Thank you for taking the time to read this! My name is Brooke and I live in Lafayette, IN and I am here asking for 200 signatures to help create MJ's Law. On December 8th, 2023, Tippecanoe County DCS workers Elizabeth Artis and Regan Younker entered my home, stating my third child was being removed due to being inadequately fed and medical neglect. Memphis was born 4/29/2023 with ASD and VSD,  Pyriform Aperture Stenosis, GERD and would eventually be diagnosed with panhypopituitarism.. while in DCS custody. 

The St Elizabeth NICU team worked tirelessly trying to figure out why our baby stinks wouldn't take more than 10ml per feeding. It turned out that Memphis was born with one underdeveloped nasal cavity. This is called, Pyriform Aperture Stenosis and is rare but can happen. Memphis was discharged home, on an NG, oxygen, monitors and Enfamil AR in order to help him grow. Memphis had PT/OT/ST through First Steps, a pediatrician, a dietician, a GI team, a lawyer and a case manager (for SSI), IU In-Home nursing, a nurse practitioner, and countless staff at St Elizabeth that loved and cared for him dearly. With this bit of background information on Memphis, I can share what I am wanting to change. 

1) DCS staff need more than just a bachelor's degree to determine if a child is being abused. The current case manager who is assigned my case is 21 years old! The requirements state that there is a minimum requirement of 3 years as a protective case worker. How is the state allowing someone so young to determine what child abuse is, straight out of college with no medical background at all? How is it fair to determine abuse, when the child has an extensive medical history? It isn't and I will not let another uneducated and not properly trained 21-year-old person, determine this for another medically fragile/special needs child!!

2) I do NOT want to see this happen to another child. I am wanting to have MJ's Law passed so that similar children and or families who deal with DCS are protected. There needs to be an extensive medical protocol when it comes to removing special needs and or medically fragile child(ren). 
"Meet children’s physical, emotional, and social needs. Strengthen and preserve children’s relationships with their families. Reflect and/or actively value a child’s culture. Minimize separation trauma." This is what childwelfare.gov states that DCS follows when doing assessments and during removal. They neglected three of MJ's rights, except value of culture. Who is to say that another child(ren)'s culture wouldn't be at stake? 


3) This is important to not only myself, my other children who were affected by his removal, but the child(ren). Did you know that when child(ren) are taken into DCS custody, slim to NO INFORMATION is relayed to the foster parents? MJ's foster parents had no idea of his diagnosis, his birth history, MEDICAL HISTORY, how he was to be fed and or how he was fed prior. This is critical. This was not only a personal blow but an eye opener from me. Imagine your child taken from you, they are 8 months old. They are medically fragile, on a routine, has set appointments, medications, therapies, visits to the hospital, etc. You already lost 40 days' time, after a traumatic birth, because of a NICU stay. You did the social work, the medical training, medication run down, talked with multiple doctors, therapists and nurses... just for your child to be taken because he's violently vomiting and will not gain weight. However, you've been following EVERYTHING the doctors have been telling you to do. And on that night, you have to listen to your two eldest cries, not only upset that their brother was taken, but in fear of being taken from you as well. If that right there doesn't ignite a fire in you, for the love of your child, I don't know what will. 

This is unacceptable. This is trauma, raw and unfiltered. This is disgusting and unfortunately, in America. This is MJ's Law.