There are some things in our system that need to be changed when it comes to the department of social services. Aka (CPS, DHS, DHSS etc.) In my experience and in the experience of almost everyone I’ve heard talk about their stories in dealing with Child protective services from friends, family members, people that deal with them in my hometown county, off of Fight CPS and Win radio station, to California families rise rally’s and people who speak on their stories there, to Facebook groups around CPS , to the articles that are more public such as the death of Gabriel Fernandez, there’s a few common themes in everyone’s case that sticks out.

That is that our civil and human rights are being violated by the dept every day and they get away with it and are never held accountable for their actions. Hence the actions continue just with different people and in a different county.

The system isn’t kind to domestic violence victims - they actually have the tendency to re-victimize victims again as most workers in the government and their paid service providers victim shame. Victims in these cases are looked at as the criminal. And the abuser is the one who normally gets the child of TPR doesn’t occur.

The judges do everything the dept requests of them. & most public defenders do not properly represent their clients & They certainly don’t present evidence from their clients. What most people are not aware of is that you cannot appeal a one sided case. The reason your case gets denied in the appellate court is because it is very one sided , and they cannot find fault the judge made in their findings due to the fact that all that’s being documented and presented in writing - put in front of the judge IS all coming from child protective services social worker. Meanwhile you have barely or no evidence to stand on because your public defender isn’t admitting anything to challenge the judge. When you ask your attorney to present this evidence and they do not - this goes against your right to due process, (14th amendment) and lowers your chances of gaining the outcome you should have. This is just the start.

Then we talk about the judge - who takes everything CPS says as the gospel truth, doesn’t allow you to have a contested hearing (violation of 14th amendment of due process) , and orders you to do things such as sign a Release of information to the petitioner (cps) your opposing party. To allow them to infringe on your right to privacy (4th amendment) of persons papers and things, and your right to not testify against yourself (5th amendment). 

 

Now let’s get to the biggest problem where child protective services take your children from your home without a warrant and there’s no emergency circumstances - this is another violation of your due process rights (14th amendment). Let’s not forget that these people go off “hearsay” to detain children, or will have a concern about the choices you have made as a parent (in my case I left my children with their biological father - when no Restraining order was up and no safety plan was signed, they came in with a warrant 3 months after a report was made and detained my kids for the accusations of what happened 3 months prior.) they have a time limit to these things and they were past their time limit to detain. Children are supposed to be detained under extreme circumstances and in my opinion our situation didn’t rise to the level of detainment. Especially when I offered to open a voluntary case with the dept and they said it wasn’t necessary. (If it wasn’t necessary, why did you detain my children 3 months later under the same allegations?)  This was a violation of my 4th, and 14th amendment. They took away my right to due process, took away what is legally my property (my children) and then we (the parents - adults) were forced to sign Releases of information to our opposing party to GIVE THEM A REASON TO KEEP OUR CHILDREN DETAINED! Our Dispositional hearing was supposed to be heard between 30-60 days and it went passed the 90 day mark our public defenders could of filed a JV-180 to dismiss the case since the dept didn’t have the evidence to keep our children detained. But instead they drug it all out - against our wishes - made decisions opposite of what we asked, and never submitted anything.

So our children wound up in foster care for 18 months. The dept wouldn’t allow my children to be with family and made every excuse to not allow our children the right to be with their blood relatives. That goes against WIC code 309. (Their own rules and regulations are broken). Social workers put lies in the court reports, and will have their service providers report what they want to prove their agenda in court to get the outcome they want. To many parents rights are terminated because of how the system works. To many social workers get away with abusing their power because of how the system is designed. & to many service providers are ignorant to the lies and deceptions these social workers a crossed the board exposed in all of juvenile dependency cases. 

In my case there was a service provider who was told by my social worker I was going to sue him. I had no clue what he was talking about when he brought this up to me. He told me he was thinking about dropping me from class so we were to have a meeting with his boss the following week. A few days later the social worker called my service provider up and asked him when he dropped me, what was my response, and to send it all in an email with the details. He told her he didn’t drop me and he wasn’t going to. That was when he realized he was being played. This social worker lied to my provider in hopes he would drop me from his class so I would not graduate. She became a barrier in my success to reunify with my daughter instead of helping me remove the barriers - as social workers are supposed to do.

This social worker tried to convince everyone I was someone I wasn’t, in order for her court reports to be presented the way she saw fit to meet her agenda in court. 

Another thing that had been done is the dept alienated me from my daughter. There was a pattern to every missed visit claiming she didn’t want to see me , when before she was placed with her bio dad she never missed a visit with me.  The dept did this on purpose to fit their agenda in court. It was intentional. They PUSH for the outcome they desire to take place in court. That is how deep the system runs, and how far they will go.

 

The bio dad to my eldest daughter was my abuser, and he could do no wrong in our cps case. He hurt me, but I was the psychopath (according to his treating psychiatrist - not my treating psychiatrist). I was HIS victim, but he didn’t have any mental illness that needed medication. They TWIST your position and that is how they re-victimize you in the system. This is abuse of power, along with power and control - and this is also considered emotional and psychological abuse that the dept of child protective services and their service providers are doing to parents involved in juvenile dependency cases! (They take your children in Domestic violent situations - meanwhile they are being abusive themselves to help you “change”. How does that make sense?) If your are a victim, You are the criminal in these cases. You have less rights than the guy on trial in criminal court does for murdering 100+ people. 

The judge admits hearsay in juvenile dependency cases - when in every other case - hearsay ISNT ADMISSABLE. Child protective services can lie - and the judge will believe them over you. You will lose your children, and your rights if that’s what the social worker wants. 

my social worker told me to divorce my husband, and if I didn’t she wouldn’t return my child. There is a past there, but there was many people at fault for my daughters trauma. My husband being one of four people who caused my daughters trauma. At the end of my case the social worker said my visits cause my daughter trauma because seeing me triggers her memories of the abuse that happened in my home. & yet her bio dad hurt me in front of her, her bio dad hurt her step mom in front of her, and he is the “soothing” parent and gets sole physical and legal custody of her. While I got my legal rights stripped and have no visits with my daughter who struggled year long with mother childhood abandonment issues - documented by her therapist. (Of course the dept didn’t show the judge because this wouldn’t fit their accusations/speculations/ or fit their agenda in court.) I would like to add my husband and I did the work - and have changed our life for ourselves and our children. We made some pretty big mistakes, and now all we want to do is atone for the mistakes we have made and be better parents to our children today. The mistakes we made in the past will never be repeated in the future. 

Note: please note that people who WANT to change (not forced to change) will change. But the people who don’t see what they do is wrong, will fake it and the dept is easily fooled by the person faking it. The person faking it acts fast and usually hasn’t changed their deeper routes because they are not held accountable for their actions. (Lack of consequences leads to bigger problems in the future). 

Let’s talk service providers; in the counties service providers are aware of the corruption - they are very minimal in the information they give to the courts. But in the counties where the service providers are ignorant, to much information is given, and information that goes beyond the service providers scope of practice is given and put in court reports by the social worker. In my case they refused to give me information about myself because cps was paying them - so everything they have to say about me (the client) goes to the dept. (since when does an adult NOT have the right to the things in their own file? . . . )This is another violation of the 4th amendment, your right to your personal documentation about YOURSELF. 

There is so much more but I am going to base this petition off just this as I have written to much. & I am only 1 of thousands of parents who has experienced the abuse of power in the justice system aka “child protective services.” 

 

Things I want to change:

 

1.) Eliminate child protective services (social workers / judges) impunity.

reason: no one should be exempt from the law or justice. People need accountability. You take accountability away people aren’t going to follow the law or respect other people’s rights who do not have certain impunities to protect them, such as the general public known as the people. (Judges and social workers are people - just like the rest of the general public they make mistakes - and just like the public they need to be held accountable.) 

 

2.) Hearsay should NOT be allowed in juvenile dependency courts anywhere, at anytime. 

reason: people lie, if hearsay isn’t allowed in any other court - juvenile dependency courts should be held to the same standard. 

3.) consequences for people adverse in the law who mis-represent the public. (public defenders/ juvenile court judges).  

reason: parents rights are being unjustifiably terminated due to lack of proper representation. Parents who are being represented by Public defenders should be aware of their rights, their options, and how to go about their case. They should be properly represented with their evidence being submitted in front of the judge, with their right to a contested hearing, bringing witnesses to the stand, and with their right to a neutral unbiased judgement. 

4.) Consequences to Social workers and juvenile dependency judges for violating civil rights, parent rights, and human rights in juvenile dependency court. 

reason: This could be a preventative of future mistakes in the system and can make things more fair and just for the people. Even the playing field to a more neutral stance. With a more fair judgment. 

 

5.) Eliminate speculations and assumptions in social workers court reports to a strictly factual basis. 

reason: if there is no evidence to support a conclusion it should not be in a court report. Speculation and accusations aren’t factual and to misrepresent evidence to fit the agenda of the social worker is NOT in the child’s best interest. Presenting facts IS. 

6.) Social workers should have consequences for not presenting all evidence - and only using what they choose to support their agenda in court. 

reason: it is gravely unfair to the people for social workers to take advantage of their high standing positions by withholding factual evidence to the courts to lead them in the direction they want the case to go. It’s misleading, and should be illegal in the court system. 

 

THANK YOU !!!! ��