Happy New Year". "This is America". Whatever happened to "Freedom of Speech"? Why are we instructed to change our tradition's and values? Like they say in Rome, "Do as the Roman's do", so why not in America, "Do as the American's do"?
In other countries, such as France, Russia etc., are we instructed to press 1 for French or press 1 for Russian, etc.? I don't think so.
Even our great Flag has become an issue of controversy. It is an honor to fly our Flag where-ever we desire to show our love of our country. Like I said,"This is America". Why must we coe-toe to the other's we've welcomed into our country? The people we welcome should be following our culture and values. After all, isn't that what makes America the best country in the world? Isn't that why people come here?
I am an American. A proud American. I will live by our Constitution, just as I alway's have. I will NOT say "Happy Holiday's" to anyone and I will continue to get pissed off whenever I hear,"Press 1 for English"!
Parent One, Parent Two to replace references to mother, father on passport forms
Parent One, Parent Two to replace references to mother, father on passport forms
Goodbye, Mom and Dad. Hello, Parent One and Parent Two.
THIS STORY
Parent One, Parent Two to replace references to mother, father on passport forms
Poll: What do you think of the passport application changes?
The State Department has decided to make U.S. passport application forms "gender neutral" by removing references to mother and father, officials said, in favor of language that describes one's parentage somewhat less tenderly.
The change is "in recognition of different types of families," according to a statement issued just before Christmas that drew widespread attention Friday after a Fox News report.
Goodbye, Mom and Dad. Hello, Parent One and Parent Two.
THIS STORY
Parent One, Parent Two to replace references to mother, father on passport forms
Poll: What do you think of the passport application changes?
The State Department has decided to make U.S. passport application forms "gender neutral" by removing references to mother and father, officials said, in favor of language that describes one's parentage somewhat less tenderly.
The change is "in recognition of different types of families," according to a statement issued just before Christmas that drew widespread attention Friday after a Fox News report.
Mother Blames CPS for Son's Murder - KFDA - NewsChannel 10 / Amarillo News, Weather, Sports
Mother Blames CPS for Son's Murder - KFDA - NewsChannel 10 / Amarillo News, Weather, Sports
Donley County, Texas - The Donley County Sheriff is calling it the worst case he's dealt with in his 30-year law enforcement career.
Two days after her four-year-old son's death, Chance Mark Jones' mom is pointing fingers at Child Protective Services. Nancy Brown says she has nightmares about what happened to her son in a home Southeast of Clarendon.
She says, "He looked like he'd been tossed around like a ragdoll than run over by an 18-wheeler."
The four-year-old died Wednesday morning, allegedly at the hands of his own dad, Robert Babcock... Who now sits behind bars in Donley County for capital murder.
The boy was taken away from his mom in mid-November, after CPS found evidence of abuse and neglect. Following a criminal background check and an in-depth interview, CPS allowed Babcock to take custody of his son in mid-December.
While Brown says she never thought Babcock was capable of something like this, she says it could have been prevented. "I do believe CPS should have been doing their house checks with the kids that they have not done and they may have caught the child abuse early."
She's blaming the agency, saying they did not play by the rules. But CPS says they acted by the book.
CPS tells us in cases where the biological parent is in custody, they do not have to do welfare checks every ten days like they would if it was not the biological parent who has custody.
Texas Rangers say the young boy had been beaten sporadically since Christmas Eve. If convicted, his dad could face the death penalty.
Donley County, Texas - The Donley County Sheriff is calling it the worst case he's dealt with in his 30-year law enforcement career.
Two days after her four-year-old son's death, Chance Mark Jones' mom is pointing fingers at Child Protective Services. Nancy Brown says she has nightmares about what happened to her son in a home Southeast of Clarendon.
She says, "He looked like he'd been tossed around like a ragdoll than run over by an 18-wheeler."
The four-year-old died Wednesday morning, allegedly at the hands of his own dad, Robert Babcock... Who now sits behind bars in Donley County for capital murder.
The boy was taken away from his mom in mid-November, after CPS found evidence of abuse and neglect. Following a criminal background check and an in-depth interview, CPS allowed Babcock to take custody of his son in mid-December.
While Brown says she never thought Babcock was capable of something like this, she says it could have been prevented. "I do believe CPS should have been doing their house checks with the kids that they have not done and they may have caught the child abuse early."
She's blaming the agency, saying they did not play by the rules. But CPS says they acted by the book.
CPS tells us in cases where the biological parent is in custody, they do not have to do welfare checks every ten days like they would if it was not the biological parent who has custody.
Texas Rangers say the young boy had been beaten sporadically since Christmas Eve. If convicted, his dad could face the death penalty.
Watch: D.C. Youth Has Arm Broken By Staff At Treatment Facility
Watch: D.C. Youth Has Arm Broken By Staff At Treatment Facility - City Desk - Washington City Paper
This security footage was shot at KidsPeace Mesabi Academy in 2007. I uncovered it as part of my research on the District's costly use of residential treatment centers. The restraints that you see on this video caused the youth's arm to break. Minnesota officials investigated the incident and cleared the orderlies, arguing that the restrain procedures had been followed properly.
But as one former District administrator pointed out to me: The youth is just sitting in a chair when he is seized by the orderlies.
The incident did have consequences. The administrator and another source say that DYRS had placed a moratorium on using Mesabi, which calls itself a juvenile corrections facility. While the city's juvenile justice agency had stopped sending kids, the city's child-welfare agency sent at least one foster child to Mesabi in 2010.
E-mail Jason Cherkis • Follow jasoncherkis on Twitter
This security footage was shot at KidsPeace Mesabi Academy in 2007. I uncovered it as part of my research on the District's costly use of residential treatment centers. The restraints that you see on this video caused the youth's arm to break. Minnesota officials investigated the incident and cleared the orderlies, arguing that the restrain procedures had been followed properly.
But as one former District administrator pointed out to me: The youth is just sitting in a chair when he is seized by the orderlies.
The incident did have consequences. The administrator and another source say that DYRS had placed a moratorium on using Mesabi, which calls itself a juvenile corrections facility. While the city's juvenile justice agency had stopped sending kids, the city's child-welfare agency sent at least one foster child to Mesabi in 2010.
E-mail Jason Cherkis • Follow jasoncherkis on Twitter
Closure of center (Daystar) for troubled kids follows years of woes
Closure of center for troubled kids follows years of woes | Houston & Texas News | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle
State child welfare officials on Friday shut down Daystar Residential Inc., a home for troubled youth, one day after a foster child's recent restraint death was ruled a homicide.
"Today, we have revoked Daystar's license to operate, effective immediately. The DFPS investigation found that this facility is just not safe for children," said Anne Heiligenstein, commissioner of the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services.
The closure, which can be appealed, was precipitated by the death of Michael Keith Owens, 16, whose death in November was ruled a homicide on Thursday.
All Texas foster care children had been removed from Daystar, a facility once licensed to care for as many as 141 children, by Thursday. Five other children placed at Daystar by California authorities were moved elsewhere Friday.
The Manvel-based Daystar, in operation since 1995, has made millions of dollars over the years caring for some of the most troubled and mentally disabled foster care children in the state, many of whom were housed in trailers about 25 miles south of Houston.
It was one of 80 residential treatment centers, known as RTCs, across the state licensed to care for such children, who number about 1,600. Since 2006, RTCs have received more than $300 million to care for these emotionally disturbed or disabled foster care children.
History of problems
But Daystar's 15-year history has been problematic, particularly over the last year. In June, the agency confirmed that a 16-year-old mentally ill girl had been sexually abused by a Daystar staffer the previous January.
That same month, the Houston Chronicle and the Texas Tribune reported that Daystar staffers had urged developmentally disabled foster care girls to fight one another for a snack in 2008. It was one of 250 confirmed abuse incidents that occurred at Daystar and the other 79 residential treatment centers.
As a result, no new children had been placed at Daystar since July while DFPS investigated the home. The agency quickly hired Jeffrey Enzinna as a state monitor to report on Daystar practices. Once there, Enzinna found lax record-keeping and a one-size-fits-all type of treatment for children.
"From reviewing incoming documentation, my impression is that there was a frequent use of emergency personal restraint and emergency medications," Enzinna wrote last fall. "There also appeared to be no program-wide systems of analyzing the use of restraints or emergency medications."
On Nov. 1, after Enzinna left Daystar, the agency decided to place the facility on probation because of the confirmed sexual abuse allegation from the previous June.
Boy was holding pen cap
Four days later, the 16-year-old Owens, who had been diagnosed with a mood disorder, died after a Daystar staffer physically restrained him in a bedroom closet. Owens had refused to show the staffer what he was holding in his hand, which turned out to be the cap of a pen.
Ruled a homicide by the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences, the case has been sent to a Brazoria County grand jury.
In December, the Chronicle reported that information on restraints used on children at RTCs was paltry at best. At least 54 of the 79 RTCs provided DFPS with only partial information, and 17 of those had failed to submit any documentation at all.
This potentially dangerous technique has been used at least 44,720 times on Texas children living at RTCs from January 2008 through August 2010.
DFPS' letter to Daystar, which notified the home it was to close, cited the restraint issue as one of the key reasons, saying Daystar officials failed to monitor and apply physical restraints that "minimized the risk of harm to the child."
Phone messages left for Daystar administrator Cal Salls and the company's attorney, John Carsey, were not immediately returned. There was no answer at the home of Daystar owner Clay Hill.
3 other restraint deaths
Owens' death was the fourth restraint fatality to occur at Daystar or its sister agencies in Manvel and owned by Hill, of Sugar Land.
In 1993, 16-year-old Dawn Perry died of an apparent restraint applied at Behavior Training Research, a facility that voluntarily relinquished its residential license to DFPS in 1998.
In 2001, Stephanie Duffield, also 16, died at Shiloh Residential Treatment Center after restraints were applied. Today, that facility is still open in Manvel, owned by Daystar's owner, but does not house Texas foster care children.
In 2002, 15-year-old Latasha Bush died at Daystar after restraints were applied.
terri.langford@chron.com
State child welfare officials on Friday shut down Daystar Residential Inc., a home for troubled youth, one day after a foster child's recent restraint death was ruled a homicide.
"Today, we have revoked Daystar's license to operate, effective immediately. The DFPS investigation found that this facility is just not safe for children," said Anne Heiligenstein, commissioner of the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services.
The closure, which can be appealed, was precipitated by the death of Michael Keith Owens, 16, whose death in November was ruled a homicide on Thursday.
All Texas foster care children had been removed from Daystar, a facility once licensed to care for as many as 141 children, by Thursday. Five other children placed at Daystar by California authorities were moved elsewhere Friday.
The Manvel-based Daystar, in operation since 1995, has made millions of dollars over the years caring for some of the most troubled and mentally disabled foster care children in the state, many of whom were housed in trailers about 25 miles south of Houston.
It was one of 80 residential treatment centers, known as RTCs, across the state licensed to care for such children, who number about 1,600. Since 2006, RTCs have received more than $300 million to care for these emotionally disturbed or disabled foster care children.
History of problems
But Daystar's 15-year history has been problematic, particularly over the last year. In June, the agency confirmed that a 16-year-old mentally ill girl had been sexually abused by a Daystar staffer the previous January.
That same month, the Houston Chronicle and the Texas Tribune reported that Daystar staffers had urged developmentally disabled foster care girls to fight one another for a snack in 2008. It was one of 250 confirmed abuse incidents that occurred at Daystar and the other 79 residential treatment centers.
As a result, no new children had been placed at Daystar since July while DFPS investigated the home. The agency quickly hired Jeffrey Enzinna as a state monitor to report on Daystar practices. Once there, Enzinna found lax record-keeping and a one-size-fits-all type of treatment for children.
"From reviewing incoming documentation, my impression is that there was a frequent use of emergency personal restraint and emergency medications," Enzinna wrote last fall. "There also appeared to be no program-wide systems of analyzing the use of restraints or emergency medications."
On Nov. 1, after Enzinna left Daystar, the agency decided to place the facility on probation because of the confirmed sexual abuse allegation from the previous June.
Boy was holding pen cap
Four days later, the 16-year-old Owens, who had been diagnosed with a mood disorder, died after a Daystar staffer physically restrained him in a bedroom closet. Owens had refused to show the staffer what he was holding in his hand, which turned out to be the cap of a pen.
Ruled a homicide by the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences, the case has been sent to a Brazoria County grand jury.
In December, the Chronicle reported that information on restraints used on children at RTCs was paltry at best. At least 54 of the 79 RTCs provided DFPS with only partial information, and 17 of those had failed to submit any documentation at all.
This potentially dangerous technique has been used at least 44,720 times on Texas children living at RTCs from January 2008 through August 2010.
DFPS' letter to Daystar, which notified the home it was to close, cited the restraint issue as one of the key reasons, saying Daystar officials failed to monitor and apply physical restraints that "minimized the risk of harm to the child."
Phone messages left for Daystar administrator Cal Salls and the company's attorney, John Carsey, were not immediately returned. There was no answer at the home of Daystar owner Clay Hill.
3 other restraint deaths
Owens' death was the fourth restraint fatality to occur at Daystar or its sister agencies in Manvel and owned by Hill, of Sugar Land.
In 1993, 16-year-old Dawn Perry died of an apparent restraint applied at Behavior Training Research, a facility that voluntarily relinquished its residential license to DFPS in 1998.
In 2001, Stephanie Duffield, also 16, died at Shiloh Residential Treatment Center after restraints were applied. Today, that facility is still open in Manvel, owned by Daystar's owner, but does not house Texas foster care children.
In 2002, 15-year-old Latasha Bush died at Daystar after restraints were applied.
terri.langford@chron.com
Does Child-Centered Parenting Damage Kids Psychologically?
Opposing Views: Does Child-Centered Parenting Damage Kids Psychologically?
By: Joe Newman
I was excited to see not only Julie Gamberg’s article railing against my time-out blogs, but also the ensuing conversations. She did a good a job of capturing the sentiments of the child-centered parenting movement, and in so doing laid open its many fatal flaws.
By: Joe Newman
I was excited to see not only Julie Gamberg’s article railing against my time-out blogs, but also the ensuing conversations. She did a good a job of capturing the sentiments of the child-centered parenting movement, and in so doing laid open its many fatal flaws.
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