Another Outrage from Child Protection Services

Emial | 10/17/05 | Mark I. Johnson

[Carry_Okie]

Interested Parents,

Tuesday, October 18th at the Biltmore Hotel & Conference Center – 7:00 – 8:30pm, we are holding a meeting to inform, educate, and rally the public around the egregious abuse of power by the Santa Clara Social Services, Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) – Child Protective Services (CPS) as they attempt to rip my family, and many others apart. The Biltmore is located just south of Montague Expressway, east of highway 101 at 2151 Laurelwood Rd, Santa.

At issue are three key points that will be of interest to you as a parent:

1. Our rights as parents to raise and educate our children as we deem appropriate within the law, free from the harassment and abuse of Social Services,

2. Our rights as adoptive parents / families to seek and utilize resources that will help solidify the bonds of attachment which are essential to a successful adoption, and

3. The need for change in the policies of DFCS that will position them to embrace and support families rather than vilify parents and destroy families.

Synopsis of our Situation – The Johnson Family (my family) - is currently under siege by the Santa Clara Social Services, Department of Children and Family Services (DFCS) – Child Protective Services group (sometimes referred to as Emergency Response). The department’s intense interest in my family stems from an allegation of child abuse related to our oldest son who was adopted at birth, and who suffers from drug and alcohol abuse in-utero and a condition called Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD). It is my understanding that the mother of a baby sitter made the report after talking with her daughter who has never met my adopted son, and only sat one time for my two younger children for one day in our home. The sitter observed inconsistencies the furnishing of my oldest son’s room and observed the smell of urine. On this basis this, the mother, who has never met any member of my family, or stepped foot in our home, or discussed the circumstances surrounding our son, reported us to the police as child abusers.

Because we are home schoolers, we initially consulted the HSLDA who advised us not to allow CPS into our home or to interview our children unsupervised. We were further advised to seek the services of a local attorney to ensure that our rights as parents were not violated as we work to clear our names related to the allegations of child abuse, which we did.

The DFCS, as a result of our refusal to allow them to interrogate our young children without supervision, together with the fact that we home school and therefore they are unable to gain access to our children without our permission (as is commonly done when children attend school outside of the home), went to court and swore out a Protective Custody Warrant to force themselves into our home, to have their way with our children, and to remove my oldest son into their protective custody. Today, my wife and children are in hiding to protect our family, in a location not even know to me, while I have been engaged in a very distressing and disruptive court battle in an effort to have the Protective Custody Warrant quashed, a request that was denied last Friday.

To date, no one at DFCS has been interested in understanding our unique parenting needs, the resources we have used and the third parties who can speak to quality of our parenting, and love that we have for of all of our children. Their action, based on our stance of “tell us what you are concerned about so we can give you reasonable access to our family to resolve them”, has been to take the child and ask questions later. They have leveraged the courts in this effort.

Since DFCS has no interest, nor apparent requirements to ascertain the facts before they have ripped our family apart, we’ve decided to share them with you. Perhaps when you speak out someone in the agency will finally listen to how they are about to destroy yet another family in an effort to “protect” a child that does not need protection and initiate policy based changes. This is why I urge you to come out Tuesday evening! This is a completely free event paid for out of my paycheck.

Thank you for your support,

Mark I. Johnson

[AppyPappy]

I smell BS.

[Graybeard58]

I smell it too. You must be an old farm boy too.

[Carry_Okie]

Hi CCC, could you please flag Santa Clara County FReepers?

This story is an outrage. Because it is involves a child, the proceedings are conducted in secret. There is no accountability for the outcome on the part of CPS. This man is as dedicated a parent as I have met. It is my request that you do what you can to show up for a needed FReep.

[Carry_Okie]

In what respect?

[MineralMan]

Not enough information here. No specifics about the boy's "condition."

Without additional information, I can draw no conclusions from this.

Since it arrived, uncorroborated, in email, it should be taken with a large, heaping teaspoon of salt.

[MineralMan]

So you know this family personally? How about supplying some additional information about the situation. There's so little actual information in that email.

[American Quilter]

I'm suspicious of this. Too dramatic, and I sense the desire for attention.

[Carry_Okie]

Not enough information here. No specifics about the boy's "condition."

The child suffers from two factors: fetal alcohol syndrome and cocaine abuse by his natural mother and a diagnosis of Reactive Attachment Disorder. He has problems.

He is under the guidance of a therapist familiar with such cases. She has not been allowed to testify. The family belongs to support groups of both RAD kids and homeschoolers. Both groups showed up (about thirty people) for this hearing.

[Carry_Okie]

So you know this family personally?

I know Mark personally. I have not met Christopher.

How about supplying some additional information about the situation. There's so little actual information in that email.

The problem is that the facts of the case are confidential. There is much that I am not at liberty to divulge.

[Mr. K]

F#$%ING CPS IS USELESS

DURIG MY DIVORCE 14 REPORTS WERE FILED AGAINST MY EX-WIFE FOR CHILD ABUSE BY POLICE, NEIGHBORS, THE HOSPITAL WHERE ME DAUGHTER HAD TO GO AFTER A WEEKEND WITH HER MOTHER - AND THEY DID *NOTHING*

BUT ONE COMPLAINT FROM MY EX AGAINST ME (AND NOTHING MORE THAN HER WORD) THAT I HAD SPANKED MY DAUGHTER AND THEY WANTED TO OVERTURN A TEMPORARY RULING AND TAKE MY CHILDREN AWAY FROM ME AND GIVE THEM BACK TO HER (A DIAGNOSED PSYCHOPATH WITH A LIFELONG HISTORY OF CHILD ABUSE) "UNTIL THEY COMPLETED THEIR INESTIGATION"

[Roses0508]

Child Protective Services in many states does anything but protect children. Often they are a "tool" in a divorce used to obtain a more favorable status for one party in the divorce. They are "too busy" to do regularly monitor children in homes where they know abuse has happened, because they are either (i) acting as agents for some divorce attorney; or (ii) trying to remove children from homes that function outside their liberal, non-Christian philosophy (and we are not speaking of snake worshipers here, just ordinary everyday average churchgoers).

[Carry_Okie]

Yup, that's the way it works all right: You are at the mercy of the whim of a case worker.

[LegionofDorkness]

"The problem is that the facts of the case are confidential. There is much that I am not at liberty to divulge."

Ok. This sends up a red flag for me. Sure, the government may not be allowed to give out confidential info, but that doesn't mean the family, or you with their permission, couldn't give out whatever information that they wanted that would lend support to their case.

[cinives]

homeschool ping

[MineralMan]

"The problem is that the facts of the case are confidential. There is much that I am not at liberty to divulge.
"

OK, then.

[Carry_Okie]

I have met Mark Johnson through our congregation. I know that he and his family have made a significant commitment to their children and their community, having adopted a child suffering from both fetal alcohol and cocaine abuse in-utero. My wife once ran the Newborn Nursery at Alexian Brothers Hospital. We know that it takes a special kind of person to care for such children.

It is thus no surprise that the adopted child, Christopher, presents significant parenting challenges requiring a different style of parenting than the other two children in the family. The public schools sent him to a shrink where he was diagnosed ADHD and put on Ritalin. The boy's response prompted them to school their children at home and get him other help. I have met the therapist. NOBODY makes a significant commitment like that without the intent to do whatever is necessary to help him flourish, nor have they chosen to do so in isolation. The family has sought professional help for him and associated with a home education support group.

That group showed up for his hearing. There were thirty people there.

It was that difference in parenting that led a first time baby sitter, a minor, who had never even met the child in question (she sat the Johnson's two younger children only), to conclude on the condition of his room that such entirely-warranted differential treatment constitutes child-abuse! She lacked any contextual information from the parents or anyone else to make such a conclusion. It is my understanding that the police investigated and could find none.

[dmz]

For me, the sniff test failed when their first call was to the Home School Defense group.

Why was that? There was an allegation of child abuse, and they get right on the horn with HSLDA?

[Politicalmom]

You think getting a lawyer when someone threatens to take your children is a bad thing?

[Rodney King]

There is a long history of FR supporting wack-jobs so long as they are Christians. Remember the Chastain's, who smacked their kids around on their bus? And then there was the nurse in Monaco who burned down his master's house.