NCCPR Child Welfare Blog: Foster care in Texas: The Texas travesties keep on coming:
Thursday’s post to this Blog describes a case in which a judge got so fed up with how Texas Child Protective Services treated a child that he issued an order of protection – protecting the child from CPS. For anyone who missed it, the video from KHOU-TV is available here.
But that case is far from the only example of appalling CPS behavior in Texas.
The day before reporting on the order of protection case, KHOU broadcast the story of a grandmother who had custody of her infant grandchild, only to have the child torn away by CPS. The excuse: Grandma smoked. Here’s the story:
Tue Sep 27 21:19:30 PDT 2011
Grandma: CPS removed grandbaby from home because I smoke
A Houston grandmother says her smoking habit prompted Child Protective Services to take her grandchild and place the girl in a foster home. “I feel like they have stolen her. That is the way I feel. Kidnapped.” Lorrie Comeaux said. view full article
It’s not hard to guess the real reasons why this infant was torn from a loving grandmother.
In part it’s because the bias against families at agencies like Texas CPS extends to extended families - even though multiple studies have found that kinship care is more stable, better for children’s well-being and, most important, safer than what properly should be called “stranger care.”
But there is another likely reason as well: Money.
The federal government pays states a bounty of anywhere from $4,000 to $12,000 for every finalized adoption of a foster child over a baseline number. Had the grandmother been willing to drag her own daughter-in-law into court and fight her over termination of parental rights, and then adopt the child, Texas still would get the bounty. The grandmother in this case opted for a more humane approach, one which allows her to raise the grandchild without cutting off the child’s mother entirely. But that means no bounty for CPS.
And of course, these are not the only egregious violations of children’s rights in Texas.
● There’s the case of the family torn apart for no other reason than they could not afford adequate housing.
● There’s the case in which all you have to do is look at the pictures of the child before and after she was subjected to Texas foster care to see how much harm the state of Texas did to her.
● Or the case in which children were taken because of a botched background check. There’s a follow-up story here. Both are from KPRC-TV.
● And then there were the Houston families falsely accused of Munchausen’s Syndrome by Proxy, as reported by KRIV-TV.
● And another KRIV story about a mother chose child was taken because she wanted a second medical opinion before consenting to surgery, only to have the child die in foster care.
All these cases in less than two years are not just from one state, but from one metropolitan area, Houston. And the trend in Texas is ominous. Nationwide, the number of children taken from their families in 2010 was about the same as 2009. But in Texas that number shot up by 26 percent, the largest such increase, by far, in the nation.
But here’s what’s really scary. There is nothing unusual about Houston. In fact, many other large cities, such as New York, Los Angeles and, Philadelphia take away, proportionately more children.
The abuses in these cases are common in most of the country. And, of course, these abuses help explain why other children are left in dangerous homes. All the time, money and effort spent harming these families was, in effect, stolen from children in real danger. That’s why child welfare won’t get better until every state addresses head-on the problem of wrongful removal.
What really sets Houston apart is the willingness of three local television stations to take these issues seriously and go after these stories.
In fact, the person who really looks like an idiot is the reporter who managed to miss them all, Terri Langford. In theory, at least, Langford covers these issues for the Houston Chronicle. But as I’ve noted before on this Blog, Langford appears to view it as her mission in life to make sure that this side of the child welfare story never makes it into her paper's news pages.
She hasn’t quite succeeded. The Chronicle did a superb job on the story about the family torn apart due to housing – but another reporter covered it. Perhaps the family caught one lucky break and Langford wasn’t around when their plight became known.
Posted by National Coalition for Child Protection Reform at 6:00 AM
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
Monday, October 17, 2011
Foster child suicide risk decreases with time: study
Foster child suicide risk decreases with time: study - CTV News:
WINNIPEG — A study by researchers at the University of Manitoba suggests that foster children are much more likely to commit suicide than other kids, but that likelihood decreases as they spend time in care.
Read more:
WINNIPEG — A study by researchers at the University of Manitoba suggests that foster children are much more likely to commit suicide than other kids, but that likelihood decreases as they spend time in care.
Read more:
One in 10 Falsely Accused of Abuse: Survey
AFRA News: One in 10 Falsely Accused of Abuse: Survey:
WASHINGTON, Oct 17, 2011 (GlobeNewswire via COMTEX) -- One in 10 adults has been falsely accused of domestic violence, child abuse, or sexual assault, according to a survey conducted by Stop Abusive and Violent Environments (SAVE). The survey also found a strong disparity between the number of males and females falsely accused: more than three quarters of all false accusations are levied against men. Nearly seven in 10 false accusers are female.
The survey is the first of its kind to be undertaken, and uncovers distressing trends within the American abuse-reduction system.
Child abuse is the commonest false charge -- about twice as many people have been falsely accused of child abuse as of domestic violence or sexual assault. In over one quarter of cases, the false allegations were made in a child custody case.
"Each year, millions of innocent Americans are falsely accused of abuse," explains SAVE spokesman Philip W. Cook. "These false allegations can strip persons of their assets, harm their families, and ruin their lives."
Because of these widespread injustices, Cook said, SAVE has launched its Campaign 2012, a grassroots effort to reform U.S. domestic violence laws: http://www.saveservices.org/campaign-2012/
False allegations of domestic violence often lead to family break-up, which forces children into single parent households. Such children face a far greater risk of juvenile delinquency, school drop-out, and teenage pregnancy. One analysis concluded such allegations lead to $20 billion a year in increased welfare and public benefit costs: http://www.saveservices.org/downloads/False-Allegations-Harm-Families-and-Children
Although past studies have examined false abuse allegations within specified groups, no national inquiry previously had been made. To this end, SAVE commissioned the national telephone survey, which queried 20,000 households around the country during two rounds in May and September 2011. More information about the survey methods and results can be seen here: http://www.saveservices.org/falsely-accused/survey/
Stop Abusive and Violent Environments is a victim-advocacy organization working for evidence-based solutions to partner violence: www.saveservices.org .
Contact:
Teri Stoddard Telephone: 301-801-0608 Email: tstoddard@saveservices.org
This information was brought to you by Cision http://www.cisionwire.com
This news release was distributed by GlobeNewswire, www.globenewswire.com
SOURCE: Stop Abusive and Violent Environments
http://www.cisionwire.com/stop-abusive-and-violent-environments/r/one-in-10-falsely-accused-of-abuse--survey ,c9174609
WASHINGTON, Oct 17, 2011 (GlobeNewswire via COMTEX) -- One in 10 adults has been falsely accused of domestic violence, child abuse, or sexual assault, according to a survey conducted by Stop Abusive and Violent Environments (SAVE). The survey also found a strong disparity between the number of males and females falsely accused: more than three quarters of all false accusations are levied against men. Nearly seven in 10 false accusers are female.
The survey is the first of its kind to be undertaken, and uncovers distressing trends within the American abuse-reduction system.
Child abuse is the commonest false charge -- about twice as many people have been falsely accused of child abuse as of domestic violence or sexual assault. In over one quarter of cases, the false allegations were made in a child custody case.
"Each year, millions of innocent Americans are falsely accused of abuse," explains SAVE spokesman Philip W. Cook. "These false allegations can strip persons of their assets, harm their families, and ruin their lives."
Because of these widespread injustices, Cook said, SAVE has launched its Campaign 2012, a grassroots effort to reform U.S. domestic violence laws: http://www.saveservices.org/campaign-2012/
False allegations of domestic violence often lead to family break-up, which forces children into single parent households. Such children face a far greater risk of juvenile delinquency, school drop-out, and teenage pregnancy. One analysis concluded such allegations lead to $20 billion a year in increased welfare and public benefit costs: http://www.saveservices.org/downloads/False-Allegations-Harm-Families-and-Children
Although past studies have examined false abuse allegations within specified groups, no national inquiry previously had been made. To this end, SAVE commissioned the national telephone survey, which queried 20,000 households around the country during two rounds in May and September 2011. More information about the survey methods and results can be seen here: http://www.saveservices.org/falsely-accused/survey/
Stop Abusive and Violent Environments is a victim-advocacy organization working for evidence-based solutions to partner violence: www.saveservices.org .
Contact:
Teri Stoddard Telephone: 301-801-0608 Email: tstoddard@saveservices.org
This information was brought to you by Cision http://www.cisionwire.com
This news release was distributed by GlobeNewswire, www.globenewswire.com
SOURCE: Stop Abusive and Violent Environments
http://www.cisionwire.com/stop-abusive-and-violent-environments/r/one-in-10-falsely-accused-of-abuse--survey ,c9174609
Sunday, October 16, 2011
CPS & Police Abuse Constitution, Invading Homes, Kidnapping Children, Ignoring Courts, and Criminalizing Americans. Polygamist FLDS Raid Sheds Light on More Cases
Child Protective Services: CPS & Police Abuse Constitution, Invading Homes, Kidnapping Children, Ignoring Courts, and Criminalizing Americans. Polygamist FLDS Raid Sheds Light on More Cases
Little one Protective Services can consider your children far too. CPS has arrive to feel they are previously mentioned the legislation and the Structure, that they do not require a research warrant to occur into your residence, label you as a youngster abuser for any reason and make you a criminal based upon their impression alone, consider your youngsters away in a paddy wagon, and put your youngsters into foster houses pending a court listening to in which CPS will try their best to win and completely get custody of your kids. If CPS loses, they will proceed to fight you, slandering your family and listing you as a little one abuser in government databases.
Little one Protective Services can consider your children far too. CPS has arrive to feel they are previously mentioned the legislation and the Structure, that they do not require a research warrant to occur into your residence, label you as a youngster abuser for any reason and make you a criminal based upon their impression alone, consider your youngsters away in a paddy wagon, and put your youngsters into foster houses pending a court listening to in which CPS will try their best to win and completely get custody of your kids. If CPS loses, they will proceed to fight you, slandering your family and listing you as a little one abuser in government databases.
Grandma: Missing Glendale girl's sisters taken by CPS
Grandma: Missing Glendale girl's sisters taken by CPS:
The grandmother of a missing Glendale 5-year-old said Sunday that state Child Protective Services has removed the girl's three siblings from their pregnant mother.
Read more:
The grandmother of a missing Glendale 5-year-old said Sunday that state Child Protective Services has removed the girl's three siblings from their pregnant mother.
Read more:
US Autism Doctor Charged With Unethical Conduct
US Autism Doctor Charged With Unethical Conduct | Care2 Causes:
The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation has charged an Illinois doctor, Dr. Anjum Usman, with “unprofessional, unethical and/or dishonorable conduct” in regard to her use alternative medical treatments for an autistic boy. The treatments described in the complaint have been widely promoted in the past decade by practitioners and families who claimed that such practices as chelation to remove poisonous heavy metals, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, secretin (a pancreatic hormone) and more had “cured” their children from autism. Books such as Karyn Seroussi’s 2002 Unraveling the Mystery of Autism and Pervasive Developmental Disorders and Jenny McCarthy’s 2007 Louder Than Words: A Mother’s Journey in Healing Autism are only a few accounts claiming miraculous recoveries from autism thanks to alternative medical treatments.
Read more:
The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation has charged an Illinois doctor, Dr. Anjum Usman, with “unprofessional, unethical and/or dishonorable conduct” in regard to her use alternative medical treatments for an autistic boy. The treatments described in the complaint have been widely promoted in the past decade by practitioners and families who claimed that such practices as chelation to remove poisonous heavy metals, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, secretin (a pancreatic hormone) and more had “cured” their children from autism. Books such as Karyn Seroussi’s 2002 Unraveling the Mystery of Autism and Pervasive Developmental Disorders and Jenny McCarthy’s 2007 Louder Than Words: A Mother’s Journey in Healing Autism are only a few accounts claiming miraculous recoveries from autism thanks to alternative medical treatments.
Read more:
Questionable Study Makes Women Wonder Whether They Really Miscarried
Questionable Study Makes Women Wonder Whether They Really Miscarried | Care2 Causes:
Today is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day, and with a new son and another on the way since last year, I still find myself thinking back to the baby I found out that I lost two years before with a bit of sadness in my heart. Although the pain isn’t fresh, it is still memorable, and I feel both for the many women who went through the same struggle with me, and the many, many more who have losses that I have never known.
Which is why a new study published yesterday in Science Daily has me absolutely livid.
Read more:
Today is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day, and with a new son and another on the way since last year, I still find myself thinking back to the baby I found out that I lost two years before with a bit of sadness in my heart. Although the pain isn’t fresh, it is still memorable, and I feel both for the many women who went through the same struggle with me, and the many, many more who have losses that I have never known.
Which is why a new study published yesterday in Science Daily has me absolutely livid.
Read more:
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