Rarely have I read anything so poignant and moving as the day-by-day account a loving mother is writing of the TPR trial she’s enduring. See: TPR Trial Blog. You may have to be logged into MySpace to read this. Get an account if you don’t have one already. This is really worth reading.

If that link doesn’t work for you, try this one: TPR Trial Blog.

For those who don’t know, TPR means “Termination of Parental Rights”.

I ask that this weekend everyone who reads this who is inspired to do so, please say a prayer for this family to be reunited, send positive energies, pray for the judge to make the right decision, and so on . . . because next Monday the trial continues.

This mother, who is a nurse, deserves our support and love and good wishes. Please keep praying that she’s able to bring her children home.

And to the mother: thanks for posting to Fight CPS and for giving us the link to your blog.

Sean’s mother, his most loving advocate, created a MySpace page for him: Foster Care ABUSE~Political PRISONER ! HOSTAGE CPS

Now do CPS workers want to suppress evidence by trying to force her her to take down Sean’s MySpace page?

According to a June 28, 2007 message she sent to her friend’s list at MySpace, CPS workers are mad as fire because they found out about the MySpace page on which Sean’s mother recounts details about her experiences with CPS.

Why?

One look at these photographs will tell the story.

Sean is being bruised in foster care!

This is what Sean’s mother saw during her visit with him:

[Photos used by permission.]

Sean’s mother says:

my case is all about POLITICS . Not even close to ABUSE. the abuse now is what they have done to SEAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
3 Foster Homes and they tried to HIDE MY BABY !!!!.. and his BRUISES!!!

For more information, see Sean’s MySpace: Foster Care ABUSE~Political PRISONER ! HOSTAGE CPS

CPS caseworkers in Washington apparently failed to follow up on fifteen reports of child abuse, but when a neighbor told police a teenage foster child was locked in the closet, the girl was finally rescued from what appears to be a horrific foster care abuse situation. Detectives said the first fifteen complaints weren’t acted on because the foster parent moved from apartment to apartment, and they couldn’t find her, yet at the same time this woman collected foster parent benefits for housing the young girl.

My theory is different. I believe that cases of child abuse in foster homes are ignored because CPS doesn’t get any money for taking children from one foster home and putting them in another. They only get an increase in funding when they take a child from their natural families, then place them in a foster home. Therefore foster child abuse isn’t a priority for busy CPS caseworkers.

Fight CPS hopes to shed light on the problem of abuse in foster homes. Statistics have shown that child abuse of all types is about ten times more likely to happen in a foster home than in a natural family home.

The child, who is now sixteen, lived with foster parent Chornice Lewis, 33, for ten years. Acquaintances said Lewis was very polite and made a good impression on them.

Police allege that if the foster child caused any problems, Lewis put the child’s hand on a hot stove. And if she didn’t listen she had to stand next to her foster parent’s bed all night long. If she slept, a 10-lb weight was dropped on her feet. And once, when she wasn’t packing properly, an insulin needle was plunged into her eye, so the girl is now blind in one eye.

According to a KOMOTV.Com article, Cheryl Stephani, an employee of the Washington Department of Social and Health Services, DSHS, said “We missed it. . . . As a child welfare system. It’s all of us, the courts, the department, the children’s administration. We should hold each other accountable; we need to hold each other accountable.”

Holding CPS caseworkers accountable = Good Idea. When?

Source: Mother accused of abusing foster daughter for years by Bryan Johnson, for KOMOTV.Com, published June 26, 2007.

Jack and Casey He were going through hard times years ago when they gave their baby girl, Anna Mae, to temporary foster parents. When they tried to get their child back, Jerry and Louise Baker refused to let go. Now Anna Mae is eight years old and the foster parents are still filing court papers, trying to keep her. It is people like this who give foster parenting a bad name. This case has been ongoing for six years, since the Bakers filed a motion in 2001 to try to terminate the He’s parental rights.

In January the Tennessee Supreme Court ruled that Anna Mae should be returned to her parents “in an expeditious manner” but Jack and Casey He are still waiting because the Bakers, with the help of their attorney, Larry Parish, made a federal court filing on June 12 asking that the Tennessee Supreme Court ruling be overturned. If the federal court doesn’t intervene, Anna Mae should be reunited with her family late in July.

Tennessee Attorney General Robert Cooper Jr. filed papers on June 18 criticizing the Bakers and Larry Parish for “a number of extreme and horrifying hypotheticals” included in the federal filing. For example, Parish wrote that the Tennessee Supreme Court was “amputating [the child's] legs” and that Jack and Casey He were “strangers” who “have become monsters in her world”.

The only reason Jack and Casey He weren’t visiting Anna Mae is that Jerry and Louise Baker got a lower court judge to ban them from seeing her back in 2001. Is this is what the Bakers twist around to call ‘abandonment’? And if Anna Mae He now thinks of her rightful parents as “monsters” that most likely has been instilled in her by her foster parents. I believe this is called brainwashing.

The Bakers believe Anna’s rights are being violated. What about her right to live with the parents God gave her? What about her right not to have her mind poisoned by foster parents who hate her parents enough to fight with Jack and Casey He in court about custody of their daughter?

Source: Supreme Court Decision Stands for Anna Mae He by Teri Whitcraft, ABC News Law & Justice Unit, published June 26, 2007.

See also: the Jack and Casey He page at FamilyRights.Us where there’s an ongoing collection of articles about the He Family since 2001.

Spokane City Councilman Bob Apple launched an outspoken attack on a CPS social worker he claimed submitted false court documents in a child welfare case involving a former employee and campaign volunteer, Daniel Morgan. The City Councilman stated that CPS kidnapped a 2-year-old child, and that the assistant attorney general should be jailed.

From the article:

“It’s a sham… If this is how the court system operates, then it’s broken.” – Bob Apple

Of course CPS said that the charges were “ridiculous” because they go to court and state that the child is “at risk of imminent harm”.

In this case the ex-husband of Morgan’s wife has made accusations against Morgan in a custody dispute.

From the article:

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

Now, this next part hits home with me:

“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.”

I find that so true – that too many people are willing to lie to get custody. That includes social workers, ex-spouses, girlfriends of ex-spouses, etc. And I plead with each one of you that if you’re in this situation, stay with the truth. Lies lead only to confusion. If you tell the truth, at least when it is all over, you still have your integrity.

City Councilman Bob Apple will advocate for any citizen that contacts him. Perhaps you might want to print out this article and take it to your city councilman (or woman) to see if that person is willing to go to bat for you. I’ve contacted my county supervisor several times, including for an issue involving CPS, and every time she’s been a great help and everything turned out perfectly.

Source: Apple puts spotlight on CPS by Benjamin Shors for the Spokane Spokesman Review, published June 23, 2007