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In the aftermath of the horrific Barahona child abuse case in Miami, an investigative panel is urging child welfare and education officials to set up an alert system and follow-up inspections whenever an at-risk student is suddenly pulled out of school to be educated at home.

The link has not worked for too many so I will post the abstract below. I hope a freeper can access and if copyrighted, send me the article by freeper email. The train is on track to permanently removing our grandchildren (3 and 1 yr old) from our lives, forever. We suspect that we have an activist judge presiding over our family case and because of the color of different people involved, we may not be able to get a fair and balance outcome. So far the hearings have consistently gone against the biological paternal grandparents, solely based on social...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- A spokesman for the Department of Children & Families was arrested Friday on child pornography charges, authorities said. Al Zimmerman was charged with eight counts of using a child in a sexual performance. Zimmerman, who has been with the agency for nearly two years, has been fired, agency officials said. Authorities say Zimmerman, 40, solicited at least two victims between the ages of 16 and 17 to create child pornography. DCF Secretary Bob Butterworth issued a statement asking the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to investigate whether any child in the state's care had been victimized as...

WARNING! GRAPHIC PICTURES OF CHILD ABUSE! Eleven year old boy burned with cigarettes by DCF foster parents, beaten unmercifully by other kids in the foster home, all because he would not break into a person's house and steal for the foster parents. Child is tortured by being stabbed with pencils and burnt with a lighter while handcuffed. DCF Case managers were notified, but ignored the child's pleas for help. Child had a black eye, numerous injuries, was completely emaciated with his rib cage showing, yet DCF does nothing to the foster parents. The Foster mother was taking pills, smoking dope...

Agency Had 89 Abuse Reports on Schiavo Florida's Department of Children and Families had received nearly 90 allegations that Michael Schiavo had abused his wife in recent years - but a Florida judge ruled yesterday that DCF summaries of those allegations must remain secret. The St. Petersburg Times and the Tampa Tribune had filed suit for the release of the abuse summaries, which covered 89 reports - the Times said Friday. Story Continues Below But state Judge George Greer ruled Friday the records belong to DCF, and although Terri Schiavo's husband can have access to the abuse files, the records...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Child welfare workers are investigating more than 1,100 reports of possible child abuse that went unnoticed for almost two months because of a technical problem. A spokeswoman for the agency says the problem was caused by a faulty fax machine. The reports were sent to a DCF fax from around the state between May 13th and July 6th. Apparently one of four lines into the fax failed, and then the machine's electronic alert failed, so staffers didn't know it wasn't working properly. Officials call it a "glitch." A DCF official says the agency had no indication that...

Birth Parents Blame DCF, System POSTED: 3:31 pm EDT April 22, 2005 JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- A family whose child was taken away from them by the Florida Department of Children & Families is blaming the system for allowing their 23-month-old son to die. Christina Mantooth and her husband are mourning Gregory Love, who died while living in foster care after his parents failed a drug test."He's never been sick," Mantooth said of her youngest child. "He was in perfect health. He was a perfect child." Christina Mantooth with her husband and four children. Mantooth had her four children taken away...

TAMPA, Fla. -- State investigators found no evidence that Terri Schiavo had been abused or exploited by either side of her family, according to documents released by Florida's Department of Children and Families. The agency investigated 89 complaints dating back to 2001, when Schiavo's feeding tube was removed for the first time and the legal battle surrounding her right-to-die case intensified. The calls alleged that the brain-damaged woman was being mistreated by her husband and her parents for financial gain. One complaint alleged that Schiavo's parents were selling videos of her through a Web site; another said Schiavo's husband wasn't...

After hearing 1egal argument and being duly advised in the premises, the Court ruled that the executive and judjcial branches of government are separate but equal and that the executive branch is not superior in the area of judicial matters. Page3 From Judge Greer's Order against Fla Dept Family Services! http://www.dcf.state.fl.us/news/noticeoffiling.pdf

News Home - Help Fla. officials' attempt, fail to seize Schiavo Fri Mar 25, 9:32 PM ET By Carol Marbin Miller, Knight Ridder Newspapers MIAMI - Hours after a judge ordered that Terri Schiavo wasn't to be removed from her hospice, a team of Florida law enforcement agents were en route to seize her and have her feeding tube reinserted - but they stopped short when local police told them they would enforce the judge's order, The Miami Herald has learned.  Agents of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement told police in Pinellas Park, the small town where Schiavo lies...

Here's what I found on Cheryl Ford's blog. I had read and easily overlooked little paragraph in the LA times about plans to take Terri that didn't come through last night. I was determined to find out more, as that's all LA Times said about that. Here's the story from Cheryl Ford, RN who is a friend of the family and advocate for keeping Terri alive. Saturday, March 26, 2005 Police 'showdown' averted Comments From Ford: I spoke to Mary Schindler last night. She is being forced to watch her daughter die. This mother will have in her memories, a...

The Miami Herald reported Saturday that Florida Gov. Jeb Bush sent a team of state agents Thursday to rescue Terri Schiavo - but it was stopped short by local police. "We were ready to go," Bush spokesman Jacob DiPietre told the Herald.Doctors say that unless her feeding tube is reinserted, Schiavo, 41, will die a week or two after March 18. That is when a judge ordered it removed, having siding with Schiavo's huband's argument that Terri would have preferred it that way.On Saturday, the Herald reported that local police in Pinellas Park, the small town where Schiavo lies at...

MIAMI - Hours after a judge ordered that Terri Schiavo wasn't to be removed from her hospice, a team of Florida law enforcement agents were en route to seize her and have her feeding tube reinserted - but they stopped short when local police told them they would enforce the judge's order, The Miami Herald has learned. Agents of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement told police in Pinellas Park, the small town where Schiavo lies at Hospice Woodside, that they were on the way to take her to a hospital to resume her feeding. For a brief period, local...

As Terri Schiavo enters what are thought to be her last hours of life, allegations of political corruption and obstruction of justice on the part of state officials

Hours after a judge ordered that Terri Schiavo was not to be removed from her hospice, a team of state agents were en route to seize her and have her feeding tube reinserted -- but they stopped short when local police told them they would enforce the judge's order, The Herald has learned. Agents of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement told police in Pinellas Park, the small town where Schiavo lies at Hospice Woodside, on Thursday that they were on the way to take her to a hospital to resume her feeding. For a brief period, local police, who...

Judge George Greer ruled that the State of Florida has no right to take custody of Terri Schiavo, which ruling came hours after an appeal by Terri's parents to re-insert the feeding tube was refused by the U.S. Supreme Court. Meanwhile, another hearing was scheduled tonight before US District Judge James D. Whittemore .. the same judge who previously heard and denied the request subsequent to the 'de novo' intention of the law past last weekend by the Congress and signed by President Bush, in an effort to confirm that no stone was left unturned before Terri would endure legally...

STARVATION: DAY 8 Jeb Bush not likely to ride to rescue Florida governor indicates he won't defy court order Posted: March 25, 2005 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2005 WorldNetDaily.com Those hoping Florida Gov. Jeb Bush will step forward to save Terri Schiavo from imminent, court-ordered starvation death are likely to be disappointed, based on his comments to a group of reporters following county court Judge George Greer's ruling against the state's effort to take custody of the brain-injured woman at the center of a worldwide euthanasia controversy. While Bush reiterated his motivation to save Schiavo, based on new evidence that...

This has nothing to do with the court case currently going on (that just ended), so dont confuse the two. The florida supreme court has affrimed that Jeb Bush is NOT allowed to take custody of Terri with the DCF, as per MSNBC.

The Florida judge who has consistently ruled against efforts to keep Terri Schiavo alive has said no to an effort by the state's Department of Children and Families to rescue the brain-injured woman by physically removing her, but a department spokeswoman says the state agency still could take action without judicial approval. Pinellas Circuit Court Judge George Greer said the state cannot take Schiavo into custody, nor provide her food or water. WFLA Radio in Tampa says the ruling will likely be appealed. The possible "rescue" scenario emerged today with Schiavo now in her sixth day without food or water....

I am not admitted to practice law in Florida. However, I believe that Judge Greer lacks the legal authority to enjoin DCF from removing Terri if it invokes the Emergency Removal provisions under the Florida statute authorizing same. Case law holds that when a plaintiff (such as Michael Schiavo) seeks to enjoin the activity of a government agency, his case must contend with "the well-established rule that the Government has traditionally been granted the widest latitude in the dispatch of its own internal affairs." Allen v. Wright, 468 U.S. 737, 761, 104 S. Ct. 3315, 3329-30, 82 L. Ed. 2d...

The Florida judge who has consistently ruled against efforts to keep Terri Schiavo alive has said no to an effort by the state's Department of Children and Families to rescue the brain-injured woman by physically removing her, but a department spokeswoman says the state agency still could take action without judicial approval. Pinellas Circuit Court Judge George Greer said the state cannot take Schiavo into custody, nor provide her food or water. WFLA Radio in Tampa says the ruling will likely be appealed. The possible "rescue" scenario emerged today with Schiavo now in her sixth day without food or water....

Can't post entire PDF, the link is listed. CRITICAL PARAGRAPH: Please take note that on or about March 21 2005, DCF received reports of abuse, neglect or exploitation involving allegations to Theresa Marie Schiavo regarding the administration of pain medication ie MORPHINE WHEN SAID PERSON IS IN A PERSISTENT VEGETATIVE STATE!

Fla. Stat. § 415.1051 (2004) § 415.1051. Protective services interventions when capacity to consent is lacking; nonemergencies; emergencies; orders; limitations (1) NONEMERGENCY PROTECTIVE SERVICES INTERVENTIONS. --If the department has reasonable cause to believe that a vulnerable adult is being abused, neglected, or exploited and is in need of protective services but lacks the capacity to consent to protective services, the department shall petition the court for an order authorizing the provision of protective services. (a) Nonemergency protective services petition. --The petition must state the name, age, and address of the vulnerable adult, allege specific facts sufficient to show that the...

State officials say they are considering removing Terri Schiavo from hospice, by force if necessary, despite numerous court orders upholding the removal of the artificial nutrition tube that has kept her alive for 15 years.Lucy Hadl, secretary of the Department of Children and Families, said Wednesday morning that her staff is relying on a state law that gives the department the authority to intervene on behalf of a vulnerable adult who is 'suffering from abuse or neglect that presents a risk of death or serious physical injury.' Hadl said that the DCF would have to file a petition in order...

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) -- A judge ruled Thursday that the state's social services agency cannot delay the removal of the feeding tube keeping brain-damaged Terri Schiavo alive. The Department of Children & Families had asked for a 60-day delay in the removal of the feeding tube, now scheduled March 18. The agency said it wanted time to investigate allegations of abuse and neglect by the woman's husband, Michael Schiavo. But Circuit Judge George W. Greer ruled that the agency's attempt to get involved at this point was inappropriate and "appears to be brought for the purpose of circumventing the court's...

CLEARWATER - Terri Schiavo could be taken away by state agents if the Department of Children & Families fails in its bid to delay the removal of her life-sustaining feeding tube, her husband's attorney said Tuesday. Also Tuesday, DCF attorney Keith Ganobsik announced in court that his agency will ask Judge George Greer to ban reporters from a hearing today on its request to intervene in the case. Last week, the DCF lost a bid to keep that same request a secret. In a document made public through the efforts of the The Tampa Tribune and News Channel 8, a...

Terri Schiavo Can Still be Rehabilitated, Nobel Prize-Nominated Doctor Says by Steven Ertelt LifeNews.com Editor March 7, 2005 Clearwater, FL (LifeNews.com) -- Despite the contention of Terri Schiavo's estranged husband Michael and courts that have allowed him to starve her to death, a doctor nominated for the Nobel Prize says he believes medical therapies are still available that could help Terri party recover from her disabled state. Dr. William Hammesfahr is an internationally recognized expert on cases of brain-injured patients. He has been identified in helping patients with chronic brain injuries from many causes actually leave long term disability, and...

(CNSNews.com) - The Florida agency responsible for protecting disabled and elderly individuals released a sealed, 30-count allegation against Michael Schiavo Friday. The "motion for intervention and stay" charges that Terri Schindler Schiavo's husband has abused, neglected and exploited her while seeking the court's permission to end her life. The Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF) asked Pinellas-Pasco County Circuit Judge George Greer last week to give it 60 days to investigate the 11-page complaint. The DCF motion, released Friday, argues that the agency cannot complete the investigation or provide Terri with services required by law if the 60-day stay...

Clearwater, FL (LifeNews.com) -- Documents filed by a state agency seeking to investigate concerns of abuse of Terri Schiavo cite 30 allegations of abuse or neglect of the disabled woman. The Florida Department of Children Families submitted the 11-page document to Circuit Court Judge George Greer last week and it hoped to obtain 60 days to investigate the concerns. Instead, Judge Greer ruled that Terri's estranged husband Michael could remove her feeding tube on March 18. He issued a second ruling Thursday opening up the document to media and public scrutiny. The DCF filing says it received "30 detailed allegations...

A judge released the DCF document seeking intervention in the Terri Schiavo case. She's the brain-damaged woman at the center of a "right to die" battle. The department of children and families document names Michael Schiavo as responsible for the mistreatment of his wife. The nine complaints cited are very technical. They essentially claim the abuse or neglect of Terri is in the form of the kind of medical treatment Terri is, or in some cases is not receiving. The complaint accuses Michael Schiavo of: 1. Failure to educate using certain therapies in violation of guardianship 2. Experimental procedures performed...

TAMPA, Fla. - A judge Thursday agreed to make public a court document filed by the state's social agency seeking intervention in the Terri Schiavo right-to-die case. A newspaper and television station had sued to gain access to the petition filed by the Department of Children & Families that attorneys say seeks to delay removal of the brain-damaged woman's feeding tube while the agency investigates allegations of abuse by her husband. Circuit Judge George Greer said he would make the document available Friday. DCF attorneys argued to keep the petition sealed, citing a need to protect the privacy of witnesses...

A judge has set a hearing for Wednesday to determine whether to make public a court document in which the Flordia Department of Children and Families is seeking last minute intervention in the case of Terri Schiavo.Circuit Judge George Greer set the hearing after the company that owns the Tampa Tribune sued to get access to the DCF petition. Lawyers say that the state wants to investigate possible abuse of the brain damaged woman by her husband who is seeking to remove the feeding tube keeping her alive.Governor Jeb Bush has said he will do anything he could legally to...

CLEARWATER - Terri Schiavo will continue to receive nourishment at least until Friday afternoon while a judge ponders the latest requests to keep the brain-damaged woman alive. Meanwhile, the state Department of Children & Families has suddenly asked to intervene in the seven-year-old legal dispute over whether Schiavo would want to be kept alive after 15 years in what most doctors say is a persistent vegetative state. A DCF attorney filed a "petition for intervention" minutes before Circuit Judge George Greer took the bench Wednesday to hear Bob and Mary Schindler's request that he hold off on allowing the removal...

DCF (Department of Children and Families) Intervenes and stay is extended and Gordon Watts intervenes. Both of these steps has pushed back the say til Friday now. As far as the DCF filing, there has been lobbying to get them involved. Gordon Watts, among other things, is challenging that she is held in a hospice when she isn't dying. Disabled sure, but hospices are not for the disabled, they are for the dying and it is illegal for her to be there. Blogs for Terri has raised the pledges it needs to get the ad into the paper on Sunday...

Anyone who has caught a television movie in the last 10 years has learned that sometimes people are falsely accused in child abuse cases - and they suffer dearly for it. A Tucson, AR woman described her experience to others on an Internet list service for the falsely accused. "You need to understand that you have forever lost your innocence. Suddenly, you are in a nightmare that doesn't seem to end. Children you loved have accused you of the most heinous crime one can imagine. You have been branded wit the 21st Century's "Scarlet Letter". That woman and many other...

$525,000 SETTLEMENT--Agreement ends two-year battleThe Florida Department of Children & Families has agreed to pay a 10-year-old Broward boy $525,000 for the abuse he endured in foster care -- roughly $10,000 for each of the 50 times the boy was molested, his lawyer said.The settlement, approved Tuesday by Broward Circuit Judge John A. Frusciante, ends a two-year battle between the boy, named John Jones in court papers, and the DCF, which took John into foster care at age 6.Broward children's advocate Howard Talenfeld, an attorney, sued the department on John's behalf in July 2001, claiming he had been repeatedly brutalized...

MIAMI - A list of almost 400 children labeled "missing" under the state's care was exaggerated as many of the children have either been found, were chronic teenage runaways or ran from foster homes, a study by a statewide task force said. In a statewide search of the children listed as missing in August by the Department of Children & Families, 139 out of 393 of the children have been located, the study said. The task force is still looking for 242 remaining names on the "missing" list, many of whom investigators believe are considered chronic runaways or taken by...

Tuesday, August 20, 2002 SENTINEL COLUMNIST Mike Thomas Regier 'crisis' falters when facts known Published August 20, 2002 The attacks against Jeb Bush's choice to head the state's child-welfare department, Jerry Regier, show what you get by mixing an incomplete news story and nasty politics. Excerpt: It began last week when The Miami Herald wrote this story: The man named Thursday by Gov. Jeb Bush to head Florida's notoriously inept child welfare agency is an evangelical Christian who views spanking that causes "bruises or welts" as acceptable punishment….. All the ingredients were present for a juicy controversy. There was a...

CAPTION THIS: Rev. Jesse Jackson comments on Gov. Jeb Bush's new DCF Chief From the Associated Press, Aug. 18, 2002: The Rev. Jesse Jackson and other Democrats blasted Gov. Jeb Bush's nominee for child welfare chief Saturday, saying he should be fired for his ties to a paper that promotes spanking and demeans women. … The Democrats said Bush either failed to check Regier's background or that he must agree with a paper published in 1989 that endorses spanking that causes bruises and welts and says that married women shouldn't have careers. The paper lists Regier on the cover as...

Vol. 10, No. 16August 8, 1994 More on Education In Loco Parentis by William Norman GriggG.K. Chesterton wrote, "The ideal for which the family stands is liberty. It is the only institution that is at once necessary and voluntary. It is the only check on the state that is bound to renew itself as eternally as the state, and more naturally than the state." For this reason, dictators and despots of all varieties have sought throughout history to corrupt the conventional family, appropriate its functions, and remove the individual from the shelter of the home. Accordingly, those concerned about...

Where the FL Story of Jeb's New DCF Chief Should Have Appeared: "The Weekly World News" Written by summer - a former Dem, now an independent and a FL certified teacher Florida media went into a heated overdrive this week. "Far right" headlines across the state screamed about Gov. Jeb Bush's new appointment to lead the DCF (the state's Department of Children and Families, better known as the agency responsible for child foster care and adoption). In the The Miami Herald, we find the Tallahassee Bureau Chief and political editor, Peter Wallsten, listed among other newspaper staff members, all claiming...

TALLAHASSEE - The man named Thursday by Gov. Jeb Bush to head Florida's notoriously inept child welfare agency is an evangelical Christian who views spanking that causes ''bruises or welts'' as acceptable punishment. The revelation did not come to Bush's attention until hours after the governor introduced Jerry Regier, a former Oklahoma Cabinet secretary and aide to Bush's father, as the new chief of the state's Department of Children and Families.Regier, 57, was named less than 48 hours after the resignation of DCF Secretary Kathleen A. Kearney. He takes over an agency that has been embroiled in scandal since 5-year-old...

DANBURY — Nancy Lavoie and her girlfriend Sandy MacIntyre began living together in Danbury in 1993. Like many committed couples, they decided to start a family. After much discussion, they decided that MacIntyre would try to get pregnant through artificial insemination. First came a boy, in 1997, and two years later, they had a daughter. By all accounts the children are healthy, happy and well-adjusted. But although the children thrived, the couple’s relationship came apart. At some point after they broke up in 2001, MacIntyre banned Lavoie from the children’s lives. So Lavoie took her former girlfriend to Superior Court,...

A triple murder. A suicide. A 2-month old orphan. A mentally ill mother caused the tragedy, but it took a state bureaucracy to turn tragedy into travesty. The case in Connecticut now has implications for every parent: Can you really determine who will rear your children should you die? ---------------------- For Chad and Sara Prigge, the evening of Wednesday, June 9, 1999, started like any other. They tucked their children, 4-year-old Caleb and infant Rachel, into bed. Sara cleaned up from dinner. Chad, the assistant pastor at Truth Baptist Church just outside Hartford, Conn., had some studying to do before...

Pair attempts to take child from mom, Couple pose as DCF workers in second such kidnap attempt BY CHARLES RABIN crabin@herald.com For the second time in less than a month, two people identifying themselves as Department of Children & Families workers tried to talk a Miami mother into giving up her child. Both attempts failed, but they had similarities, according to police and witnesses: Two people showed up at the homes claiming to be with the DCF, demanding the woman give up her daughter. They also carried personal information about the child and family members on DCF letterhead. The first...

Confidential Records Sold at DCF Auction http://www.wtsp.com/news/2002_05/30_dcfauction.htmTAMPA - Thousands and thousands of confidential files were left in an abandoned building where the public was invited in for an auction on Thursday. A reporter from 10 News was able to purchase boxes containing some of these records that the public should never have been allowed to see. The incident shows apparent gross negligence by the Department of Children and Families. The auction was held Thursday at the W.T. Edwards Building that housed local DCF offices for several years. When the agency vacated the building, the records were left behind. All...

Panel blames child's DCF workers, caretakers for deception Monday, May 27, 2002 By CATHERINE WILSON, Associated Press MIAMI - The disappearance of a 5-year-old girl went unnoticed for 15 months because two low-level state workers and her caretakers deceived the state's child-welfare system, a review panel concluded Sunday. A committee named by Gov. Jeb Bush accused the workers and the sisters caring for Rilya Wilson of malfeasance for submitting paperwork falsely indicating she was in their care and being visited regularly. "There was fraud perpetrated here," Sara Herald, the child-welfare expert on the four-member panel, said as the group...