Anthony and Lisa Demaree lost their children to CPS agents after a clerk at Walmart reported that they had bath-time photos developed there. CPS didn’t accept that the photos were innocent. The parents were charged with child sexual maltreatment of their children. Apparently they requested a trial and fought the charges because their children were returned after only a month. The judge agreed that the pictures were harmless.

Unfortunately a lot of damage was done by that time. Lisa Demaree was suspended from her job at a school for a year, and they’re both now on the Arizona list of sex offenders.

They’re fighting back with a lawsuit against Walmart and the city of Peoria, Arizona.

Source: Innocent Bath-Time Photos Get Kids Taken Away From Parents by Susan Avery, published September 21, 2009 at ParentDish.Com. (This link includes a video and a place where you can comment.)

I like this video because it show two people who have probably never had CPS problems… and they see how CPS has totally overstepped its bounds. The public is realizing that CPS is taking children that have never been abused.

Tamekca Evett Walker, 26, has been convicted of killing a 17-month-old girl who was a foster child in her home. She said the child cried constantly and so she held her hand over the girl’s mouth until she was quiet.

Walker was found guilty of second-degree-murder. The foster child also had internal injuries and a diaper rash so severe she’d been bleeding.

Source: Sacto woman guilty of murdering foster child - AP article published July 21, 2009 in the Silicon Valley Mercury News.

My comment is that it is about time that foster parents are found guilty of murder, rather than of some lesser charge like child maltreatment, when foster children are killed.

A New York based advocacy group called Children’s Rights is suing the state of Michigan in federal court on behalf of 19,000 foster children who may be endangered by maltreatment in the foster care system.

The Michigan Department of Human Services refused to provide documentation on sixty-seven foster children who died in state care there since 2004. At least three of those children were killed in state licensed foster homes. Circumstances regarding the other deaths are unclear as the state refuses to release records.

At a hearing on Tuesday, August 7, 2007 U.S. District Judge Nancy G. Edmunds ruled that an expert must be hired to assess the Michigan foster care system’s adequacy. The expert, Christopher Baird of the Children’s Research Center, will study 460 random Michigan foster care files

Judge Edmunds also ordered the state to release certain foster care documents by August 31, 2007.

Sources:
Court fight over Mich. foster care system set for Tuesday by Jack Kresnak, Free Press Staff Writer

U.S. judge names expert to assess Michigan foster care system, an AP article posted at WoodTV.Com.

This week I had guests on this website that are not sympathetic to our cause. John and Brooke, who post from Texas, seem to think they are God’s gift to Unfortunate Children … in other words, they are self-righteous foster parents. See the messages they contributed to this site at Texas: “The System Is Maxed”.

Normally I have no problem with having foster parents posting here at Fight CPS. Some foster parents are loving, kind, and truly on the side of parents who want to regain custody of their children. I appreciate that they care enough to come here and give advice to suffering parents and other natural family members.

John and Brooke did not fit that description. They apparently were here to insult and annoy the suffering people who this site was created to help. Some of their comments were inappropriate and unkind, and some of those are being held in the moderation queue because they are not appropriate for this site.

At first I didn’t know they were related though it was clear that John was backing up Brooke and railing against me, including a few rude comments along the way. I’d had enough of him when John finally declared, “I am not at all simpathetic [sic] to the people who complain about removal because I don’t know if they are truthful, I know that these parents will lie or tell only part of the story to gain simpathy [sic] from anyone that will listen.”

The people who come to this site - those for whom this site is intended - do not need to be insulted by being called liars.

In retrospect it is humorous to see that John is so unfamiliar with the concept of sympathy that he cannot even spell it right.

Because of John’s rude statement, I put his future comments on moderation by putting his Texas IP number in the comment moderation box in my blog administration panel.

I was surprised when I woke up the next day and found a comment from Brooke in my moderation queue! It was then that I noticed that Brooke and John were using the same IP number!

That day John finally admitted to being a foster parent receiving money from the state. It was as I’d suspected - he has his hands in the pockets of the system and so naturally is blind to anything that might be wrong with what he’s doing. He wrote, “I couldn’t really care less about the money I am financially secure without it.”

Does that qualify him to leave comments on this system where there are hundreds of suffering parents and family members seeking help every day, insulting everyone by calling them liars? I think not, and won’t tolerate it. So I decided that John and Brooke will not have any further comments published.

Brooke posted one more time - and I have not published it - her final comment remains in the moderation queue because it is an insult to another suffering parent who is trying to recover from heroin addiction. Like most people here, I’ve never tried heroin and never will, but I do not believe it is right to spew hatred and recriminations at people who are trying to recover from an addiction, as Brooke did in her final comment.

I honestly cannot understand why Brooke and John were so intent on posting here. They have no respect for the people who come to this site for help, and don’t have a clue as to why I started and maintain this site. They have their foster home money and some Unfortunate Children… and yes, I’m concerned about the children in their care. If this is how they respond to suffering people, those children may be receiving similar maltreatment at the hands of these self-righteous people.

The point of this story is in the title to the post. People who come to this site should be aware it is my intention to build suffering people up, not tear them down. Tearing them down is what CPS does. I’ve known for nearly twenty years that what CPS does is find people who are going through a rough spot in life, then the caseworkers kick them while they’re down, figuratively speaking, by destroying their families.

Here at Fight CPS we must do the opposite. When suffering people come here, we must give them hope, strengthen them, build them up, love them, care for them, understand them (we are all God’s children) . . . and give them tools to use to express themselves in court so that CPS workers aren’t the only ones going in with legal paperwork, prepared for court.

John and Brooke, be gone. We don’t need anyone telling people they have problems. Everyone who gets involved with CPS is aware already they’ve got a problem and/or made mistakes. They don’t need you stuffing your recriminations down their throats. God help the children you’re warehousing for the state.

…

* I know the exact city their IP number comes from but am concealing that information, for now.