Recently, depositions were taken in the case on both sides of the lawsuit, and the mother of the children in question, who had disappeared due to an ongoing struggle with addiction, gave testimony that supported the claims of the grandmother and undermined the claims of the CPS workers and supervisors.

An interesting fact in the case is that at CPS’ first meeting with the mother of the children, the agent arrived with a pre-written letter for her to sign. The letter stated that she wanted to place her children in foster care. She refused to sign it and specified that she wanted the children with her mother. It is important to note that this was just after CPS had illegally taken the kids from their grandmother while the mother was in a rehabilitation facility.

At a second meeting with the daughter, the CPS agent related that they were not placing the children with the grandmother because of a suspected bipolar disorder and other issues that were fabricated by CPS officials.

What is vital about the daughter’s testimony is that at the first meeting with CPS, they made clear that it was her choice as to whether her children stayed in foster care (where CPS had placed them after the illegal removal) or with the grandmother. They tried to convince the mother to sign their pre-written statement (which would have been a major coup for them and a way to cover their illegal actions) by telling her that her mother was planning to adopt the kids out from under her, which was also a total fabrication. It was not until later, at a second meeting, that the “bipolar” issue—again, a fabrication—was used as an excuse as to why CPS was refusing to place the kids with family as she had instructed.

In the depositions of the CPS officials, they acknowledge their actions and claim they were only doing what their supervisors told them to do. When asked if they would follow such an order if they were told to go to a local daycare center and take a child at random without a court order, they replied that they would do so trusting that their superior was in the right.

These same officials acknowledged receiving the CPS legal memorandum clearly stating that it was illegal and against CPS policy to take children from a home without a court order.  When asked if their actions were in direct conflict with this directive, they simply replied that they were not sure.

Please continue to pray for THSC Special Counsel for CPS issues, Chris Branson, as he and his team continue to seek to hold these rogue CPS officials accountable for the terrible harm they did to these children and for the violation they committed against this godly grandmother who was trying desperately to protect her grandchildren.

The post THSC Suit Against CPS Continues appeared first on Texas Home School Coalition.

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The Vitamin D Newsletter

September 18, 2010

Dear Dr. Cannell:

On June 3, 2010, my five and a half week old daughter was introduced to “child protection, who diagnosed her as being a victim of child abuse. I had brought my new born daughter to a general hospital, after she woke up screaming in pain when I moved her arm. Upon multiple x-rays we found out that she had a fracture in her right arm that had a transverse configuration, without any evidence of external injury (we later learned that a transverse configuration is typical in a pathologically fragile bone). Not understanding how this could have happened to my daughter, I had no explanation for the injury.

Apparently because of the injury and our inability to explain how it happened, the doctors suspected child abuse and contacted the child abuse team who sent social workers to the hospital to interview us. After several hours of questioning, they transferred us to another hospital where we were immediately admitted to the child protection department. After further x-rays and bone scans the hospital found multiple micro-fractures throughout my daughter’s body.

My daughter’s initial physical examination revealed an asymptomatic child. She did not have any lesions, rashes, bruises, external swelling, nothing, not a mark on her. Neither hospital conducted a careful assessment of my clinical and social history. They did assess her vitamin D levels which were low-normal, but not mine; they did not question me about my nutrition during pregnancy or my delivery. Neither the hospitals nor the doctors acted in an unbiased and reflective manner or take into consideration the totality of evidence. Instead, without conducting a complete evaluation, they quickly diagnosed my daughter as a victim of child abuse.

On June 4th 2010, my infant daughter was taken out of my care and placed in the foster care system. The State appointed my daughter an attorney, who has become an angel for my daughter and to my family. Thankfully, my daughter’s attorney took her job seriously and set out to determine the truth of what happened to my daughter.

After interviewing me and my family and reading the transcripts of the initial interviews of my boyfriend and I written by the emergency social workers from the hospitals, my daughter’s attorney requested all of the x-rays, bone scans and medical reports from both hospitals.

Her attorney asked several doctors to look at the medical information and give their unbiased, expert opinions but they refused to touch the case because child protection was involved. Thankfully, she finally reached out to Dr. Patrick Barnes, a world-renowned neuroradiologist who agreed to look at my daughter’s case. He referred her to Dr. David Ayoub a diagnostic Radiologist out of Chicago IL, to look at the x-rays and bone scans specifically. After an initial review of the films, Dr. Ayoub proceeded to acquire every medical record in existence on my daughter including my prenatal records and ultrasounds, my daughter’s delivery and pediatric records and he had me fill out a medical questionnaire survey.

After careful and thorough review of all medical reports he saw that my daughter was suffering from infantile rickets in the state of healing, and that her bones were in a fragile state. He also stated that my daughter’s skull showed poor mineralization along the sutures and large areas or poor mineralization in the center portion of the skull plates. In addition the parietal skull was flattened.

As Dr. Ayoud was evaluating my daughters medical reports, he asked my daughter’s attorney to suggest that I go see Dr. Michael Holick. Upon his full evaluation of me, Dr. Holick found me to be suffering from osteomalacia, essentially the adult form of rickets.

This process took two months to complete and now, because of the lack of follow through by child protection doctors, my daughter has been without one of the things most critical to her young development, a caring and loving mother. And I have been robbed of some of the most precious moments I could have had with her.

Because it took so long to get the proper diagnosis and after being in foster care for almost two months, the child protection people then decided to place my daughter with her biological father who abandoned me when I was 2 months pregnant. He had not seen or even asked about his daughter until he was contacted by them on June 4th, almost six weeks after her birth.

It has now been 3 months since I have had my precious baby girl. Even with two outstanding doctor reports from two nationally distinguished doctors, the child protection people do not seem to care that my daughter was taken from her mother in error. Because they are essentially a law unto themselves, they have no legal obligation to take this new medical information about my daughter and myself and do anything with it.

It would take pages to explain the twisted system that child protection is, because the system is set up in such a way to always protect child protection; there actually isn’t a forum to bring this new information up in front of a judge unless the whole case goes to a trial, which would be months away.

The child protection agencies were set up to protect children, but where are the laws to protect the children and families from these agencies. What do you do when the child protection doctors and social workers are the ones responsible for neglect or abuse?

Still to this day neither child protection or my daughters biological father have taken my daughter to get looked at by a specialist, to make sure that she is getting what she needs to fix her vitamin D deficiency. (Thankfully, Dr. Ayoub assures me that because she has been fed formula since she was removed from my custody, I exclusively breast-fed her for the first 5 weeks, another risk factor for rickets, she is most likely safe from further fractures.) I am not allowed to get any medical information about my daughter as her bio dad has temporary custody. He is only allowing me to see my now 4-month-old daughter one day a week, at a supervised visitation center. In what kind of world does any of this seem right?

I will get her back; it will just take some time. I just hope that other families and children can be saved by being made aware of this epidemic of infantile rickets. Health care providers need to be educated on these issues. Most doctors are not taught to know what to look for when they are dealing with infantile rickets or other metabolic bone diseases. And when neonatal rickets are in the stages of healing the vitamin D and calcium levels are usually normal or high. That’s why it’s important to test, everything. They need to do their due diligence in ruling out every medical possibility before making their diagnoses. They need to help save families, not break them up.

Helen,
USA

Dear Helen:

Thank God that the court appointed an open-minded attorney to represent your child; that seldom happens in these cases. Usually the attorneys appointed to represent the children are the most rabid of the lot. Also, thank God you found Dr. Ayoub and Dr. Barnes. As you say, the child abuse authorities are a law unto themselves, they do not have to read your reports, file them in your child’s folder, or give your child back. Now that you have two experts and know what is going on, perhaps you may not feel so alone, feel like everyone thinks you are a child abuser, which is the usual outcome in these cases.

A few months ago I discussed an absolutely frightening study. Basically, the study found that about 1/4 of all otherwise normal infants have evidence of infantile rickets while they are still in the womb. If these infants were x-rayed right after birth, I suspect they would be found to have multiple fractures from the very real trauma of coming through the birth canal. That is, it is likely that tens of thousands of infants are being sent home from the hospital with multiple fractures because no one has ever done a study looking for asymptomatic fractures.

Mahon P, et al. Low Maternal Vitamin D Status and Fetal Bone Development: Cohort Study (PDF format). J Bone Miner Res. 2009 Jul 6.

As an aside, the editorial that accompanied this study missed the point. Instead of asking for studies to discover what percentage of infants will have broken bones at birth and thus, how many parents are falsely accused of child abuse due to this tragedy, the authors of the editorial simply asked for more money for scientists.

Hewison M, Adams JS. Vitamin D Insufficiency and Skeletal Development In Utero (PDF format). J Bone Miner Res. 2010 Jan 15;25(1):11–13.

The “we care about kids more than you do” child abuse organizations are simply feeding at the trough of the child abuse industry. “According to the late Dr. Richard Gardner, the reason for increasing false allegations can be rationally explained. “There’s a complex network of social workers, mental health professionals, and law enforcement officials that actually encourages charges of child abuse — whether they are reasonable or not.”

Dr. Gardner was referring to the fact that the Mondale Act of 1974 is responsible for the dramatic increase in child abuse charges because it affords full liability protection for the child abuse industry. They can do the most egregious and wanton things to the children in their care, and their parents, without fear that they will face civil liability charges. The Mondale Act indemnified the child abuse industry, and populated it with people whose livelihoods depend on bringing more and more allegations into the system. Your daughter is simply putting food on someone’s plate.

The child abuse industry was behind the epidemic of “recovered memories” of child abuse in the 1990s and howled when judges started returning malpractice verdicts against recovered memory doctors, which quickly dried up that particular child abuse industry feeding trough. Now, the bread and butter of the child abuse industry is child physical abuse or battered child syndrome, first described 50 years ago in a seminal paper in JAMA, a paper that caused irreparable harm.

Kempe CH, et al. The battered-child syndrome. JAMA. 1962 Jul 7;181:17-24.

Do not expect this tragedy to be solved soon. Too many mouths are sucking at the trough. Also, the child’s father, the man who abandoned you and his child when you were two months pregnant, is he being paid to take care of his own child? I doubt child protection will tell you but I suspect he is being paid.

For almost 50 years, parents like you have either been sent to jail or had their child taken away or both; we are talking about hundreds of thousands of parents. It is all based on a simple observation loaded with face validity: children with lots of broken bones must have been beaten by someone. Now, it is quite possible that most of those hundreds of thousands of infants were never beaten, never abused, never mistreated, they were misdiagnosed, they simply had infantile rickets.

John Cannell MD
Executive Director
Vitamin D Council

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The post Another CPS Tragedy appeared first on Texas Home School Coalition.

The raid by armed officers and tanks resulted in the removal of every child from the property, with mothers initially allowed to accompany their children. According to press reports, almost 500 children were removed from the property, without resistance from the parents or families. The sect practices polygamy and arranged marriages of underage girls; by media accounts the members are very industrious and productive and require modest dress for the women, who do not cut their hair or wear makeup.

Texas law requires a hearing to be held within fourteen days of the removal of children, to review the evidence of abuse/neglect, and a judge must rule on whether or not CPS has evidence of abuse/neglect to justify the continued separation of the children and their parents. The judge in this case held a hearing for all the children at the same time, with over three hundred attorneys representing the children and parents. Most of the attorneys had never even spoken with or had access to the clients they were representing. While a case could and should have been made that underage girls who were pregnant or had children should be removed because of the clear evidence of sexual abuse, the judge ruled that all children should remain wards of the state. CPS then separated the children from their mothers, including children as young as thirteen months and teen boys, about whom no one had alleged abuse or neglect.

Attorneys for the FLDS parents filed an appeal of this decision with Texas Third Court of Appeals, arguing that “… ‘at most’ the Department of Family and Protective Services showed that only one group of children—girls fifteen and over—were at risk because of underage marriage practices of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Instead, the state removed all children based on future risk and without considering less-traumatic alternatives for the children.”

This action has resulted in a national focus on the FLDS group and the handling of these kinds of cases by CPS. The controversy stems, in my opinion, from differing views of parental rights. Some argue that the government was justified in taking all of the children in spite of what appears to be a lack of evidence of abuse and/or neglect of some of those children. In fact, CPS claims that all the children are at risk because of what the group believes regarding polygamy and marriage at a young age. The problem with this view is that the law clearly requires evidence that the children are in imminent danger of abuse and according to legal experts, taking such actions based on what people believe rather than their actions is illegal. The state should not remove children from their parents without clear evidence of abuse and/or neglect.

Some have expressed the opinion that these people are dangerous. They seem to hold this view because of the appearance of the people, their views on dress and makeup, their withdrawal from society, and their teachings that our society is sinful, in addition to their practice of polygamy and underage marriage. In short, they are different from the culture at large, and thus the allegations against them are more believable; also, government officials have made the allegations, and therefore, they must be true. Many home educators have responded to these arguments with anxiety, recognizing that many of those comments could be made about many who homeschool as well.

While many of us teach our children the biblical view of government—that God established it for the restraint of evildoers—we should also emphasize that our government requires the assumption of innocence until the proof of guilt. This year news stories have reported the release from the Texas prison system of the thirty-third man who has been proven innocent by DNA testing. This man served twenty-seven years for a crime he did not commit. This incident should give us pause. We should be careful about believing that those accused (in this case, by CPS) are guilty based only on allegations and news stories.

I have received comments from home schoolers who champion CPS as “heroes for the family 99% of the time.” While this might be true to some extent, it is little comfort for innocent families who happen to be in the percentage of families who suffer at their hands. The attitude exhibited by CPS workers in dealing with the FLDS families was publicized by a report released by John Kight, chairman of Hill Country Mental Health-Mental Retardation Center in mid-May.

“‘We don’t condone what they say went on out there (at the ranch), but we’re just aghast at the methods they used to go out there and take the kids away from their mothers,’ Kight said. ‘We want him (Texas Gov. Rick Perry) to hear firsthand what went on … how abusive CPS was and how they’ve trampled all over their rights.’

“Eleven employees of the Hill Country Community Mental Health-Mental Retardation Center recently provided written reports of their experiences at the request of the regional governing board. Each expressed frustration—and some anger—at how CPS treated the children….

“‘Never in all my life, and I am one of the older ladies, have I been so ashamed of being a Texan and seeing what and how our government agencies treat people,’ wrote one employee of Hill Country Community Mental Health-Mental Retardation Center”. – Deseret News, 5-13-08

One Mental Health-Mental Retardation (MHMR) worker stated, “I witnessed a small boy, maybe three years old, walking along the rows of cots with a little pillow, saying, ‘I need someone to rock me, I just want to be rocked, I want to find a rocking chair.’ Two CPS workers were following him and writing in their notebooks but not speaking to him or comforting him. Sally and I started toward him but his eight-year-old brother came and picked him up, saying, ‘I’ll take care of him.’ …That little boy will always be in my mind. How can a beautiful, healthy child be taken from a healthy, loving home and be forced into a situation like that, right here in America, right here in Texas?”

“Chairman John Kight said he wants state legislators and the governor to hear the employees’ stories. ‘You have damaged these children for their lives,’ he said. ‘This is an agency that looks like it’s gone out of control.’” – Salt Lake Tribune, 5-13-2008

The reports by these MHMR workers seem to support anecdotal evidence that we hear from home school families who have had similar experiences with CPS workers. In fact, the FLDS circumstances are not uncommon. Often an anonymous, malicious, false allegation is made against a family; sometimes children are removed without evidence of abuse/neglect. It is not at all uncommon for a judge to grant CPS continued custody of children—without evidence—for as long as eighteen months, while the family tries to meet the demands of CPS to regain their children. In the FLDS case, children were housed all over the state; and some families were required to travel 1800 miles per week to visit their children, in addition to working to provide for their families and taking the training and testing required by CPS. In fact, some believe that what CPS is requiring of these families is impossible to accomplish.

Texas law requires CPS to investigate any allegation of abuse or neglect, and there are countless examples of anonymous calls resulting in innocent families being put through circumstances similar to what has happened to the FLDS families. Although a statute is in place to prosecute such false claims, they are rarely, if ever, pursued by district or county attorneys. In fact, CPS and the state encourage people with any concern for a child to call CPS. This kind of public exhortation, coupled with aggressive responses by CPS officials, often results in innocent families being harassed and children being emotionally abused.

The THSC office took a call recently from a home school family whose children were standing at the curb of their front yard, calling for their dog who had escaped, when a woman stopped her car and told them they should not be outside. The children ran into their home, and the well-meaning woman called the local police, who forced their way into the home “because the children were in danger.”

Many have asked what they can do. Pray for these families and for others who have to deal with CPS investigations. Follow the news that THSC PAC sends on this and other issues that could impact home schooling. Contact the governor, your state representative and state senator and express your opinion.

Certainly no one with whom I have talked in the home school community supports polygamy or underage marriage, but many hold the view of the MHMR workers, that CPS is out of control and must be held accountable. One MHMR worker stated, “I have worked in the domestic violence/sexual abuse programming for over twenty years and have never seen women and children treated this poorly, not to mention their civil rights being disregarded in this manner. It makes us all wonder how safe anyone is who has children.” Many home schoolers with whom have I have talked have voiced the same concerns, in my opinion, legitimately.

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When a social worker says, “Who is going to protect the children from their parents?” it goes to the heart of social work education. There is a presupposition that parents do not know anything about what children need.  The Family Outreach agency for which I worked actually sent workers to families’ homes to offer our services free of charge to teach them parenting skills!  (Of course they had to agree to the agency’s “style” of parenting to use their services.)  Most accepted!!

I was so bothered by this occurrence that I did my senior thesis research paper on When Government Intervention Becomes Excessive: The Rights of the State versus the Rights of the Parents.  (I gave a special focus on the parents’ right to educate their own children.)  I had to present this research orally to the entire graduating class of social workers.  It was not very well received!  My professor got up and walked out during my presentation.  It was by doing all the research for this paper that I began to feel convicted about home educating my own children.  I saw too much undermining of parental authority with my work as a social worker in the public school system.

As I said, it appears the more things change, the more they stay the same.  Recently I was watching the evening news and saw a glowing report of this new  program in Texas called Healthy Families. I had to chuckle a bit at the thought of this being a new  program and then chuckle some more at the high praise the program was given by the reporter.  I just shook my head in disbelief at the public acceptance of a program like this and its long-term implications for the families of Texas.

When I was an intern, I was told that our agency serviced families strictly on a voluntary basis.  Families could decline our services if they felt the services were not needed. It sounded all nice, neat, and tidy!  As I got more acquainted with how the agencies worked, however, I learned that our client base was fed to us straight from CPS.  CPS would get a referral from the hotline for child abuse or neglect.  Then the intake social worker would determine if the case was suitable for a full-blown CPS investigation.  If they determined that it was not serious enough to investigate, they would refer the family to Family Outreach or Healthy Families.  From there another social worker, not related to the state, would make contact with the family in a very non-threatening way, offering all sorts of free services.  To the many low income, minority families with whom we had contact, this offer was very appealing and inviting.  We were invited into their homes and welcomed with open arms.  The only problem was that the agency never fully stated its intentions for offering all these wonderful, free services.

If we had been up-front and honest with the client families, we would have told them that we were a monitoring agency for the state of Texas.  We were there to make judgment calls and enforce our brand of parenting and discipline in their homes.  We never told them that was our purpose for being there.  Instead, we had seduced these families with all kinds of incentives such as free medical services and transportation to appointments, a mom’s fellowship (really a state-appropriate parenting class), and much more.

With the seduction under way, we worked our way into the hearts of these families and gained their trust.  We had weekly get-togethers at their homes, met with their children and played, and just had fellowship with these moms.  The families agreed to sign contracts and release forms with our agency that allowed us access to any medical information, school records, and psychological evaluations. They also gave us permission to report abuse or neglect, should any be found.  They signed this freely, without a second thought, because they were isolated, alone, and very hungry for fellowship.

As an intern, I had investigated a number of families by recommendation of CPS.  My immediate supervisor was an employee of Texas CPS, so in essence, I was reporting directly to the state about these families. CPS was an ever-present shadow over our work.  There were many instances in which I differed in opinion with my supervisor over what constituted true abuse and neglect within these families.

One case in particular had a seven-year-old boy who walked daily to the corner convenience store by his house to buy gum and candy.  Occasionally he got caught stealing.  The store owner contacted CPS, which referred the case to Family Outreach.  I was assigned the case.  The family eagerly wanted my help (rather, my companionship) and invited me into their home and their lives.  By my observations, there was no abuse or neglect of the children—just extreme poverty.  They made parenting decisions that I personally would not make for my own children, but that in itself is not abuse or neglect.  My supervisor, on the other hand, felt that the parents’ “slow” mental abilities, poverty, and the fact their seven-year-old walked less than a block from the house to the store constituted neglect.  I did not.  I did not think it was the wisest or most prudent decision by a parent, and I shared that with the parents, but emphatically it was not  neglect!  My supervisor referred this case back to CPS.  I was off the case, and the mother was truly hurt that I was no longer able to come by for our weekly visits.

Thus began my understanding concerning the ambiguity of what constitutes abuse and neglect.  Each social worker and each supervisor has his own basis of what he personally considers abuse.  Some think spanking is fine; others feel it is abuse.  Some believe poverty is unfortunate; others feel it is abuse, and children should be removed from homes.  It is never easy to tell what the values of any individual social worker will be. They vary vastly among the profession.

These agencies are trained to locate the “at-risk” families.  Those “at risk” are supposedly more prone to abuse or neglect their children.  Have you ever read a list of the criteria that makes a family “at risk”? These are just a few:

• more than two children in the family
• claim a religious preference
• single-income family
• single-parent family
• home schoolers

The list is so broad that I have never met anyone who was not  an “at-risk” family!!  The agenda of the state is rather hidden.  If CPS refers a case to a sister agency like Family Outreach or Healthy Families, its goal is still accomplished.  Families are monitored, and reports are made to the state concerning private family matters.

I strongly encourage and admonish each home school family to hold fast to its freedoms.  Never give an inch.  If you find yourself in need of support or outside intervention, I strongly encourage you to seek out your local home school support group.  If you are not able to have fellowship with a support group, seek out an older woman in your church to spend time with and mentor you. Be alert and aware that there are agencies out there that will want to “help” and support you, but this help comes with the hefty price tag of your freedom.  Guard your hearts—and your freedoms—with all diligence.

The post The Hidden Agenda appeared first on Texas Home School Coalition.