It’s hard to even think about someone taking my son from me, without warning. But it happens over 700 times per day in this country. All it takes is a phone call from a snooping neighbor, and you can get CPS at your door, and possibly have your children taken during the investigation. That should never happen to good people, but it does. It even happened to someone I know.
In Washington State, home-schoolers have to engage in physical education, just like their public-school peers. Naturally this is best done outside, so that’s where, at 11am everyday, my friend would take her three kids outside to run around and burn off some of their infinite energy. But because a neighbor decided to call CPS because she assumed they were skipping school, my friend’s life was turned upside down by a CPS investigation and later random visits.
Crying Child In Police Custody
When you’re being investigated, anything can be used as a sign of your guilt. In my friends case, it was urine soaked sheets that were found on a random visit. This discovery could have caused even more harassment for my friend, but thankfully the agents were understanding of a recent bed wetting incident. In this case, nothing was actually wrong or illegal. But it doesn’t matter with hyper vigilant, nanny state loving, citizens. Who in this case, didn’t stop abuse or neglect, but only succeeded in stopping children from wanting to play outside, for fear that their mommy or daddy will be harassed.
At this point, it’s normal to believe that you would never be subjected to one of these investigations,until you read this quote from ‘The Atlantic’:
On an average day, police officers and child-welfare caseworkers throughout the United States remove more than seven hundred children from the custody of their parents to protect them from alleged abuse or neglect. These children are typically seized without warning from their homes or schools, subjected to intrusive interrogations, medical examinations and/or strip searches, and forced to live in foster homes or group residences while the legal system sorts out their future…since 2008, the number of referrals to child protective service agencies (hereafter CPS) has increased by 8.3 percent, even as overall rates of actual child victimization declined by 3.3 percent during the same period. There is no system that can totally avoid putting parents who don’t deserve it through investigations, despite the fact that even the best moms and dads would regard the ordeal as nightmarish.
That’s 255,500 children per year. If you consider the Federal definition of abuse, then the picture becomes clear that the government has a broad brush with which to paint someone a child abuser:
Any recent act or failure to act on the part of a parent or caretaker which results in death, serious physical or emotional harm, sexual abuse or exploitation; or an act or failure to act, which presents an imminent risk of serious harm
Think about it, literally everything can cause imminent risk of serious harm. The only way to not be in imminent risk of serious harm, is to be dead. All it takes is one hard fall on your head, and you can die instantly. And I certainly don’t want to be a helicopter parent, which is scientifically proven to make your kid a nervous wreck.
Child protective units were not always in the hands of government though. In fact, before 1875 the only organizations that focused solely on child abuse and neglect were private. It was the progressive era of the New Deal that brought about the desire for government sponsored child protective units. This is explained in detail in the book, “A Short History of Child Protection in America” by E.B. Myers:
The call for government child protection coincided with the increasing role of state and federal governments in social services. Prior to the twentieth century, there were relatively few state-level departments of social service…During the early twentieth century, states created or strengthened state departments of welfare, social services, health, and labor. As for the federal government, prior to 1935, Washington, D.C., played an insignificant role in child welfare policy and funding. Creation of the federal Children’s Bureau in 1912 broke the ice, followed by the Sheppard-Towner Act, which provided federal money from 1921 to 1929 for health services for mothers and babies. It was the Great Depression of the 1930s, however, that stimulated the sea change in the federal government’s role in social welfare. In 1935, as part of President Roosevelt’s New Deal to save the nation from economic ruin, Congress passed the Social Security Act. In addition to old-age pensions, unemployment insurance, and vocational services, the Social Security Act created Aid to Dependent Children, which provided millions of dollars to states to support poor families. Tucked away in the Social Security Act was an obscure provision that authorized the Children’s Bureau “to cooperate with state public-welfare agencies in establishing, extending, and strengthening, especially in predominantly rural areas, [child welfare services] for the protection and care of homeless, dependent, and neglected children, and children in danger of becoming delinquent.”‘
Basically, everyone at the time wanted more government. Everyone was happy with government spending and they had the money to do it too. But times are different now, because we are absolutely broke as a country. And the methods of law enforcement are much more invasive and broad, making it easier to build cases against those suspected of abuse, whether there was abuse or not.
Unfortunately, we can’t stop nosy neighbors from interfering in our lives, but we can limit the discretionary power of government organizations. Limited power was a main faucet of our Constitution and culture. But as of late, governments are becoming more powerful and citizens are left with no recourse when they are wronged. Even the worst wrong of them all, the kidnapping of your children.
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Don't talk to DCFS
The best way to protect yourself and your children from the horrors of DCFS is to never speak to them in the first place. I have been a foster parent and have adopted three children from Los Angeles County DCFS. Even with that, they traumatized my six children when they stormed my home with armed deputies based on a false anonymous allegation to the DCFS hot line (it was later proven to be by one of the birth mothers and her Moranic friend). When I started posts such as this one to advise people of their rights, DCFS Directors Armand Montiel and Xiomara Flores – Holguin retaliated against me by directly contacting my employer in an effort to silence me. My advice to everyone everywhere is to never speak DCFS, never let them into your home, never let them see or speak to your children, never give them any information about your family, and never sign anything from DCFS. They can not legally enter your home without your consent, an emergency (such as a child screaming for help), or a warrant. Even with a warrant, you and your children can not be compelled to speak to DCFS; you should all continue to exercise your right to remain silent.