- Joined
- May 8, 2017
- Messages
- 2,570
- Reaction score
- 694
- Location
- New York City area
- Gender
- Male
- Political Leaning
- Very Liberal
One of the things I have been concerned about over the years is the potential for abuse of Child Protective Services. Apparently a Texas Congressional candidate got on the wrong side of a dispute with his opponent 'Political dirty trick': False claim of child abuse alleged. One candidate allegedly invented a child abuse allegation out of thin air against his opponent.
These allegations can be very disruptive in that CPS will, on occasion, take away custody on an "emergency" basis first and ask questions later. In this case, apparently and from a quick skim of the civil litigation complaint spawned by this false report (link) CPS was called as a result of an emergency room visit by one of the children resulting from pain from athletic participation. The candidate arranged for the report, and then arranged for the allegations to be fed to the press.
If it weren't for personal experience with malicious calls I would have serious doubts about the veracity of this incident. However, our family was the victim of a few of these.
Typically a CPS visit starts in a very traumatic manner. A white van shows up at a late hour, usually after dinner time, for an "emergency"visit. If the two social workers who arrive, in their sole discretion, think there's an emergency they can take the kids with them.
Our merry voyage started when a special ed meeting broke up in disorder after the chair wanted to declassify the autistic son. My wife was visibly upset. CPS was called on her for coming back to the school to ask for another meeting. The complaint, and a companion complaint against me, was dismissed as "unfounded." There were two more, even more ridiculous and all dismissed as "unfounded."
In short, because of the anonymity of the report to CPS and the drastic action and loss of reputation stemming from such a report, there is very serious potential for abuse. And because of concerns about "racism" CPS can't, at least initially, take into account the apparently orderly nature of the families under investigation.
These allegations can be very disruptive in that CPS will, on occasion, take away custody on an "emergency" basis first and ask questions later. In this case, apparently and from a quick skim of the civil litigation complaint spawned by this false report (link) CPS was called as a result of an emergency room visit by one of the children resulting from pain from athletic participation. The candidate arranged for the report, and then arranged for the allegations to be fed to the press.
If it weren't for personal experience with malicious calls I would have serious doubts about the veracity of this incident. However, our family was the victim of a few of these.
Typically a CPS visit starts in a very traumatic manner. A white van shows up at a late hour, usually after dinner time, for an "emergency"visit. If the two social workers who arrive, in their sole discretion, think there's an emergency they can take the kids with them.
Our merry voyage started when a special ed meeting broke up in disorder after the chair wanted to declassify the autistic son. My wife was visibly upset. CPS was called on her for coming back to the school to ask for another meeting. The complaint, and a companion complaint against me, was dismissed as "unfounded." There were two more, even more ridiculous and all dismissed as "unfounded."
In short, because of the anonymity of the report to CPS and the drastic action and loss of reputation stemming from such a report, there is very serious potential for abuse. And because of concerns about "racism" CPS can't, at least initially, take into account the apparently orderly nature of the families under investigation.