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The following story explains a lot. It seems that child welfare agencies lose track of so many abused children because their workers are wasting man hours on personal vendettas over minor personal insults. These people are ruining lives while allowing abused children slip through the cracks. It sickens me! Here's the story. The following events are only as detailed as I can be at this time. On September 29th 2002 I checked into my OB�s hospital 9 months pregnant with contractions every 5 minutes or so. I was only 36 � weeks along. My contractions were monitored for 3 hours but never progressed so I was administered a prescription sleeping pill and sent home. September 30th I went for my previously scheduled OB check-up. I informed my doctor of all of the preceding night�s events. I was sent home with a clean bill of health. September 30th � October 1st Once again I was experiencing frequent contractions and thought perhaps my water was leaking. I checked into my OB�s hospital again. I was asked for a urine sample (typical for an OB visit). Unknown to me a drug test was performed on the urine which came back positive for the sleeping pill they had given me less than 24 hours previously in the hospital, plus PCP. Did you know that many over the counter medicines that create a false positive for PCP include � Triaminic, Primatene, Vick Formula 44-M, Benadryl, Nyquil, Contac, Sudafed and Tylenol Sinus? Without informing me of the drug test or results (or even checking their records to see that they had given me a prescription drug) the hospital called CPS telling them I was a pregnant woman who tested positive for drugs. I was sent home in the morning with a clean bill of health. October 2nd - I went to another OB doctor for a second opinion. I was diagnosed with a severe bacterial infection and prescribed antibiotics. I was told that if this infection had not been diagnosed before the baby�s birth it could have been very serious or even fatal for the baby. The contractions and leaking water were symptoms of this infection. October 8th - I delivered my baby at my new OB�s hospital. Still unknown to me were the drug test performed at the previous hospital and it�s results. The new hospital requested my records from the previous hospital as I was a new patient and read the report for a positive drug test the week before. Still without my knowledge they did not investigate but believed me to be a drug user and performed a new drug test on my and my infant. (Which were both negative) At the same time they also called their county�s CPS. I was finally informed of what was going on when my doctor came to tell me CPS would be visiting me in the hospital. She would not explain why. I asked for my records and finally discovered this whole huge mess. I informed my current doctor of the prescribed sleeping pill at the old hospital and my story was confirmed after numerous calls from my doctor to the old hospital. CPS in that county dropped the case after being updated by my doctor. On the same day of October 8th my old hospital�s county CPS worker was at my house for a visit. I was of course not home but written in my file was, �CPS was denied access to the home�. October 15th � A county sheriff and CPS worker arrived at my home and announced that they needed to drug test me right now. I explained the hospital mix-up but they stated they didn�t care. As I was never in my life a drug user I let them in and the CPS worker performed a urine drug test in my home that was negative. At this point the CPS worker told me her office had received several calls from friends and family that my home was messy and asked if she could look around. (She later admitted to me that no such calls had been made�she had lied). After viewing my home she and the sheriff stated that the only thing they could find wrong with my home was that I needed a lid on the kitchen garbage can. They left. October (approx) 22nd � The social worker arrived alone and asked to view the house again. I would not let her in and told her the reason was that I knew my home was not messy and no one would ever make such a call so I did not trust her. She then admitted she had lied to me about the calls. October (apporx) 29th � Again the social worker arrived alone and asked to be let into the house. I told her no. She told me then at that point she had no choice but to file a CHIPS petition against me. (Children in need of protective services). November � I received a letter stating that the county prosecutor had denied to file the CHIPS petition and stating that my �messy home might be unsatisfactory to CPS but was not illegal�. January 19th 2003 � I made a call to the police asking for assistance in convincing my husband to visit a friend�s house to prevent an argument that seemed to be brewing (warning: be careful that you don�t live to far away from friends and family that they are not able to conveniently help you in silly situations such as this!) I didn�t have a driver�s license so in order for one of us to leave the only solution was my husband. The police man that arrived told me to my face that �just because you are a woman doesn�t mean you will get your way when you call us�. (The disagreement between my husband and myself was that I had been gone for the weekend to stay at a cousin�s house and he had not cleaned up after himself but waited for me to come home and help him clean. Stupid argument�..but such is life. I was tired and wanted to wait until the morning. The police officer also told me it was my job as a wife to clean the house after my husband regardless of the time of day and wanted to know what my problem was. He told me that he was going to let CPS know he thought my home was messy and that that should teach me to be a better wife.) February 4th 2003- The same Social Worker once again showed up with a sheriff to check out my house. She refused to hand me any information (about CPS and my rights and their policies and procedures) and when I asked if she could mail it to me since she didn�t have it with her she said �I will be working faster on this case then anything I could mail you. This time we will not go away!� February 13th - We had an admit/deny hearing. CPS claimed that since they haven�t been invited into our home we must be guilty. The judge agreed and ordered us to �comply with any of CPS�s requests�. The admit/deny hearing was continued until April 8th. The judge told both CPS and us that if CPS was satisfied before this date that our home was clean the April 8th hearing would be dismissed. March 28th � After numerous visits to our home by several Social Workers and a G.A.L. a report was made in our CPS file that our house was fine and up to their standards. April 2nd � CPS informed us that even though our house was fine we had not been �compliant enough� and they were keeping the April 8th hearing. April 8th � Our parental rights were terminated by the county judge although we were allowed to retain physical custody of our children. We were ordered to allow CPS into our home every Monday and Friday to view our home. We finally hired an attorney (previously a huge attorney retainer fee seemed too great a financial obstacle). Our attorney requested a copy of April 8th�s court order so that we would know best how to comply. We finally received a copy of this outdated court order April 30th. April 11th � Our first court ordered visit by CPS. They stated the house was fine but wanted to see our children to inspect them for bruising. We were not told the kids needed to be available (In fact we later learned it was indeed NOT a part of the court order). We asked why they would suspect any bruises when they had been regularly visiting our home since February and had never seen anything suspicious but they refused to answer. We were told our house was extremely clean. April 14th � Our next court ordered visit by CPS. We were told the house was now so clean they did not believe we were living in it. We told them to ask our neighbors who saw us outside playing all day Saturday and Sunday with our children. April 14th � My mother was have major surgery at a hospital 60 miles from our home and I wanted to be near her to help her in any way I could so I checked into a hotel (under my own name) that was 6 miles from her hospital. April 17th � My mom�s last day in the hospital as we were getting ready to go help her check out a police officer and 2 social workers arrived at the hotel and claimed I was fleeing with the kids so they were taking them into foster care. My nursing 6 month old along with my other children were taken away. My recently potty trained 3 year old was so frightened by these people that he wet his pants and hid beneath a huge pile of pillows in the corner to avoid being found and taken by them. April 18th � CPS arrived for our next court ordered visit and claimed that our 8 year old had stated in an unwitnessed, untaped and unrecorded interview that we spanked him with a belt and ran to the corner gas station for a few minutes without the kids. We were now being accused of abuse and neglect. (Incidentally, a belt is the only illegal tool for use in spanking in Minnesota, and no, we NEVER did that). Once again our house was deemed to be up to standard. April 21st � another court ordered visit by CPS and once again our house was up to their standards. April 22nd � Our pretrial hearing. Many of our friends, relatives and even my husband�s boss and owner of the company with co-workers came to the hearing to protest our innocence. It was brought to the judge�s attention that CPS thought I was a drug user � now they do not, CPS thought I might have a messy house � now they do not, That they knew all of this before April 8th. Now they have an unwitnessed, untaped, unrecorded interview of abuse allegations. The judge said the ends justify the means. He seemed astonished that they only had an unwitnessed, untaped, unrecorded testimony of an 8 year old as proof but didn�t want to make a judgment or return our children to us �just in case�. CPS stated they had no intentions of reinterviewing our 8 year old or having him psychologically evaluated. My first husband and father of my 8 year old stated in open court this day that �I have never witnessed any abuse of their children, have never been told of any abuse, and have never been suspicious of any abuse. I visit my son every weekend and sometimes during the week.� This had no effect. A hearing to determine if a family member could take the kids was scheduled for May 12th (now postponed indefinitely due to the �.we are busy here at the court house�.routine). April 25th � CPS arrives again for another Mon/Fri court ordered visit. They tell us that the children were taken to their doctor and deemed to be �special needs and underdeveloped�. (Our own doctor�s records dating back to 1994 say that our children are above average in development. Incidentally�did you know that if a child is labeled �special needs� by a doctor then the foster parents receive an extra check each month?) Once again our house was fine looking. April 26th � We are allowed our first supervised and monitored visit with our children at a Visitor�s Exchange Center. We are told that we must pay $18 an hour to visit the kids. If we cannot pay for all the visits scheduled previously by CPS it will be written down that we missed our appointments and had no interest in the kids. Our kids were extremely sick and miserable when we saw them. I insisted several times that they are feverish and need to see a doctor. April 28th � We have our second visit with the children. We are told before hand that they were seen by a doctor and the baby is on antibiotics but the others are fine. When we were allowed to see the children they were as sick as I have ever seen them. One had dry heaves and was too sick to eat or play. The baby had a huge swollen bump on his head (oval shaped and about 2.5� long by 1� wide). One had a 1 � inch cut on his scalp, bruising around his neck and bruising above his wrist. We requested an ambulance be called for the baby to check his head and were told, �You can ask me if I will call 911, but don�t tell me to call. You are to use �indoor voices� even when you are worried or upset�. The ambulance was called and I was not allowed to go to the hospital with my baby under police supervision to provide medical background information. I was told �we�ll call you�. This was 30 minutes into our $36 paid visit and we did not get a refund or see our baby again that day. Later we were told that the bump had been deemed a �bug bite�. Our 8 year old was not brought to this visit due to �car trouble�. April 29th � we received a call from CPS informing us our 8 year old once again would probably not be at the next visit as there was no transportation for him. April 30th � We have our 3rd visit with the children. New bruising ran along the right side of our toddler�s torso. Our potty trained child had been reverted to diapers because it �was easier�. (He�s a few weeks from his 4th birthday). We are told today that the county has postponed indefinitely our custody hearing to determine if a family member can take the children out of foster care. We have until August to prove our innocence or our children will be put up for adoption. Social Services has no requirements to prove our guilt for this to happen. In order to stop this madness we need to actually get a court date. If they postpone and postpone until August then our children will be put up for adoption regardless.
As a note � we never would have believed any of this could happen to us. Our son was in an expensive private school, I had been approved in another county for daycare, and we regularly attended church. There is so much more I wish I could say here�but I can�t � YET. It would curl your hair. I really feel for these poor people.
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2003-05-14 |
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