Court Opinion

ID: 9543300
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 16:44:06.291077+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:10:06.467455
License: Public Domain

CIRILLO, Judge,
dissenting:
I must respectfully dissent. After a careful review of the record, I find that Children and Youth Services (CYS) did not prove by clear and convincing evidence that the natural parents are unable and unwilling to remedy the conditions that led to the removal of their son from their care.
Steven S. was removed from his parental home when he was two months old. He has not yet been returned to his parents. The trial court, in its opinion, stated that “[t]he incidents that led to Steven’s removal strongly suggested that Steven’s birth had disrupted the functioning of this family.” Steven is now nine years old. It strains credulity to suggest that the same stress and disruption caused by a newborn’s constant need for attention exists today. The trial court clearly states that “this case is unusual in that there are presently four other children in the home. The children appear to be doing well in a family that appears to be providing appropriate care." Moreover, the majority readily admits that “C & YS caseworkers stated that [the father] was fit to be around children, and that psychological tests did not reveal a propensity for child abuse.”
*263To me, this case is a testament to an agency that has lost sight of its mission. Steven was removed from his home under authority conferred by the Juvenile Act, 42 Pa.C.S.A. § 6301 et seq. The primary purpose of the Juvenile Act is to “preserve the unity of the family whenever possible and to provide for the care, protection and wholesome mental development of children____” 42 Pa.C.S.A. § 6301(b)(1) (emphasis added). This court has clearly established that “[a]ny decision to remove the child from his home must be reconciled with the paramount purpose of preserving the unity of the family.” In re Angry, 361 Pa.Super. 180, 184, 522 A.2d 73, 75 (1987), quoting In re Frank W.D., 315 Pa.Super. 510, 518, 462 A.2d 708, 712 (1983); Interest of LaRue, 244 Pa.Super. 218, 366 A.2d 1271 (1976). In order to insure that the goals of the Juvenile Act are carried out, our legislature mandated that a disposition review hearing be conducted at specified intervals “for the purpose of determining whether placement continues to be best suited to the protection and physical, mental and moral welfare of the child.” 42 Pa.C.S.A. § 6351(e). Despite the unequivocal goal of the Juvenile Act, the procedural safeguards incorporated in that legislation, and the emphasis on preservation of the family evident in the case law of the Commonwealth, Steven has been separated from his family, over their strenuous objections, for nearly nine years. Under the circumstances of this case, I find such an extended separation counterproductive and utterly without justification.
The record reveals that there was a constant, antagonistic relationship between CYS and Steven’s father. According to the trial court, the father insisted that “matters be done his way because C & YS’s methods were based on its bureaucratic needs rather than on the needs of the parents and their children. C & YS’s caseworkers viewed the father’s responses as a validation of their beliefs that his personality traits prevented him from being a competent parent for Steven. They responded to the father’s attacks on C & YS by assuming a defensive position.”
*264C & YS is the state social service agency charged with the responsibility of facilitating reunification of families whose children have been temporarily removed. CYS is ostensibly staffed by professionals — dispassionate individuals trained to work with parents in order to improve the situation which necessitated the removal of their child. For presumably trained social workers to react defensively and distort a distraught father’s antagonism toward a bureaucracy into justification for separating a child from his parents for nearly nine years is reprehensible indeed. For a trial court to involuntarily terminate the parental rights of the natural father and mother on the basis of the prolonged separation and CYS’s biased recommendation constitutes a manifest abuse of discretion.
I would reverse the trial court’s order involuntarily terminating the S.’s parental rights to their son Steven. Mr. and Mrs. S. are competent parents; the admitted well-being of the four children currently residing with them attests to their parenting abilities. I cannot condone punishing the parents by depriving them of their son because of the wanton lack of professionalism exhibited by CYS in its handling of this case.