Posted on 01/28/2009 9:14:16 AM PST by FreeManDC
"It was really terrible what I went through." These were the first words that Yvonne Scott blurted out, even though the incident happened more than five years ago.
One morning a social worker and policeman showed up on the woman's doorstep. "Either you come with us to the abuse shelter or we take away your children," was their grim-faced ultimatum. Scott had been previously involved in an abusive relationship, but there was no current threat to Ms. Scott or any of her three children.
One might expect such an encounter to occur in the former Soviet Union or maybe a Latin America banana republic. But in the sunshine-addled state of Florida?
Scott had no choice but to hastily strap the kids into her car and follow the Child and Protective Services worker. They ended up at a domestic violence shelter in LaBelle, a few miles east of Fort Meyers in central Florida. The shelter is one of three operated by Abuse Counseling and Treatment (ACT). According to its website, the organization provides a "circle of support services for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault." [www.actabuse.com]
But instead of a caring circle, Scott found herself confined to the four walls of a house in an isolated part of town. To her dismay, she and her children were the only residents at the facility. The shelter had three staff members, but they were out and about holding consciousness-raising sessions, attending conferences, and the like. "They ignored me and my children," Scott recounts. And when she pleaded to take her kids ages 6, 8, and 9 to a nearby park, the staff berated her.
The biggest problem, though, was no one available to mind the place during the night shift. And shelter workers fretted Scott might try to escape. Her gas gauge rested on empty, but still, she might grab her kids and walk away in the dead of night. That wouldn't look good to potential donors.
The solution? Lock the house from the outside and activate the alarm. "I felt we were in a prison," Scott's tearfully recalls.
Three weeks later her daughter's disability check came in. Yvonne Scott could finally afford gas money to escape her captors. But not so fast, first she had to wash all the linens and blankets. That should teach her a lesson.
Six months I ago I began a series of articles detailing the horrific events going on at the abuse shelters in Florida.
At the Naples Shelter for Abused Women and Children, director Kathy Catino was forced out after staff complained she ruled the place with an iron fist and pressured subordinates how to vote. Then a security camera caught her grabbing an employee — that's known as battery.
At SafeSpace in Stuart, 16-month-old Myliak Dale was run over in the shelter parking lot and Millie Almore was fatally stabbed by another resident, all within a two week period. An investigation concluded the Almore tragedy was caused by the "egregious failure of the entire agency to satisfactorily assure the health, safety, and welfare of both its clientele and staff.
A deranged woman kidnapped a two-month-old baby, hopped in her car, and decided to take refuge — but where? Well, why not at the Hubbard House in Jacksonville? It's the perfect place — they believe anything you say and the police know abuse shelters are a no-man's land. Fortunately, the woman was apprended three weeks later.
At Another Way in Lake City, mischief and mahem are the order of the day. There staff with criminal records are hired, shelter assets misappropriated, training documents falsified, drug use condoned, and shelter employees callously mistreated. Most troubling is the child abuse taking place within shelter walls: a 4-year-old girl sexually assaulted by another shelter resident, a boy confined inside a sweltering van, children left to fend for themselves while their moms toke weed, and much more.
One Another Way employee recounted, "Around November or December 2007, a man came into the office. He was crying, and his arms were bruised, seeking assistance." The intake worker "took him into her [manager's] office. Then to my amazement I heard her tell him that Another Way doesn't provide services or assistance for men."
Twice I have called on readers to alert the Florida Coalition Against Domestic Violence to this gross violation of the public trust. But the Coalition refuses to acknowledge the problem. Maybe that's because the head of the FCADV Executive Committee is Donna Fagan. Fagan also serves as the director of Another Way.
Remember, sisterhood is powerful.
Maybe it's time to take this to the top — we all need to bring this travesty to the attention of Florida governor Charlie Crist. His email address is Charlie.Crist@MyFlorida.com .
Gov. Crist needs to know that domestic violence shelters are turning into abuse penitentiaries.
I’m from the government and I’m here to help.
In other words, this woman and her children were kidnapped so the shelter could conduct business as usual.
"Do you have a warrant officer?"
"No."
"Then get off my property or you'll learn first hand about the new Florida Castle Doctrine. Have a nice day."
L
It sounds easy enough - but these people are above judicial review in so many states. They don’t need a warrant in a lot of cases, so long as they make a motion in court within 72 hours. They can take your kids on nothing but hearsay - they don’t have to prove a thing - then the onus is on you to fight uphill.
Social Services are an evil, evil group.
They do unless Florida became part of Russia. CPS in Ohio learned that the hard way via a SCOTUS smackdown a couple years back.
so long as they make a motion in court within 72 hours.
If you're armed on my property without the benefit of a duly constituted Warrant and making threats against my children there's a very high probability of you not leaving my property alive.
It's damn near 100% in fact.
L
Government out of control.
The problem with the way the government handles domestic violence allegations is that in many cases it punishes the victim. No wonder, then, why many victims don’t want to press charges ... especially if the abuser is the bread-winner. Some prosecutors think by criminally charging the victims themselves they will get their conviction for their resume, but this usually doesn’t end up working in so many cases and just deters other victims from even calling the police for help.
That being said, CPS came here to protect the children. Regardless of what you feel about a victim having the right to accept her or his own abuse, an abused parent does not have the right to keep children in an abusive household, regardless of what your political or religious views are.
What was the problem? What did this woman do or have done to her? Who was being abused? Her? Her partner? Her children? There's a hint that she couldn't escape from the shelter because she was a prisoner, but when she got money for gas she was able to drive away -- but the shelter made her do laundry first. What is the writer saying?
I'm the first to throw stones at government do-gooders but I have no idea what really happened here.
Well, let's see. We have kidnapping, illegal incarceration, child endangerment, neglect, terroristic threats (come with us or else)... Any competent lawyer should be able to get this woman a large payoff of taxpayer dollars.
CPS thugs do this every in every state. With legal impunity.
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