Legally Kidnapped

Shattering Your Child Welfare Delusions Since 2007


Sunday, June 16, 2019

‘You’re constantly drowning’ in cases and paperwork, says B.C. social worker

Social workers entrusted with protecting kids in B.C. are often on the front lines of some of society’s stickiest, most deeply entrenched problems: poverty, addiction and, for many Indigenous families whose children remain grossly overrepresented in the child-welfare system, intergenerational trauma wrought by decades of racist, colonial policies.

But a recent investigation by the collaborative journalism project Spotlight: Child Welfare found that many of these social workers are failing to meet basic requirements for kids' care in B.C.

More >> ‘You’re constantly drowning’ in cases and paperwork, says B.C. social worker

Mississippi foster care system fails many measures

The stage is set for a long-delayed showdown over whether a federal judge should appoint an outsider to run Mississippi's Department of Child Protective Services, after a report Tuesday showed the state's foster care system still isn't meeting standards outlined in a court decree.

At stake is the welfare of nearly 5,000 children who have been taken into state custody because they're believed to be in danger at home.

Marcia Lowry, the lawyer who has been suing the state for 15 years on behalf of a girl known only as Olivia Y, said she intends to ask Senior U.S. District Judge Tom Lee to find the state in contempt of a previous settlement order.

More >> Mississippi foster care system fails many measures

Saturday, June 15, 2019

Pro-CPS Propaganda: CPS caseworker in Outagamie County calls profession 'heartbreaking'

Because you need to understand what the other side is up to.

One of the mothers Brittany Plamann works with is pregnant with her fifth child -- and admits to using methamphetamines as recently as two weeks ago. It's Plamann's job to determine whether the kids living here are in danger.

As a caseworker for the Children, Youth & Families Division in Outagamie County, Wisconsin, Plamann has already helped by putting two of the kids in daycare, where one just took her first steps.

More >> CPS caseworker in Outagamie County calls profession 'heartbreaking'

Cops force girl, 5, to undergo sex exam against her will, parents say

A Mountain View family has filed a $1 million claim against the city after a paramedic forcibly undressed their 5-year-old daughter while three police officers and a Santa Clara County social worker were at their house for what they say was a sexual abuse investigation, which turned out to be unfounded.

Channel 7 reported Thursday (June 6) that Madeleine Lother had been injured in January after sliding down a rope at the indoor trampoline park Sky High Sports and suffered a small amount of vaginal bleeding.

More >> Cops force girl, 5, to undergo sex exam against her will, parents say

Premature Migrant Baby Found in Border Patrol Facility in Texas

The teenage girl with pigtail braids was hunched over in a wheelchair and holding a bunched sweatshirt when an immigrant advocate met her at a crowded Border Patrol facility in Texas.

She opened the sweatshirt and the advocate gasped. It was a tiny baby, born premature and held in detention instead of where the advocate believes the baby should have been — at a hospital neonatal unit.

More >> Premature Migrant Baby Found in Border Patrol Facility in Texas

Enid foster mother arrested on child abuse complaint



An Enid woman was arrested Wednesday on a complaint of child abuse after her foster child claimed she hit him.

Shannon Carter, 32, was arrested by Enid Police Department officers after the child told officers that when he was in the bath “mommy hit me,” according to the incident report.

More >> Enid foster mother arrested on child abuse complaint

3 CPS employees on leave pending conclusions of deadly Natchez child abuse investigation

New developments in a deadly child abuse case in Natchez, where three employees with the Adams County office of the Mississippi Department of Child Protection Services have been placed on administrative leave.

Four-year-old Armani Hill died from severe abuse and her younger sister, Lailah Hill, who was also severely beaten, is out of the intensive care unit and is responding to treatment. Armani will be laid to rest Sunday, June 16.

More >> 3 CPS employees on leave pending conclusions of deadly Natchez child abuse investigation

CPS worker alleges racial discrimination in boy’s removal

A special investigator for Child Protective Services in Central Texas says his superiors threatened retaliation after he accused officials of using the race of a black woman to influence their decision to remove her son from her custody.

Chris McMahan filed complaints with the Department of Family and Protective Services and the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, the latter an employment discrimination claim, the Houston Chronicle reported.

More >> CPS worker alleges racial discrimination in boy’s removal

Friday, June 14, 2019

Mississippi's foster care system could face a Federal takeover

The organization that makes sure Mississippi’s children are properly taken care of could soon be taken over

A report finds the Department of Child Protective Services is failing to meet standards in a court order.

More >> Mississippi's foster care system could face a Federal takeover

Children’s Aid reacts after former executive director charged with negligence

Highland Shores Children’s Aid Society, which absorbed Prince Edward County Children’s Aid Society, reacts to charges of negligence against former executive director Bill Sweet.

More >> Children’s Aid reacts after former executive director charged with negligence

Anti-Religious Hostility Takes Aim At Foster Care And Adoption Agencies – OpEd

To most people, helping orphans and children in the foster system find stable homes seems like a top priority — the kind of priority that transcends politics and ideology. Unfortunately, however, those vulnerable children are quickly losing their advocates — and their hope for a stable, loving family — because of rampant anti-religious bias in American society today.

In the United States, more than 400,000 children in the foster system are waiting for homes. Around 4% of children are adopted within a year of entering foster care, and 85% of children in foster care have at least two placements in their first 12 months. Eighty percent of prospective foster parents who work with the state drop out within two years. All this adds up to the terrible reality that a massive number of children are spending crucial years of their lives without a stable home environment. The foster crisis is so extreme that some states are hosting foster children in hotels and office buildings because there is nowhere else to place them.

More >> Anti-Religious Hostility Takes Aim At Foster Care And Adoption Agencies – OpEd

Teen accused of falsely reporting incident to CPS, authorities say

A Utica teen was charged with falsely reporting an incident to county Child Protective Services.

During the overnight hours between May 24-25, the 16-year-old, who was not identified due to his young age, called the CPS hotline “stating severe allegations,” said Chief Deputy Derrick O’Meara, who is also director of the county Child Advocacy Center.

More >> Teen accused of falsely reporting incident to CPS, authorities say

Grand jury report finds foster care staff overworked, allegations of abuse

A grand jury report released Wednesday found multiple gaps in institutional safety and training in the Child Welfare Services division of San Diego County’s Health and Human Services Agency.

The grand jury reviewed the workloads of social workers in the CWS division, as well as how CWS workers are trained to provide support and care to foster children and parents. The panel also looked into the effects of the state’s Continuum of Care Reform Act, which required regional foster care systems to increase support for foster families and improve outcomes for foster youth.

More >> Grand jury report finds foster care staff overworked, allegations of abuse

Child Advocate report: DCYF partly to blame for Warwick girl’s death



The state’s Office of the Child Advocate has released the findings of its investigation into the death of a 9-year-old Warwick girl, who was found face down in the bathtub of her adopted mother’s home in January.

The 57-page report includes a lengthy timeline of Michele Rothgeb’s dealings with the Department of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF) leading up to the discovery of Zhanae Rothgeb’s body.

More >> Child Advocate report: DCYF partly to blame for Warwick girl’s death

Experts: Spies use fake profiles, AI-generated photos on Linkedin

Imagine what your CPS worker is doing on Facebook.

Katie Jones sure seemed plugged into Washington’s political scene. The 30-something redhead boasted a job at a top think tank and a who’s-who network of pundits and experts, from the centrist Brookings Institution to the right-wing Heritage Foundation. She was connected to a deputy assistant secretary of state, a senior aide to a senator and the economist Paul Winfree, who is being considered for a seat on the Federal Reserve.

More >> Experts: Spies use fake profiles, AI-generated photos on Linkedin

Unrealistic Expectations Push Child Welfare to Break Up Families, Expert Says

More than 1,500 children die in the United States every year because of abuse or neglect. In many of those cases, the government knew or at least suspected something was wrong.

More >> Unrealistic Expectations Push Child Welfare to Break Up Families, Expert Says

Grace Packer’s killer says jury’s hesitation should get him off death row



Jurors deciding Jacob Sullivan’s fate for the rape and murder of 14-year-old Grace Packer appeared to struggle with their decision, telling Bucks County Judge Diane Gibbons that they were unable to agree before eventually making the unanimous decision to send Sullivan to death row in March.

Sullivan, 45, is now using the panel’s hesitation to challenge his death sentence, claiming in post-trial motions that Gibbons “forced” jurors to keep deliberating, sending the message “that a verdict of life was unacceptable.”

More >> Grace Packer’s killer says jury’s hesitation should get him off death row

Teen ‘sexual cult’ in Ontario foster home known to Children’s Aid Society, victim says

The 15-year-old girl was seeking refuge when she came to Janet and Joe Holm’s house in the mid-2000s. The couple lived in a big white farmhouse on a sprawling property just minutes outside Bloomfield, Ont., a village in Prince Edward County dotted with well-manicured homes from the 1800s.

More >> Teen ‘sexual cult’ in Ontario foster home known to Children’s Aid Society, victim says




A worker for a DCFS contractor was killed on the job in Chicago. A former foster child is charged with his murder.

Richard Jones crouched in the snow outside a Chicago apartment building, blood smeared across his face.

He was yelling and crying as police officers arrived at the scene in West Rogers Park. They asked if he needed help, but all Jones said was, “Give me your gun. I’m going to kill him,” according to police reports.


More >> A worker for a DCFS contractor was killed on the job in Chicago. A former foster child is charged with his murder.

The Trump administration will detain hundreds of migrant children at a military base that was once used as a Japanese internment camp

The Trump administration will soon detain migrant children at a military base once used as a Japanese internment camp.

The Department of Health and Human Services confirmed to INSIDER in a statement that the Fort Sill military base has been "activated" as a "temporary emergency influx shelter" for the children.

More >> The Trump administration will detain hundreds of migrant children at a military base that was once used as a Japanese internment camp

Editorial: Oregon foster care still isn’t where it needs to be

In January 2018 the Oregon secretary of state released a scathing audit of the state Department of Human Services’ child foster care program. Now, 18 months later, a follow-up report says things are better but still not good enough.

More >> Editorial: Oregon foster care still isn’t where it needs to be

Wednesday, June 12, 2019

'The system failed him.' Dad did everything right to get custody, but he didn't and she was murdered

In an apartment on Second St. on Monday, June 3, Brighton Police found a horrific scene. A mom strangled her little girl, and then shot and killed herself. Now, many are looking back and seeing red flags. Could Bella have been saved?

Brighton Police say an autopsy found 38-year-old Melissa Freiberger-Partee took a revolver and shot herself in the head after drugging Bella and strangling her to death.

More >> 'The system failed him.' Dad did everything right to get custody, but he didn't and she was murdered

'Action taken' against Mississippi social workers in fatal child abuse case

A caseworker and a supervisor who failed to twice meet the state's 24-hour mandate investigating abuse claims involving two children — one of whom died last week following a severe beating — were placed on administrative leave Tuesday.

"We have taken personnel action against the frontline worker and the supervisor," Lea Anne Brandon, Mississippi Department of Child Protection Services director of communication, said Tuesday afternoon.

More >> 'Action taken' against Mississippi social workers in fatal child abuse case

Changes Proposed for a System that Stigmatizes Parents Accused of Child Neglect

When parents are accused of child neglect or abuse in New York, they face an investigation by child protective workers, a potential case in family court and even the possibility of having their children removed from their care.

The process can involve many months of home visits and parents may be required, or strongly encouraged, to comply with various social services, all with the aim of ensuring that children are safe at home.

More >> Changes Proposed for a System that Stigmatizes Parents Accused of Child Neglect

Man who crusaded against gay adoption admits to molesting four more children, all but one in foster care

An Indiana man who crusaded against gay adoptions and later was convicted of molesting his adoptive daughter told state parole officials on Tuesday that he molested four other children.

Earl "Butch" Kimmerling, 71, made the admission during a hearing before the Indiana Parole Board, which later revoked his parole and sent him back to prison Tuesday. He appeared before the board in Indianapolis via video uplink from the Pendleton Correctional Facility.

More >> Man who crusaded against gay adoption admits to molesting four more children, all but one in foster care

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