It is important because our nation's children are being abused, neglected and deprived of their families. Some of these children do not come from horiffic family backgrounds. But the majority of them come from families living below the poverty line and the only crime the parents did was not have a lot of money. I am an Undergratuate Law student minoring in Political Science. This is my calling to wake up the Nation because I have experienced it first hand. I have two sons one that is Bipolar with an extra Y chromosone, which makes him more aggressive then most young men his age. He has been in special education for behavioural duisorders since the age of five. He has had three prior diagnoses of Bipolar including a federal Psychologist to approve his SSI for it. I was on a search to find him help when he was about thirteen, he got attracked to less than desirable life and I wanted more for him. I am a single mother and sole provider. I had done enormous research on the interenet to find a behavioural group home that specifically that had the training to deal with the conditions my son poses. On my findings all these places required $3,500- $5,000 a month (which is out of my price range.) Then I found a behavioural group home called " Boys Town" the only thing that they required was a Social Service or a Probation Officer refferal, ( at the time he had neither.) At the last violent episode he had at my house he was yet again sent to Willow Rock Psych Ward on 5150 a 24-72 hour hold, which me and his younger brother where shoken up from his episode. Willow Rock then called me 8 hours later when I was at work. They told me if I don't come get him right now that they were going to have CPS take him. I unforetunatly come from New Zealand and I have no relatives living any where close to me or friends were unwilling to pick him up for me because of his condition. So he was subjected to CPS and when I went to the Team Decision Meeting ( TDM ), they gave me the decision if I would like to take him home or stay with them? I thought about it and thought this might be the time he can get the help he desperatly needs and get in to Boys Town, ( Boys Town has been around for almost 100 years with great outcomes.) I made a condition if They reffer him to Boys Town because he needs help, I don't want to see him in jail, or living in a psych ward, and I don't want to barry my son ( at the time I was living in East Oakland, a really bad neighborhood because that was all I could afford. In that neighborhood you would go to sleep with gunfire all around you.) If I knew the things I know now I would have never left him with them. I thought they were "Child Protective" Services since he has been in their two years they still have not sent him to where I wanted him to go. Instead he was shifted through over sixteen placements some that have only lasted a week. I asked his Social Worker, " How do you think that is helping him? What about his self-esteem? " Also, one court date my son said he doesn't want to take his Bipolar medication anymore he was fourteen at the time, the judge said he didn't have to because he can't force it down his throat.Would the judge say the same thing if a diabetic child came in and didn't want to take their shot of insulin anymore because it hurts to get a shot? How can he say that he is not a doctor or psychologist? I have done extesive research on Bipolar Disorder after my son was diagnosed, and it is a chemical in balance in the brain that only worsens without medication. So instead, the judge said it was okay for my son to self-medicate off marijuana, he isn't even old enough to smoke cigarettes. The placements let him wonder all day and night outside, by saying they can't keep him if he wants to go he goes. There have been times where I have had to go pick him up, ( I keep him with a cell phone because I still have parental rights,) when they refuse to let him even in the door. If he didn't have a cell phone he might be sleeping nights in the street cold scared and alone. One night I get a call at 1am from the juvenile detention center saying he was there. I visit him there and find out he had left the Assessment Center, ( the place where they put the kids before they find their next placement.) Upon his return no one from the center would let him back in, and he lost his phone and couldn't call me. My son told me that he was approached by an officer with a baton out, he got spooked and ran. The officer caught up to him grabbed him by the shoulder. My son said, " Mom, I don't even remember hitting him..." I could tell in his eyes he was being honest, and I know his condition he might not know. But he was charged with assault and battery on a police officer. How are they protecting the children? Why are they neglecting the special needs of children with mental disrders and let them wonder the streets even pass curfew? Why would they not let them inside upon return? When he was released it took the Social Worker a week to bring him the clothes from his previous placement I asked if I could get them many times and bring it down to him and each time they refused to give them to me. My final voicemail I left for his worker was, " How would you like it if you were him and you had to sit there in your dirty under for a week? You would be miserable and depressed that nobody cared that you are suffering." She finally took it to him after that message. They use deflemation of character of my name saying that he was taken from me. If that was the case why did they not take both my sons? Why have I never lost my parental rights? Why do they keep saying he is not ready to come home yet? That they want to give him back but he is not ready? I have been in touch with numerous organizations, government agencies and advocates. I have become a vigilanty and a self proclaimed "parent advocate." I have even called the California "OnBuzz," a non-biased California government agency established to do internal investigations of the CPS system. I will be in contact with the Govener Jerry Brown's office, Lt. Govener Gavin Newsome, as well as Senator Loni Hancock, and Ca. state assembly Nancy Skinner and Rob Bonta. I have the " I can" and the "I will" to make changes in the broken system of CPS. My son is one story in hundreds of thousands like his. Our Nation's children are suffering every second of everyday, it is not fair to the children to turn a blind eye. These childrens innocense is getting stripped from them. They are our future, and our future is looking dark if this is what they are doing to them. They are going to grow up with hate of the government, hate in authority and fear of both. CPS is an obimination for they are not protecting the one's they were set out to protect, the children. I learned in college in a class about learned hoplessness, where people learn to be hopeless because they don't think they can escape out of the situation they are in. Together we can change this horrific situation, but we have to unite as one nation and over come the feeling of being hopeless to come to the childrens aid. The Bill of Rights says, "WE THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES TO BUILD A MORE PERFECT UNION...." That is essentially what we need to do rebuild and challenge governmental policies because we are the people of the United States. We no longer can turn a blind eye to our nations children in this obomination called CPS that is severely neglecting, and abusing our nation's children. It might not be your child, but that child is still an American born citizen and which entitles them to the same protections by both the federal constitution as well as the state consitutions, yet they have fallen through the cracks. What is America going to look like when we are old and our nation's children are running the country that they hate because WE THE PEOPLE did not step up and unite to make changes in the cracked system that cruelly and unusually punishes the innocent children. We need to make a change for the children and the families affected. For the one's that are effected today and in the future if we do not ensure checks and balances in the system are made soon. LETS UNITE AS ONE NATION TO MAKE A CHANGE FOR THE SAKE OF OUR NATION'S CHILDREN. WITH YOUR HELP I AM WILLING TO FIGHT TO CHANGE STATE AND FEDERAL LEGISLATION THAT TURNS A BLIND EYE TO THE TORTURES AND NEGLECT OUR NATION'S CHILDREN SEE.