Omaha Mall Shooter Robert Hawkins ; Former Foster Child Had Been "Treated" For ADHD, Depression

TELL ME WHEN - WHEN - WHEN ARE THEY GOING TO STOP!!!!

WHEN ARE THEY GOING TO STOP DRUGGING OUR YOUTH?

WHEN???? ISN'T IT ALREADY TIME? NO ISN'T IT LONG PAST DUE?

Omaha Mall Shooter Robert Hawkins ; Former Foster Child Had Been "Treated" For ADHD, Depression!

Todd Landry, the director of Nebraska's child services, defended the role his agency has played in Hawkins' life. He laid out a string of specific services, including a group home, that helped care for Hawkins. He also put a price tag of $265,000 on the treatments and services rendered.

"This tragedy was not a failure of the system to provide appropriate quality of services for a youth that needed them," Landry said.

Police: Omaha Mall Shooter Stepped Off Elevator, Started Firing

Victims Included Six Department Store Workers, Two Customers at Omaha Mall

Warren says the video shows Hawkins entering the Von Maur department store in Omaha's Westroads Mall on the second level.

The video, which authorities said today they will release at the conclusion of the investigation, reportedly shows Hawkins taking the elevator to the third floor where the shooting began. He can be seen firing off shots as soon as he exits a third-floor elevator, Warren said.

Hawkins then walked to a customer service area, shot several people and then himself.

Before the shooting spree, Hawkins left a note in the home of his adopted family that said he was "sorry for everything" and would not be a burden on his family anymore. He also wrote, "Now I'll be famous." He apparently also left text and phone messages for several friends.

Before the shooting spree, Hawkins left a note in the home of his adopted family that said he was "sorry for everything" and would not be a burden on his family anymore. He also wrote, "Now I'll be famous." He apparently also left text and phone messages for several friends.

"The weapon that was used was an AK-47 assault weapon. We believe that Hawkins obtained the firearm from his stepfather. We believe that Robert Hawkins stole the firearm. It had been stored at his father's," Warren said. Authorities are not yet sure whether the weapon was legally owned.

The shooting had concluded by the time officers arrived on the scene, Warren said.

The Westroads mall was closed today.

Victims Are Identified

Today the victims were identified as Gary Sharp, a customer and resident of Lincoln, Neb.; John MacDonald, 66, a customer and resident of Council Bluffs, Iowa; Angie Shuster, 35, an employee; Maggie Webb, 24, an employee; Janet Jorgenson, 66, an employee; Diane Trent, 55, an employee; Gary Joy, 56, an employee; and Becky Flynn, 47, an employee.

Jeff Shaffart, who was shot in the arm by Hawkins, was shopping with his wife for a dress for their 2-year-old daughter. He told "Good Morning America" today that he thought balloons had popped or construction work was going on.

"It didn't dawn on me at the time I'd been shot," Shaffart said, adding that he didn't see the gunman. It wasn't until he saw blood on his fingers that he realized he had been hit. As he ducked for cover among other frightened shoppers, Shaffart said that he got separated from his wife. The sheriff arrived and essentially directed people out of the mall with a shotgun raised, reuniting the man with his wife.

'Lost Pound Puppy'

People who knew Hawkins say he was an "introverted troubled young man."

Though the first widely released picture of the gunman shows a mop-topped teen, Wednesday, he wore a military-style haircut and black outfit, witnesses said.

Hawkins, from Bellevue, Neb., was kicked out by his family about a year ago. He moved in with a friend's family, and Debora Maruca-Kovac and her husband welcomed him into their home and tried to help the teen.

"When he first came in the house, he was introverted, a troubled young man who was like a lost pound puppy that nobody wanted," Maruca-Kovac said in a TV interview.

Todd Landry, the director of Nebraska's child services, defended the role his agency has played in Hawkins' life. He laid out a string of specific services, including a group home, that helped care for Hawkins. He also put a price tag of $265,000 on the treatments and services rendered.

"This tragedy was not a failure of the system to provide appropriate quality of services for a youth that needed them," Landry said.

She also told the Omaha World-Herald that the night before the shooting, Hawkins and her sons showed her a rifle — the same type used in the shooting.

She said she didn't think much of it — the gun looked too old to work.

ABC News affiliate KETV in Omaha reported that police and federal agents executed a search warrant late Wednesday night at the house where Hawkins' biological mother reportedly lives.

Records in Sarpy and Washington counties show Hawkins had a felony drug conviction and several misdemeanor cases filed against him, including an arrest 11 days before the shooting for underage drinking. He was due again in court in two weeks.

Maruca-Kovac said Hawkins was fired from his job at a McDonald's this week and had recently broken up with his girlfriend. She said he phoned her at 1 p.m. Wednesday, telling her he had left a note. She tried to get him to explain.

'It's too Late'

"He said, 'It's too late,'" and hung up, Maruca-Kovac said. She says she then called Hawkins' mother.

Maruca-Kovac went to her job as a nurse at the Nebraska Medical Center, where victims of the shooting soon began to arrive.

The first 911 call came in at 3:42 p.m. ET.

Police snipers and SWAT teams were on the scene inside the busy shopping mall within six minutes, police said. The mall was placed on lockdown early Wednesday as shoppers were allowed out, but no one was permitted to enter the mall.

Employees and shoppers at the mall's Von Maur department store described hiding in offices and storerooms for about half an hour, but the shooting, which apparently were random, was already over and Hawkins lay dead on the third floor.

'Bang, Bang, Bang'

Roxanne Philp, an employee inside the Von Maur store on the third floor, told "GMA" that the last thing she remembered after the gunshots rang out was crawling on the floor toward a back exit.

"We have some gift-wrapping tables with the door on one end," Philp said. "I climbed inside of there and was trying to get the door closed tight so he couldn't see me."

Philp said she heard moaning from the other side of the door, but she just laid there waiting for the gunfire to stop, which it abruptly did. "You want to help the people that you love and the people you don't even know but want to help," she said. "It's just not the situation for it."

Charissa Totten, also working on the third floor of the store, immediately thought about helping guide shoppers toward the backrooms. "I kind of flagged them to the door," she told ABC News. "And then I actually stayed in the doorway because I was afraid there might be someone who hadn't made it into the backroom yet."

It's a holiday shopping nightmare that many in Omaha will have a difficult time shaking. Carol Pardon, who was shopping inside the department store when the rampage began, said it was agonizing to sit and watch as a fellow shopper nearby was hit.

'I Couldn't Help Him, I Couldn't Go to Him'

"I couldn't help him, I couldn't go to him," Pardon said. "That scene, watching his blood, you know, drift along the tiles of the Von Maur department store, that's a scene I'll never forget."

President Bush was in town for a fundraiser in Omaha, but left at about 3 p.m. ET, before the shooting, which took place around 4 p.m. ET.

Friday night members of the Omaha police bomb squad were called to the same mall when a grenade was found in the parking lot. Security guards at the mall found the explosive intact and the bomb squad safely retrieved the device.

The Von Maur store is part of a 22-store Midwestern chain. The sprawling, three-level mall has more than 135 stores and restaurants. It gets 14.5 million visitors every year, according to its Web site.

It was the second mass shooting at a mall this year. In February, nine people were shot, five of them fatally, at Trolley Square mall in Salt Lake City. The gunman, 18-year-old Sulejman Talovic, was shot and killed by police.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

Apple puts spotlight on CPS

Apple puts spotlight on CPSBenjamin

ShorsStaff writerJune 23, 2007

Amid the blue herringbone chairs in the waiting room of the county's juvenile court, it's not uncommon to hear scathing critiques of the Washington's child welfare system from disgruntled parents and their families.

But this week, the criticism came from an unusual quarter: Spokane City Councilman Bob Apple.

The outspoken, 51-year-old councilman waded waist-deep into a child welfare case involving a former employee and campaign volunteer, Daniel Morgan, 29.

Throughout several days of hearings, Apple could be heard variously accusing a state social worker of submitting false court documents, stating that an assistant attorney general should be jailed, and repeatedly accusing Child Protective Services of kidnapping a 2-year-old boy.

"It's a sham," Apple fumed in the waiting room, surrounded by the Morgans and their relatives. "If this is how the court system operates, then it's broken.

"A spokeswoman for CPS called Apple's comments "absolutely ridiculous.""None of these decisions are made in isolation," spokeswoman Kathy Spears said. "There are checks and balances in this system. When we go to court, we have to make the case that a child we are removing is at risk of imminent harm.

"Four years ago, Washington legislators opened the doors to the hearings where the fate of hundreds of allegedly abused or neglected Spokane County children are decided. The vast majority of the cases - on any given day, about 10,000 children are in Washington's foster care - pass unnoticed.

But the presence of Apple, an outspoken and blunt councilman, shined a light on the Morgans' two-month legal battle - and into the little-understood machinations of the child-welfare system.

At the center of the dispute are three boys and the familiar tale of a family torn apart by divorce and competing allegations of child abuse and neglect.

The Morgans, who own a car-detailing business, allege that an overzealous CPS social worker relied heavily on the reports of Robin's ex-husband, Derrick Allen. The 33-year-old is involved in a custody dispute with Robin, with whom he had two older sons.

"We would submit that this is really nothing more than a custody battle," said attorney Connie Powell, who defended Daniel Morgan against an allegation that he threw his 8-year-old stepson to the ground and kicked the boy in the buttocks.

Late Thursday night, a court commissioner sided with Morgan and his wife, and ordered the state to return their 2-year-old son, who was taken by police April 18. Social worker Sheila Thorne, a 13-year veteran of the agency, declined to comment."The department has made more than a reasonable effort to prevent the removal of (the boy) from the family's home," said Kim McClain with the state's Attorney General's office, which represents CPS in child-welfare cases.

Late Thursday night, a court commissioner sided with Morgan and his wife, and ordered the state to return their 2-year-old son, who was taken by police April 18.

Social worker Sheila Thorne, a 13-year veteran of the agency, declined to comment.

"The department has made more than a reasonable effort to prevent the removal of (the boy) from the family's home," said Kim McClain with the state's Attorney General's office, which represents CPS in child-welfare cases.

McClain said the two older boys in the home reported that Daniel Morgan had physically abused them. She described the family as "chaotic."

In April, three days after he made the report to police and social workers, Allen obtained a temporary change of custody to care for his and Robin Morgan's two biological children. Allen could not be located for comment.

"Unfortunately, in this field, when the custody of children is involved, everyone involved is willing to lie," said Dave Wood, a lobbyist for Washington Families United, a nonprofit group seeking reforms to the child-welfare system. "You don't know what the truth is. Something has to change."

The Morgans maintained the boy suffered injuries to his knee and head during accidents with a toy car and a bike, respectively. According to testimony, the boy told Allen that Daniel Morgan had caused the injuries.

The Morgans said Allen has used the referrals "as payback" and to gain custody of the two children he had with Robin Morgan.

"The injuries have nothing to do with Mr. Morgan," Apple said. "I've known these kids for 15 years. I know Daniel would never beat his kids.

"Since 2002, the state agency has received a "number of referrals related to parental neglect of the children and alleged physical abuse of the children by Mr. Morgan," according to the court documents. A state spokeswoman said she could not disclose how many of the complaints were made by Allen.

A state ombudsman who reviewed the case recommended that the children be removed from the home, according to court records. The agency said the parents have refused to engage in services, including anger management.

"We make a decision to take a case to court, and the court has an opportunity to review the evidence," said Spears, the CPS spokeswoman. "I think that is the strength of the child-welfare system: to have different parts looking at what we are doing so that no one agency is making decisions on their own."

On Friday, Robin Morgan said she had been unable to work for the past two months. Family members helped out at the couple's car-detailing business.

"I have been running back and forth between attorneys and visitations," she said. "I just hope that everybody can see that CPS is good, but there are not good CPS workers out there. I'm really happy that my son is home."

For his part, Apple maintained his support wasn't motivated by friendship alone.

"I will do it for any citizen who contacts me," he said.

Staff writer Benjamin Shors can be reached at (509) 459-5484, or by e-mail at benjamins@spokesman.com.

THE CORRUPT BUSINESS OF CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES

From the legislative desk of Senator Nancy Schaefer 50th District of Georgia

November 16, 2007

THE CORRUPT BUSINESS OF CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES

BY: Nancy Schaefer

Senator, 50th District

My introduction into child protective service cases was due to a grandmother in an adjoining state who called me with her tragic story. Her two granddaughters had been taken from her daughter who lived in my district. Her daughter was told wrongly that if she wanted to see her children again she should sign a paper and give up her children. Frightened and young, the daughter did. I have since discovered that parents are often threatened into cooperation of permanent separation of their children.


The children were taken to another county and placed in foster care. The foster parents were told wrongly that they could adopt the children. The grandmother then jumped through every hoop known to man in order to get her granddaughters. When the case finally came to court it was made evident by one of the foster parent’s children that the foster parents had, at any given time, 18 foster children and that the foster mother had an inappropriate relationship with the caseworker.


In the courtroom, the juvenile judge, acted as though she was shocked and said the two girls would be removed quickly. They were not removed. Finally, after much pressure being applied to the Department of Family and Children Services of Georgia (DFCS), the children were driven to South Georgia to meet their grandmother who gladly drove to meet them.

After being with their grandmother two or three days, the judge, quite out of the blue, wrote up a new order to send the girls to their father, who previously had no interest in the case and who lived on the West Coast. The father was in “adult entertainment”. His girlfriend worked as an “escort” and his brother, who also worked in the business, had a sexual charge brought against him.


Within a couple of days the father was knocking on the grandmother’s door and took the girls kicking and screaming to California.

The father developed an unusual relationship with the former foster parents and soon moved back to the southeast, and the foster parents began driving to the father’s residence and picking up the little girls for visits. The oldest child had told her mother and grandmother on two different occasions that the foster father molested her.


To this day after five years, this loving, caring blood relative grandmother does not even have visitation privileges with the children. The little girls are in my opinion permanently traumatized and the young mother of the girls was so traumatized with shock when the girls were first removed from her that she has not recovered.


Throughout this case and through the process of dealing with multiple other mismanaged cases of the Department of Family and Children Services (DFCS), I have worked with other desperate parents and children across the state because they have no rights and no one with whom to turn. I have witnessed ruthless behavior from many caseworkers, social workers, investigators, lawyers, judges, therapists, and others such as those who “pick up” the children. I have been stunned by what I have seen and heard from victims all over the state of Georgia.


In this report, I am focusing on the Georgia Department of Family and Children Services (DFCS). However, I believe Child Protective Services nationwide has become corrupt and that the entire system is broken almost beyond repair. I am convinced parents and families should be warned of the dangers.

The Department of Child Protective Services, known as the Department of Family and Children Service (DFCS) in Georgia and other titles in other states, has become a “protected empire” built on taking children and separating families. This is not to say that there are not those children who do need to be removed from wretched situations and need protection. This report is concerned with the children and parents caught up in “legal kidnapping,” ineffective policies, and DFCS who do does not remove a child or children when a child is enduring torment and abuse. (See Exhibit A and Exhibit B)


In one county in my District, I arranged a meeting for thirty-seven families to speak freely and without fear. These poor parents and grandparents spoke of their painful, heart wrenching encounters with DFCS. Their suffering was overwhelming. They wept and cried. Some did not know where their children were and had not seen them in years. I had witnessed the “Gestapo” at work and I witnessed the deceitful conditions under which children were taken in the middle of the night, out of hospitals, off of school buses, and out of homes. In one county a private drug testing business was operating within the DFCS department that required many, many drug tests from parents and individuals for profit. In another county children were not removed when they were enduring the worst possible abuse.

Due to being exposed, several employees in a particular DFCS office were fired. However, they have now been rehired either in neighboring counties or in the same county again. According to the calls I am now receiving, the conditions in that county are returning to the same practices that they had before the light was shown on their deeds.


Having worked with probably 300 cases statewide, I am convinced there is no responsibility and no accountability in the system.

I have come to the conclusion:


* that poor parents often times are targeted to lose their children because they do not have the where-with-all to hire lawyers and fight the system. Being poor does not mean you are not a good parent or that you do not love your child, or that your child should be removed and placed with strangers;


*that all parents are capable of making mistakes and that making a mistake does not mean your children are always to be removed from the home. Even if the home is not perfect, it is home; and that’s where a child is the safest and where he or she wants to be, with family;


*that parenting classes, anger management classes, counseling referrals, therapy classes and on and on are demanded of parents with no compassion by the system even while they are at work and while their children are separated from them. This can take months or even years and it emotionally devastates both children and parents. Parents are victimized by “the system” that makes a profit for holding children longer and “bonuses” for not returning children;

*that caseworkers and social workers are oftentimes guilty of fraud. They withhold evidence. They fabricate evidence and they seek to terminate parental rights. However, when charges are made against them, the charges are ignored;

*that the separation of families is growing as a business because local governments have grown accustomed to having taxpayer dollars to balance their ever-expanding budgets;

*that Child Protective Service and Juvenile Court can always hide behind a confidentiality clause in order to protect their decisions and keep the funds flowing. There should be open records and “court watches”! Look who is being paid! There are state employees, lawyers, court investigators, court personnel, and judges. There are psychologists, and psychiatrists, counselors, caseworkers, therapists, foster parents, adoptive parents, and on and on. All are looking to the children in state custody to provide job security. Parents do not realize that social workers are the glue that holds “the system” together that funds the court, the child’s attorney, and the multiple other jobs including DFCS’s attorney.

*that The Adoption and the Safe Families Act, set in motion by President Bill Clinton, offered cash “bonuses” to the states for every child they adopted out of foster care. In order to receive the “adoption incentive bonuses” local child protective services need more children. They must have merchandise (children) that sell and you must have plenty of them so the buyer can choose. Some counties are known to give a $4,000 bonus for each child adopted and an additional $2,000 for a “special needs” child. Employees work to keep the federal dollars flowing;

*that there is double dipping. The funding continues as long as the child is out of the home. When a child in foster care is placed with a new family then “adoption bonus funds” are available. When a child is placed in a mental health facility and is on 16 drugs per day, like two children of a constituent of mine, more funds are involved;
that there are no financial resources and no real drive to unite a family and help keep them together;

*that the incentive for social workers to return children to their parents quickly after taking them has disappeared and who in protective services will step up to the plate and say, “This must end! No one, because they are all in the system together and a system with no leader and no clear policies will always fail the children. Look at the waste in government that is forced upon the tax payer;

*that the “Policy Manuel” is considered “the last word” for DFCS. However, it is too long, too confusing, poorly written and does not take the law into consideration;

*that if the lives of children were improved by removing them from their homes, there might be a greater need for protective services, but today all children are not always safer. Children, of whom I am aware, have been raped and impregnated in foster care and the head of a Foster Parents Association in my District was recently arrested because of child molestation;

*that some parents are even told if they want to see their children or grandchildren, they must divorce their spouse. Many, who are under privileged, feeling they have no option, will divorce and then just continue to live together. This is an anti-family policy, but parents will do anything to get their children home with them.

*fathers, (non-custodial parents) I must add, are oftentimes treated as criminals without access to their own children and have child support payments strangling the very life out of them;

*that the Foster Parents Bill of Rights does not bring out that a foster parent is there only to care for a child until the child can be returned home. Many Foster Parents today use the Foster Parent Bill of Rights to hire a lawyer and seek to adopt the child from the real parents, who are desperately trying to get their child home and out of the system;

*that tax dollars are being used to keep this gigantic system afloat, yet the victims, parents, grandparents, guardians and especially the children, are charged for the system’s services.

*that grandparents have called from all over the State of Georgia trying to get custody of their grandchildren. DFCS claims relatives are contacted, but there are cases that prove differently. Grandparents who lose their grandchildren to strangers have lost their own flesh and blood. The children lose their family heritage and grandparents, and parents too, lose all connections to their heirs.

*that The National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect in 1998 reported that six times as many children died in foster care than in the general public and that once removed to official “safety”, these children are far more likely to suffer abuse, including sexual molestation than in the general population.

*That according to the California Little Hoover Commission Report in 2003, 30% to 70% of the children in California group homes do not belong there and should not have been removed from their homes.

FINAL REMARKS

On my desk are scores of cases of exhausted families and troubled children. It has been beyond me to turn my back on these suffering, crying, and sometimes beaten down individuals. We are mistreating the most innocent. Child Protective Services have become adult centered to the detriment of children. No longer is judgment based on what the child needs or who the child wants to be with or what is really best for the whole family; it is some adult or bureaucrat who makes the decisions, based often on just hearsay, without ever consulting a family member, or just what is convenient, profitable, or less troublesome for a director of DFCS.

I have witnessed such injustice and harm brought to these families that I am not sure if I even believe reform of the system is possible! The system cannot be trusted. It does not serve the people. It obliterates families and children simply because it has the power to do so.

Children deserve better. Families deserve better. It’s time to pull back the curtain and set our children and families free.

“Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and the needy” Proverbs 31:8-9

Please continue to read:
Recommendations
Exhibit A
Exhibit B

RECOMMENDATIONS

1) Call for an independent audit of the Department of Family and Children’s Services (DFCS) to expose corruption and fraud.
2) Activate immediate change. Every day that passes means more families and children are subject to being held hostage.
3) End the financial incentives that separate families.
4) Grant to parents their rights in writing.
5) Mandate a search for family members to be given the opportunity to adopt their own relatives.
6) Mandate a jury trial where every piece of evidence is presented before removing a child from his or her parents.
7) Require a warrant or a positive emergency circumstance before removing children from their parents. (Judge Arthur G. Christean, Utah Bar Journal, January, 1997 reported that “except in emergency circumstances, including the need for immediate medical care, require warrants upon affidavits of probable cause before entry upon private property is permitted for the forcible removal of children from their parents.”)
8) Uphold the laws when someone fabricates or presents false evidence. If a parent alleges fraud, hold a hearing with the right to discovery of all evidence.

To read the Exhibits and thank Senator Nancy Schaefer
Click here Senator Nancy Schaefer: ...because integrity matters.

REFRESH - Go to Home-Page

Schaefer: Trial by jury needed to remove child

By Tom Law Thursday,

November 29, 2007 9:03 AM EST

The Toccoa Record State Sen. Nancy Schaefer last week called for an overhaul of the state’s child protection services provided through the Department of Family and Children’s Services (DFCS).

Among the recommendations by Schaefer, who represents the 50th District which includes Stephens County, was that a jury trial be held when a child is taken from their parents.Schaefer also called for the requirement of a warrant signed by a judge before removing a child from their parents, except in an emergency situation such as a medical crisis.

“The Department of Family and Children’s Service, known as the Department of Child Protective Services in other states, has become a protected empire built on taking children and separating families,” Schaefer said in a lengthy e-mail.

“This is not to say there are not children who do need to be removed from wretched situations and need protection,” Schaefer said. “This report is concerned with the children and parents caught in legal kidnapping, ineffective policies and DFCS that does not remove a child or children when a child is enduring torment and abuse.”

Schaefer offered as an example an unnamed county in her district where she met with 37 families to discuss the “gestapo” tactics of the DFCS.“I witnessed the deceitful conditions under which children were taken in the middle of the night, out of hospitals and off school busses,” Schaefer said. “Having worked with probably 300 cases statewide, I am convinced there is no responsibility and no accountability in the system.”

Among Schaefer’s conclusions:

Poor parents are targeted to lose their children because they do not have the wherewithal to hire lawyers and fight the system.“Being poor does not mean you are not a good parent or that you do not love your child or that your child should be removed and placed with strangers,” Schaefer said.

All parents are capable of making mistakes and that making a mistake does not mean children should be removed from the home.

Parenting classes, anger management classes, counseling referrals, therapy classes, etc. are demanded of parents with no compassion by the system while they are at work and while their children are separated from them.

Caseworkers and social workers are often guilty of fraud.“They withhold evidence. They fabricate evidence and they seek to terminate parental rights. However, when charges are made against them, the charges are ignored,” Schaefer said.

Separation of families is a growing business because local governments have grown accustomed to having taxpayer dollars to balance their ever-expanding budgets.

DFCS and juvenile court can always hide behind a confidentiality clause in order to protect their decisions.

There are no financial resources and no real drive to unite a family and help keep them together.

The incentive for social workers to return children to their parents quickly after taking them has disappeared.

The policy manual for DFCS is considered the last word.“The manual is too long, too confusing, poorly written and doesn’t take the law into consideration,” Schaefer said.

Children removed from homes may not be safer in foster care.“Children of whom I am aware have been raped and impregnated in foster care and the head of a foster parents association in my district was recently arrested because of child molestation,” Schaefer said.

Grandparents are not often contacted by DFCS when children are removed from homes.

“Grandparents who lose their grandchildren to strangers have lost their own flesh and blood. The children lose their family heritage, and grandparents lose all connections to their heirs,” Schaefer said.

Schaefer is calling for an independent audit of DFCS to expose possible “corruption and fraud.”

She also called for immediate change. “Every day that passes means more families and children are subject to being held hostage.”

Schaefer said any financial incentives to separate families should end, and parents should be given their rights in writing.

She also called for a required search for family members to be given the opportunity to adopt their own relatives, and when someone fabricates or presents false evidence, a hearing should be held with the right to discovery of all evidence.

Original Article - The Toccoa Record: Top Stories

Do NOT Marry or have children!

I came accross this earlier today and I couldnt agree more, however I have a twist I'd like to add- this advice is not only for men! More and more women are finding themselves in the same position as men are.

As anyone that has spent more than 5 min on my page they will know that I have been royal ^$#!@ by our wonderful system.

In my reasearch I've come accross some sick stuff- children have no chance in this world today!

If their parents don't screw them up the system will- so my advice is don't have children until they get this nightmare under control or you will one day think back to this blog and say "Oh man she warned me- I should have listened!"

Although the original writer of the blog below talks mostly about divorce I also add child protective services to the main list to NOT HAVE CHILDREN!

With that I bring you the original article..

Advice to Young Men: Do Not Marry, Do Not Have Children Marriage is a foundation of civilized life. No advanced civilization has ever existed without the married, two-parent family. Those who argue that our civilization needs healthy marriages to survive are not exaggerating. And yet I cannot, in good conscience, urge young men to marry today. For many men (and some women), marriage has become nothing less than a one-way ticket to jail. Even the New York Times has reported on how easily "the divorce court leads to a jail cell," mostly for men. In fact, if I have one urgent piece of practical advice for young men today it is this: Do not marry and do not have children.

Spreading this message may also, in the long run, be the most effective method of saving marriage as an institution. For until we understand that the principal threat to marriage today is not cultural but political, and that it comes not from homosexuals but from heterosexuals, we will never reverse the decline of marriage. The main destroyer of marriage, it should be obvious, is divorce. Michael McManus of Marriage Savers points out that "divorce is a far more grievous blow to marriage than today's challenge by gays." The central problem is the divorce laws.

It is well known that half of all marriages end in divorce. But widespread misconceptions lead many to believe it cannot happen to them. Many conscientious people think they will never be divorced because they do not believe in it. In fact, it is likely to happen to you whether you wish it or not.

First, you do not have to agree to the divorce or commit any legal transgression. Under "no-fault" divorce laws, your spouse can divorce you unilaterally without giving any reasons. The judge will then grant the divorce automatically without any questions.

But further, not only does your spouse incur no penalty for breaking faith; she can actually profit enormously. Simply by filing for divorce, your spouse can take everything you have, also without giving any reasons. First, she will almost certainly get automatic and sole custody of your children and exclude you from them, without having to show that you have done anything wrong. Then any unauthorized contact with your children is a crime. Yes, for seeing your own children you will be subject to arrest.

There is no burden of proof on the court to justify why they are seizing control of your children and allowing your spouse to forcibly keep you from them. The burden of proof (and the financial burden) is on you to show why you should be allowed to see your children.

The divorce industry thus makes it very attractive for your spouse to divorce you and take your children. (All this earns money for lawyers whose bar associations control the careers of judges.) While property divisions and spousal support certainly favor women, the largest windfall comes through the children. With custody, she can then demand "child support" that may amount to half, two-thirds, or more of your income. (The amount is set by committees consisting of feminists, lawyers, and enforcement agents - all of whom have a vested interest in setting the payments as high as possible.) She may spend it however she wishes. You pay the taxes on it, but she gets the tax deduction.

You could easily be left with monthly income of a few hundred dollars and be forced to move in with relatives or sleep in your car. Once you have sold everything you own, borrowed from relatives, and maximized your credit cards, they then call you a "deadbeat dad" and take you away in handcuffs. You are told you have "abandoned" your children and incarcerated without trial.

Evidence indicates that, as men discover all this, they have already begun an impromptu marriage "strike:" refusing to marry or start families, knowing they can be criminalized if their wife files for divorce. "Have anti-father family court policies led to a men's marriage strike?" ask Glenn Sacks and Dianna Thompson in the Philadelphia Enquirer. In Britain, fathers tour university campuses warning young men not to start families. In his book, From Courtship to Courtroom, Attorney Jed Abraham concludes that the only protection for men to avoid losing their children and everything else is not to start families in the first place.

Is it wise to disseminate such advice? If people stop marrying, what will become of the family and our civilization? Marriage is already all but dead, legally speaking, and divorce is the principal reason. The fall in the Western birth rate is directly connected with divorce law.

It is also likely that same-sex marriage is being demanded only because of how heterosexuals have already debased marriage through divorce law. "The world of no-strings heterosexual hookups and 50% divorce rates preceded gay marriage," advocate Andrew Sullivan points out. "All homosexuals are saying . . . is that, under the current definition, there's no reason to exclude us. If you want to return straight marriage to the 1950s, go ahead. But until you do, the exclusion of gays is simply an anomaly - and a denial of basic civil equality.

" We will not restore marriage by burying our heads in the sand; nor simply by preaching to young people to marry, as the Bush administration's government therapy programs now do. The way to restore marriage as an institution in which young people can place their trust, their children, and their lives is to make it an enforceable contract. We urgently need a national debate about divorce, child custody, and the terms under which the government can forcibly sunder the bonds between parents and their children. We owe it to future generations, if there are to be any.

Source

Original article - Political Correctness Watch

Are Child Protective Services to Powerful?

I came accross this article this morning, sad but so true ...

Here's an excerpt..

Abraham Lincoln would not have been able to educate himself in front of the fireplace because a government agency would have determined that his living conditions were substandard

Heres the actual article-

Richard Disney » Are Child Protective Services Authorities Too Powerful?

Chld Protection THE NEW STRANGER DANGER

By: Thomas Dutkiewicz

Connecticut DCF Watch

Hartford, CT - Because of over zealous and abusive social workers innocent children are ripped out of loving homes every day because of rumors or anonymous reports. The federal court even stated that risk of harm or possibility of harm is NOT probable cause to remove any child. There must be credible evident of imminent "physical" danger in order to remove any child.

Parents need to teach their children that if anyone at school pulls you out of your class and wants to question you about your home, parents and siblings, they need to refuse to cooperate with those individuals unless mom or dad is present. The federal court in Doe v. Heck agrees and ruled that questioning a child by DCF or the police without the consent of the parent is an unreasonable search and seizure of the child and prohibited by law and a 4th and 14th Amendment violation.

In one court case the judge ruled that Severance of the parent-child relationship is “tantamount to imposition of a civil death penalty” Drury v. Lang, 105 Nev. 430, 433, 776 P.2d 843, 845 (1989)

New York Supreme Court Judge Brian Lindsay stated, “There is no system ever devised by mankind that is guaranteed to rip husband and wife or father, mother and child apart so bitterly than our present Family Court System.”

Judge Watson L. White from Cobb County, Georgia said, “There is something bad happening to our children in family courts today that is causing them more harm than drugs, more harm than crime and even more harm than child molestation.”

Parents need to teach their children that anyone from DCF (Dept. of Children and Family) are very dangerous individuals and are inhuman and they seek to take them away from their family for no legal reason so it is important never to speak with them unless mom or dad is there to defend them as their legal guardian. They will lie in court in order to harm them and the parents.

DCF will also suborn perjury from the child if the child denies abuse ever took place. They will harass the child repeatedly in fostercare and tells the child they can go home if they admit there was abuse of some kind even when there was never abuse or neglect.

Parents need to educate and empower their children they can assert their right to remain silent and they have their parents permission not to cooperate with DCF, police or any school personal who ask inappropriate questions dealing with the child or family. The child needs to say they are not answering any questions unless their parents are present as ruled by the federal court. Parents or children are free not to cooperate with any government official or employee of the school.

DCF workers as ruled by the Federal court are government officials in the eyes of the court and constitution, them being unlicensed social workers is not relevant to the court and the constitutional protections of the parents. The court went on further to say that the "Constitution is NOT limited to one type of government official", it applies to all government officials including DCF employees.

Thomas M. Dutkiewicz, President

Special Family Advocate

Connecticut DCF Watch

P.O. Box 9775Forestville, CT 06011-9775860-833-4127

Admin@connecticutdcfwatch.comhttp://www.connecticutdcfwatch.com/

P.S. Check out our web site for the FREE handbook on parental rights. There is also a manual on "reasonable efforts" with sections for Attorneys, Judges and Agencies.