From: ralph@sundeck.megatek.com (Ralph Wickwire)
Subject: Re: Children's Services
Organization: Megatek Corporation, San Diego, California
Distribution: usa
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 1992 17:15:20 GMT

|>  > him about 4 months ago), I am totally for people getting
|>  > envolved with agencies trying to find children but I am
|>  > totally against sicking agencies such as CPS and the IRS on
|>  > people when you do not have one bit of evidence ... but just
|>  > some gut feeling that may change tomorrow.  A bruise on a leg
|>  > today may have been the result of falling off of a new
|>  > bicycle yesterday.


|> I totally disagree with your statement about Childrens services, or 
whatever it
|> is called down there.....sure there are times when they make the wrong 
judgment
|> call, on both ends of the scale, not investigating throughly and taking a
|> child, when there is real evidence of abuse, and sometimes yes, they get
|> involved in situations where there is no abuse....however, place yourself 
in
|> their position...it would be very hard to make that judgment call, they are 
not
|> GODS, or whatever. I would prefer them making mistakes in cases where there 
is
|> no abuse, instead of them making them in cases where there is...and the 
child
|> is beaten to death....I have heard of this happeing alot more, and it 
sickens
|> me....
|> 


CPS many times doesn't do any investigation, and is not required to do so
in many states. Just a call from the baby sitter that says a child has 
a bruise, and the baby sitter believes there is something wrong is enough.
CPS doesn't need proof, investigation, a warrent, or anything except an
internally generated piece of paper to take a child out of a home.
The children that this happens to are traumatized just like they had
been molested. They don't know who they can trust, and they don't think 
that their family unit is secure anymore.  

I have Asian relatives that have had their children taken from the home
because the baby sitter called CPS, and reported constant bruises. CPS did
an investigation after the fact, and found that the "bruises" were 
Mongolian spots - which almost all Asian children have. The baby sitter
was white. The children were away from the home for a week before CPS
returned them.

Even if a child is truly being abused, the child still feels the family
ties, and depends on the family for shelter, food, and some security. If
the abuse is bad enough that the childs life is in danger, CPS should have
no problem in finding proof quickly. In conversations with Social Workers
that have worked for CPS, most of the time, the children are put back 
in the same home where they are removed from after an investigation -
regardless of whether there was abuse or not. Parents are repremanded,
or counseled, etc maybe, but ...  I think CPS needs to do a full
investigation prior to making contact with the home. The initial part
of the investigation should be to find out if there is life threatening
abuse, then proceed to the details of abusive behavior. If it is truly
life threatening, the child could be removed before the full investigation
is complete. Otherwise, the child would be left in the home until completion,
then when removed, the laws would be stronger with respect to the fate
of the child, and the child would never be returned. The ultimate fate 
of the child should be determined before contact. There could be two or
three possible fates depending on the response of the parents. 
(ie: 1) child will go to CPS if parents are uncooperative, 2) if parents
agree to a court [not CPS] set counseling, service, or training the 
child will be returned to grandparents first, then to the parents)

This implies that CPS becomes more an investigative service, and 
the court actually works with CPS to provide the post investigation
social services. In other words, I think there should be a CIS (Children's
Investigative Service) that would do the initial investigations. They would
have no power to take children from the home, but would be required to
submit a report to the court. The court would then would provide 
a plan to CPS (would be only a court ordered social services). CPS would 
then execute the plan with some feedback to the court, and CIS. CIS 
would have the tools, and people to do complete investigations for the court. 


I've rambled enough here, sorry this is so long. I have very strong opinions
on what children deserve, and have the right to. A discussion of CPS, and
abused children probably doesn't belong in alt.missing-kids anyway.