On Dec. 17, 2012, my nephew Andrew Dube was taken from our family by Victorville, California's, Child Protective Services on unsubstantiated charges. We have not seen him since, nor do we know where he is. He will be 5 on April 15. Please help us.

He was first put into foster care in July of 2010 after his baby sister died of SIDS. He was almost 15 months old. After the baby's death, CPS looked up the parents and found a report that they and the police had earlier dismissed. The father had poked a child (from the mother's previous relationship) in the chest, and he accidentally fell into a table. While the parents were still at the hospital, CPS told them to go to their offices to sign something. When the parents got there, however, they were interrogated. The next day, the other boy was put with his biological father and Andrew was put in foster care. The parents visited him at the CPS office until police suddenly showed up at their door and arrested them three months later. They were charged with willful cruelty to a child. The father's lawyer said that the law wanted something with which to charge them in case they went after a murder charge in the death of the baby. The mother got out on bail. The father was told that he would be in jail for a long time. After two months, he plead guilty to abuse to get out. They never had a trial, nor were they ever allowed to speak for themselves.

I had seen Andrew two days before he was taken, and he was a normal baby. After my mother saw him at the CPS office three weeks later, she said that he looked lost. Various people in the family put in to foster him, but all were refused. CPS put lies in their reports and the court believed them. One employee told my mother that she had confirmed that the charges of abuse were substantiated, despite the fact that the police had found no evidence.

Andrew was returned in March, 2012. His stay in foster care had so traumatized him that he would get upset whenever a CPS agent came to the house. Nine months later, his 14-month-old brother died in his sleep. Andrew remembered what this meant. As his grandmother drove him and his parents to the hospital, she heard him asking for reassurance that they would all be going home together. CPS took him that night. Four days after their son's death, San Bernardino County's Juvenile Dependency Court told the parents that they would see Andrew in a month, but on subsequent visits they were told that they could not see him at all, that they had to pay child support, and that he was in an adoptive home. Neither they nor anyone else in the family was allowed to see him, despite repeated calls. CPS told my mother that it was because he was getting “age-appropriate therapy”. One of his aunts put in the paperwork to adopt him, but CPS denied her. This Dec. 9, his parents were told that their parental rights had been taken away. 

I have found that this is depressingly common. It is very easy to find such stories of innocent parents helpless before CPS.Please give voice to the voiceless. Andrew became one of 55,218 children in California's foster care system in 2012. 4100 were from our county. How many of them are lost in the system? Please help us. We feel like we have no other options. Any help would be appreciated.

Sincerely, Mary Bissell

March, 31, 2014