This thread is for you to post your favorite websites about families victimized by CPS. You can also post your websites, blogs, MySpace pages, Facebook pages, or anything like that, so that others can connect with you.

Lots of links to other sites… that’s what I’m hoping for here. I’ll start off with a few. See the comments section!

If you have been forced to pay child support while your child is in foster care, you’ll want to read about how Greg Smart of San Diego has convinced the county to dismiss their child support case against him.

His blog posts:
How to get your child support case dismissed - Part I
How to get your child support case dismissed - Part II

Just received this in email:

The Congressional Education and Labor subcommittee on Healthy Families and Communities is conducting a hearing on the reauthorization of the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) tomorrow, November 5th.

You can reach the subcommittee members by calling the capitol switchboard, at (202) 224-3121 and ask to be connected to one of the following Subcommittee on Healthy Families and Communities members:

Carolyn McCarthy, Chairwoman
Todd “Russell” Platts, Ranking Member
Yvette Clarke
Howard P. “Buck” McKeon
Robert C. “Bobby” Scott
Brett Guthrie
Carol Shea-Porter
David P. Roe
Paul Tonko
Glenn “GT” Thompson
Jared Polis
George Miller
Judy Chu

Let’s make those phones RING

More information - this link was sent to me by LawDoll (Leesa) - thank you!
American Humane Testifies for Reauthorization & Expansion of Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, Plus Increased Use of ‘Differential Response’ and Other Approaches

Update: Watch the archived webcast of this hearing: Preventing Child Abuse and Improving Responses to Families in Crisis

… THANKS TO ALL WHO MADE CALLS. PLEASE KEEP THE NUMBER AND KEEP CALLING THESE PEOPLE …

CPS Post Audit is a new blog tracking Kansas child welfare legislation and related topics.

It is vital to know about upcoming CPS child welfare legislation in your state if you want to help stop CPS injustice.

I would love to see a blog similar to this one created for all fifty states. Keep an eye on those state legislators and make sure they know what your issues are!

From the inception of the FightCPS.Com site in October, 2000, I was aware of North Carolina CPS abuses and always have thought of North Carolina as one of the most corrupt states (for child welfare) in our country. This impression comes because there have been many North Carolina residents online complaining about child welfare injustice there, whereas for other states like North Dakota or West Virginia, you rarely meet anyone with a complaint.

For example, the Candace case: A five-year-old girl was ripped from her loving mother because mom couldn’t find a ride to go pick her up from Head Start on time one day. Candace was adopted out to a nurse practitioner who took her to Colorado for “rebirthing therapy”… which caused Candace’s death at the age of ten.

Now another ten year old child needs to be rescued from North Carolina’s child welfare industry. He belongs in the state of Texas and his father has court documents to prove it. But North Carolina not only won’t let go of Joshua William Smith, they seem to be hiding this child. The full story is on the Stop Corrupt DSS blog. Here’s the link: Where is Joshua William Smith?

I just connected with Shauna D. Robinson on Twitter and discovered her new Ning group, Colorado’s Children. I’m pretty excited about it.

What a great venue for a family rights advocacy and support group! I would love to see Ning groups for each state. I use Ning with a few groups connected to my work on Squidoo.Com and love the versatility and ease of setup. Shauna’s group shows some of the great Ning functions such as video presentation, blogging, a forum, and a community photo slide show.

Good show, Shauna!

…

If you have a site you’d like to have featured here on FightCPS, please let me know. My email link is at the bottom of this page.

An Arkansas woman has been arrested, ostensibly for burning a child with a cigarette. The charge was made by a physician, but a second physician diagnosed the sore as a staph infection.

See: Arkansas Mother ARRESTED after Protecting Children from Foster Care

The father’s letter has been posted on the web: Response from Suzanne McHenry’s Husband.

More information on Facebook: Suzanne and Calvin McHenry Support Group.
…
Please get a Twitter account and follow family rights bloggers: FU4 Child Rights, Amiablyme, and FightCPS.

A few days ago I found Kit and Nancy Hey’s amazing photograph on my Gather Family Rights group, and asked for permission to post it here:

I spent some time looking through Kit and Nancy’s website and all Nancy’s articles on Gather.Com. I was especially touched by her photographs of Sabrina on their website, and by the videos of her speech at the 2008 DC Family Preservation Rally.

In her speech Nancy stated that a CPS social worker detained her child, not because Sabrina was in any immediate danger, but because she was miffed that the Heys wanted to consult an attorney before allowing any further intrusions against their privacy.

Sabrina was born on April 3, 2005 and detained at the age of only twenty-two days; the reason given was ‘failure to thrive’ although she was under doctor’s care and eight pounds at the time. Later Sabrina’s mother was accused of having a learning disability that would interfere with parenting, but when I see Nancy Hey on video reading her statement, and on Gather.Com writing articles, I can’t see that there’s any evidence of her being handicapped to the extent that parenting wouldn’t be possible.

This looks like a clear-cut case of injustice, and I hope everyone here will join me in prayers, good wishes, vibrations, energy, or whatever you can give, for this persecuted, wrongfully attacked family. The case is currently being appealed and all visitations have been cut off.

You can click on the picture above to go to Kit and Nancy’s website.

More information about the DC Family Preservation Rally: 2008, 2009. (The 2009 site appears to be under construction.)

[Update: Today I found this link: Child Snatcher Judge - with a photo of the couple little Sabrina was given to. Apparently they had their own baby and Sabrina may be neglected in favor of the natural child.]

Washington grandparents Doug and AnneMarie Stuth have every right and reason to be caretakers of their three-year-old granddaughter, yet caseworkers at Child Protective Services are making up unreasonable justifications to keep the cute little blonde girl in foster care. They say the Stuth’s aren’t making an effort to support the child’s reunification with her teen mother, the Stuth’s daughter. Yet a KING5 news video report proves they have done everything in their power to help the mother have access to her child.

The Stuths made their case high-profile through going to their state legislators including Senator Pamela Roach, and to the news media. They are fighting the case in court. They are a good example for the many thousands of other grandparents who want custody of their grandchildren who have been placed in foster homes. The denial of kinship care rights to grandparents is one of the worst aspects of current child protective services corruption. CPS agencies want to adopt children out to strangers so they can qualify for federal subsidy bonuses.

Source: Investigators: Grandparents passed over in favor of foster care by Susannah Frame on December 11, 2008, for KING5 News. Be sure to read through all the related content on this article! This is a major exposé!

A word to CPS workers: The word is out… everyone knows how corrupt the CPS agencies are. Come out of your dark offices and admit to the world and to yourselves that you’ve done wrong. Good always triumphs over evil. The love of family overcomes the evil of family destruction. In time you will see this is true.

Hannah Overton, 30, the Texas foster parent and Christian homeschooling mother of five convicted to life in prison without parole for the murder of a foster child, is asking for a new trial.

She was convicted in September 2007 because she allegedly forced a four year old, Andrew Burd, to drink a mixture of two cups water, salt, pepper, chili powder and Cajun spices as a punishment. Hannah’s version of this is different. She says the child requested the “Zatarain’s Seasoning” and she put it in water instead of on food because he had an overeating disorder. She says she did not force him to drink it as a punishment. Source: Free Hannah Overton Website.

While many more violent foster parents have gotten off with a mere hand-slap, this young woman was sentenced to life without parole even though she had no intention to kill the child. She reportedly panicked when she saw Andrew wasn’t breathing, and waited an hour and a half to call for medical assistance. This is what the prosecutor said made her responsible for Andrew’s death. Source: Woman Convicted In Foster Child’s Death Seeks New Trial published on November 7, 2008 at KWTX.com.

A commenter at Sarah Walston’s blog article about Hannah Overton said that the actual time Overton waited to take Andrew to the hospital was only five minutes, not an hour and a half.

This case shows that foster parenting is a dangerous occupation. For years now I’ve warned people NOT to get involved with the foster care industry because of the risk of false accusations, and because of things like this where foster children die or are murdered, and there must be accountability.

One foster parent wrote on Sarah Walston’s blog:
“This story TERRIFIES me because I currently have 2 foster children living in my home, and now I’m forced to think ‘What IF this happens to ME?’ This story shows how easily some unfortunate twist of fate, can leave someone wrongfully convicted…”

There is a website created by Overton’s Christian supporters: Free Hannah Overton.

My opinion on this is that she got a much longer sentence than she deserved. Without a doubt, forcing a child to drink hot spices is a form of child abuse, and she deserved some prison time if she actually did that, but to put her away for life without parole is far too much time, especially for a young woman who is unlikely to be a danger to society if set free.

Another blog article, Suffer the Children, gives an opposing view, criticizing the “Free Hannah Overton” movement and pointing to perceived flaws in the thinking and writing of those seeking to help her.

For a picture of Andrew Burd: Corpus Christi Couple Charged in Death.

See also: Hannah Overton convicted of killing foster son.

This case has become a favorite cause for bloggers, especially Christian bloggers:
Hannah Overton :: Pray for Hannan Overton :: Release Hannah Overton :: Free Hannah!!! :: Hannah Overton Alleged Salt Poisoning Case :: Urgent Prayer Request for Hannah Overton :: May God Bless Hannah Overton and Family :: Free Hannah Overton :: Free Hannah Overton.

Other FightCPS articles about Hannah Overton: Texas: Fosterer charged with murdering 4-yr-old boy with hot pepper

Hannah’s aunt posted extensive information on her MySpace blog in which she said part of the conviction relied on a FALSE affidavit filed by a CPS social worker! See: The Wrongful Conviction of Hannah Overton.

What is your opinion? Should Hannah Overton be freed? Should her sentence (life without parole) be exchanged for something less harsh? Or do you think she got what she deserved?

Baby Alyssa had bone fractures, but why? Social workers reacted by taking her away from her parents, Dave and Tiffany Cuin-O’Shell. When they took baby Alyssa, Tiffany was hysterical. Wouldn’t you be?

That was only thirteen days before she died. Police officer Dave O’Shell, suspected of child abuse and expecting to be arrested at any time, apparently snapped. He shot his wife, then himself thirteen days after the Colorado CPS social workers violated their lives.

Only two days later the foster mother said at a court hearing that the child had something wrong with it. Genetic tests were ordered and it was discovered that baby Alyssa had spinal muscular atrophy. This prevents muscles from developing and caused her 11 bone fractures.

It was never Dave’s fault - he was innocent of the child abuse charges.

Tiffany’s parents fought for custody of baby Alyssa and were able to take her home, but her health deteriorated. She died last Tuesday and has gone to be with her parents.

This didn’t have to happen.

Source: Baby wasn’t abused by cop dad; she died of fatal malady by Judi Villa, published October 31, 2008 in the Rocky Mountain News.

I found this article through Dana’s new blog: DHS steals children for $$$Money$$$. She explains on her blog how her only grandchild has been taken by a woman with a criminal history, who works as a DHS social worker, apparently.

Have you noticed that Senator Pamela Roach of Washington state is using her blog to defend family rights? She’s posted multiple articles to expose Child Protective Services for the terrible family-destroying agency that it is.

THANK YOU Senator Roach!

Now she’s under attack by an angry foster parent. This foster adoptive woman (I can’t honestly call her a foster “parent”) exposed herself and her name by filing an ethics complaint against the senator.

Read the details at Senator Roach’s blog, and show your support… with a comment, if you feel moved to do so: The Pam Roach Report.

We need more legislators like this one who are willing to speak the truth about Child Protective Services.