The Child Nobody Wanted
by Jennifer Barracuda Sarracino on Saturday, February 12, 2011 at 10:34pm
My name is Jonathan Joseph Sarracino, Im 24 years old and currently living here in Albuquerque New Mexico with my adopted sister, Jennifer. My life wasn't always so easy because I aged out of foster care and endured years of abuse while I was a "ward of the state". Please share my story, put it on every cause and page that you can because I am one of the few that is able to speak about the neglect and abuse children go through while they are in the system. I was born on May 20, 1986 my mother and father were only 17 yrs old when I had been born and were forced to marry so in reality they hated each other, it wasn't long before they began to abuse alcohol and drugs and then shortly after I turned 5 yrs old, my mother began to neglect me for her drugs and my father beat and abused me. One time, he beat me so bad, I defacated on myself, he then took me outside (in the cold weather sonce it was winter time) and washed me down with the garden hose, by the time I turned 7, I had beenphysically and emotionally abused by my parents, neglected by my mother and abused by my father, I felt like an outcast in my own home. Then one day, 2 women with clipboards came to the door with name badges that said CYFD, I didn't know why they were there but I soon found out after my mother signed me over to the state allowing them to take me into custody, I was glad to leave that horrible awful place where love, nurturing and hugs didn't exist, I really thought I was going to a better place but soon I would find out that I was wrong, dead wrong. Mr and Mrs Blaylock was the first family I stayed with the first year, they were horrible to me, trying to force their Jehovah's Witness religion on me, I told them to "go to hell" and that I would never convert to their religion. My rebellion was met with punishment such as spankings with a leather belt and no supper or dinner for the day. When my year was up with them, I was glad to go but I was placed in another foster home, this time with a family which I thought was down to earth at the time. The foster dad actually spent time with me and the foster mom cared for me as well, they were the ONLY family that ever cared for me the way I was supposed to be cared for, the rest of the families either punished me, deprived me of food and drink, gave me handme downs from their kids instead of spending the money on my basic needs which included clothing and food. I never had any toys, heck, I never even knew what a good Christmas was or a birthday or nothing! I never had a favorite toy or a favorite cartoon when I was growing up! How sad is that, that a child never knew what happiness was when he/she was growing up, he/she only knew abuse and put downs! I spent 9 years in and out of foster homes with no love, nurturing or hugs from a loving caregiver. I never played videogames or even had a best friend when I was growing up and I didn't even have proper schooling either because I never stayed in the same school for more than a year. When I turned 18, the system turned me out into the street, I didn't even know where my parents were when I was "turned loose to fend for myself". My grandparents took me in and I lived with them before my parents found me (finally) but I hate them for "handing" me over to the system because they didn't even know how to handle a child when they were teenagers themselves, oh yeah they're still married and they had 2 other children (besides the other 2 babies my mother gave up for adoption) but I always wonder why they never even tried to raise me or love me the way I should have been loved, this makes me feel sad all the time. From the time I was 18 until I was 23 I abused drugs and alcohol because I could control it but last year on Father's Day, I tried to take my own life. The past weighed me down so much that it nearly destroyed me but Jennifer saved me that day and made me see that life is worth living, she overcame abuse and almost dying so why couldn't I? Thank God she found me that day or I would have been lost forever. Im doing great now, I've gotten my GED with the help of my loving sister and now Im going to college to become an advocate like my sister. People don't see the sorrow or the pain children go through when they're in the system, they either wind up lost or dead so please pass my story on to help other foster children. I would like to thank my sister Jennifer Sarracino for typing as I told her my story, please share my story and raise awareness
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
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Foster care nightmare subject of lawsuit
Foster care nightmare subject of lawsuit | 6abc.com
PHILADELPHIA - February 11, 2011 (WPVI) -- A shocking case of alleged abuse within the Philadelphia foster care system in Philadelphia is the subject of a lawsuit.
The lawsuit reads like a horror story. A little girl allegedly raped repeatedly in her foster home by a teenage boy who shouldn't have been there.
PHILADELPHIA - February 11, 2011 (WPVI) -- A shocking case of alleged abuse within the Philadelphia foster care system in Philadelphia is the subject of a lawsuit.
The lawsuit reads like a horror story. A little girl allegedly raped repeatedly in her foster home by a teenage boy who shouldn't have been there.
Foster children doped up in care And My Grandson is One of Them!!!!!
Foster children doped up in care | Courier Mail
CHILDREN as young as one in state care are being given powerful ADHD drugs - against warnings from pharmaceutical companies.
Research by The Commission for Children and Young People and Child Guardian reveals that the rate of medication for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder among young people in foster homes is more than double that in the general population.
Even more alarming is that 7 per cent - one in 14 - children under the age of six in care is being prescribed the drugs despite advice they should not be given to people that young.
"It is particularly concerning to hear from carers that children as young as one year of age are being medicated for ADHD," said Children's Commissioner Elizabeth Fraser in a previously unreported study presented to Child Safety Minister Phil Reeves last September.
Youth Affairs Network of Queensland director Siyavash Dhoostkhah said both the Government and the commission were failing in their duty of care to vulnerable children.
"It's a scandal of the greatest level," he said.
"These young children are being treated as guinea pigs."
Some medications also carry a warning that they can raise the risk of suicidal thoughts.
The use of ADHD drugs for children so young also is at odds with national guidelines issued by the Royal Australasian College of Physicians and National Health and Medical Research Council in November 2009.
They state: "Medication should not be used as first-line treatment for ADHD in preschool-aged children."
Department of Communities figures show there are 7800 children and young people in foster and other out-of-home care in Queensland. About a third of them are aged under six. The commission's findings mean about 170 young people in that age group are being given ADHD drugs.
The Youth Affairs Network is part of a coalition now preparing a complaint to the Australian Human Rights Commission.
Mr Reeves refused to comment.
A Department of Communities spokesperson said ADHD medication was sometimes prescribed in complex or extreme support cases.
CHILDREN as young as one in state care are being given powerful ADHD drugs - against warnings from pharmaceutical companies.
Research by The Commission for Children and Young People and Child Guardian reveals that the rate of medication for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder among young people in foster homes is more than double that in the general population.
Even more alarming is that 7 per cent - one in 14 - children under the age of six in care is being prescribed the drugs despite advice they should not be given to people that young.
"It is particularly concerning to hear from carers that children as young as one year of age are being medicated for ADHD," said Children's Commissioner Elizabeth Fraser in a previously unreported study presented to Child Safety Minister Phil Reeves last September.
Youth Affairs Network of Queensland director Siyavash Dhoostkhah said both the Government and the commission were failing in their duty of care to vulnerable children.
"It's a scandal of the greatest level," he said.
"These young children are being treated as guinea pigs."
Some medications also carry a warning that they can raise the risk of suicidal thoughts.
The use of ADHD drugs for children so young also is at odds with national guidelines issued by the Royal Australasian College of Physicians and National Health and Medical Research Council in November 2009.
They state: "Medication should not be used as first-line treatment for ADHD in preschool-aged children."
Department of Communities figures show there are 7800 children and young people in foster and other out-of-home care in Queensland. About a third of them are aged under six. The commission's findings mean about 170 young people in that age group are being given ADHD drugs.
The Youth Affairs Network is part of a coalition now preparing a complaint to the Australian Human Rights Commission.
Mr Reeves refused to comment.
A Department of Communities spokesperson said ADHD medication was sometimes prescribed in complex or extreme support cases.
A dependency court cure - latimes.com
A dependency court cure - latimes.com
Editorial
A dependency court cure
A bill that calls for California's dependency courts to conduct open proceedings would benefit children.
February 12, 2011
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Secrecy in California's dependency courts, where cases of child abuse and neglect are heard, has protected negligent parents, foster parents and social workers from serious scrutiny of their actions. And it has failed children.
Elsewhere in the nation, these once-secret hearings have been opened, to positive results. Transparency has led to improved care and greater public confidence in Oregon and Minnesota and more than a dozen other states. California, however, has continued to conduct most dependency proceedings in closed courtrooms, shielded not only from the media but also from advocates for children and other interested observers. Elected leaders like to boast of their commitment to transparency and accountability, but in this case they have opted instead for closure and secrecy.
Thankfully, Assemblyman Mike Feuer (D-Los Angeles) has introduced a bill to remedy that. Details of the ultimate proposal will emerge from hearings next month to take testimony from experts on all sides of the debate. But Feuer's underlying goal is laudable: to insist that dependency proceedings be presumptively open rather than routinely closed. Though that's monumentally important, it's also notably modest. Feuer is not suggesting that all hearings in all dependency courts would henceforth be open to the public. In cases in which judges conclude that a child's welfare would be best served by closing a hearing, they could do so. But that decision would be made against a backdrop assumption that public accountability is desirable.
Opening the state's dependency courts is an idea that has been gaining momentum in recent years. Michael Nash, the presiding judge of Los Angeles County Juvenile Court, is a stalwart supporter, and the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services, which once opposed it, now favors it as well. Public employee unions, whose members might be subjected to greater scrutiny, remain wary, but they should come to see that public proceedings will help instill public confidence. Witness the case of police officers who once flinched at putting cameras in patrol cars: Today, those cameras are widely regarded as protecting good officers from false accusations. So too would open proceedings protect those social workers who deserve it.
Feuer has devoted himself to finding solutions to problems that can be addressed without new spending; the state's finances make that imperative. He's succeeded with this bill, which involves no cost to taxpayers. "Opening these proceedings to public scrutiny," he said this week, "will promote needed reforms and help safeguard children by making everyone in the system more accountable." That is true and overdue
Editorial
A dependency court cure
A bill that calls for California's dependency courts to conduct open proceedings would benefit children.
February 12, 2011
advertisement
Secrecy in California's dependency courts, where cases of child abuse and neglect are heard, has protected negligent parents, foster parents and social workers from serious scrutiny of their actions. And it has failed children.
Elsewhere in the nation, these once-secret hearings have been opened, to positive results. Transparency has led to improved care and greater public confidence in Oregon and Minnesota and more than a dozen other states. California, however, has continued to conduct most dependency proceedings in closed courtrooms, shielded not only from the media but also from advocates for children and other interested observers. Elected leaders like to boast of their commitment to transparency and accountability, but in this case they have opted instead for closure and secrecy.
Thankfully, Assemblyman Mike Feuer (D-Los Angeles) has introduced a bill to remedy that. Details of the ultimate proposal will emerge from hearings next month to take testimony from experts on all sides of the debate. But Feuer's underlying goal is laudable: to insist that dependency proceedings be presumptively open rather than routinely closed. Though that's monumentally important, it's also notably modest. Feuer is not suggesting that all hearings in all dependency courts would henceforth be open to the public. In cases in which judges conclude that a child's welfare would be best served by closing a hearing, they could do so. But that decision would be made against a backdrop assumption that public accountability is desirable.
Opening the state's dependency courts is an idea that has been gaining momentum in recent years. Michael Nash, the presiding judge of Los Angeles County Juvenile Court, is a stalwart supporter, and the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services, which once opposed it, now favors it as well. Public employee unions, whose members might be subjected to greater scrutiny, remain wary, but they should come to see that public proceedings will help instill public confidence. Witness the case of police officers who once flinched at putting cameras in patrol cars: Today, those cameras are widely regarded as protecting good officers from false accusations. So too would open proceedings protect those social workers who deserve it.
Feuer has devoted himself to finding solutions to problems that can be addressed without new spending; the state's finances make that imperative. He's succeeded with this bill, which involves no cost to taxpayers. "Opening these proceedings to public scrutiny," he said this week, "will promote needed reforms and help safeguard children by making everyone in the system more accountable." That is true and overdue
Family seeks legal counsel for inquiry
Family seeks legal counsel for inquiry | Local News | St. Albert Gazette
he fatality inquiry reviewing the death of 13-year-old Samantha Martin was delayed again Friday when the biological family asked for an adjournment to obtain legal counsel.
The court was scheduled to hear from the last three witnesses, but Velvet Martin, the girl’s biological mother, asked for an adjournment so a lawyer could represent her daughter.
Samantha died in December 2006 after collapsing from a heart attack. The inquiry is supposed to determine what caused the girl’s cardiac arrest.
he fatality inquiry reviewing the death of 13-year-old Samantha Martin was delayed again Friday when the biological family asked for an adjournment to obtain legal counsel.
The court was scheduled to hear from the last three witnesses, but Velvet Martin, the girl’s biological mother, asked for an adjournment so a lawyer could represent her daughter.
Samantha died in December 2006 after collapsing from a heart attack. The inquiry is supposed to determine what caused the girl’s cardiac arrest.
Friday, February 11, 2011
US Supreme Court to hear case against CPS. Your help is needed.
US Supreme Court to hear case against CPS. Your help is needed.
by John Schafer on Friday, February 11, 2011 at 6:02pm
On March 1st the court will hear a case involving CPS in Kentucky - We want everyone who was abused by cps and the family courts, no matter what state you are in, to write all the justices and tell them your story prior to this case being heard. Plus we want anyone who can to show up March 1st on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court to protest against cps and the family court. If you want your voice to be heard in the highest hall of "justice" in the land, this is your chance. Keep your story as brief as you can without leaving out the abuse they dealt to you and your family.
Send LETTERS to EACH Justice individually. That is the only way they will all get them. A single letter sent to the total Court just plain will not be read.U.S. Supreme Court write to them at:
Justice (or Chief Justice) (Justice's Full Name)
Supreme Court of the United States One First Street N.E.Washington, DC 20543
List of the Supreme Court Justices send each a copy of your story.
Chief Justice John Roberts
Justice Clarence Thomas
Justice Anthony Kennedy
Justice Antonin Scalia
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Justice Stephen Breyer
Justice Samuel Alito
Justice Sonia Sotomayor
Justice Elena Kagan
by John Schafer on Friday, February 11, 2011 at 6:02pm
On March 1st the court will hear a case involving CPS in Kentucky - We want everyone who was abused by cps and the family courts, no matter what state you are in, to write all the justices and tell them your story prior to this case being heard. Plus we want anyone who can to show up March 1st on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court to protest against cps and the family court. If you want your voice to be heard in the highest hall of "justice" in the land, this is your chance. Keep your story as brief as you can without leaving out the abuse they dealt to you and your family.
Send LETTERS to EACH Justice individually. That is the only way they will all get them. A single letter sent to the total Court just plain will not be read.U.S. Supreme Court write to them at:
Justice (or Chief Justice) (Justice's Full Name)
Supreme Court of the United States One First Street N.E.Washington, DC 20543
List of the Supreme Court Justices send each a copy of your story.
Chief Justice John Roberts
Justice Clarence Thomas
Justice Anthony Kennedy
Justice Antonin Scalia
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Justice Stephen Breyer
Justice Samuel Alito
Justice Sonia Sotomayor
Justice Elena Kagan
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