Posted on 12/27/2014 7:38:55 AM PST by Altariel
A Sioux Falls couple is preparing for a Christmas without their three children---who are now in the state's custody.
Parents Molly and Mike say their children were taken from their home after taking their 2 month old son to the E-R for an unknown injury. They say similar stories can be found all over the U.S.
"He wouldn't eat when he was crying we would see the cut on his tongue, so I called his doctor and he said we should take him to the ER. So we went to the ER," mother Molly Bowling said.
The couple says they told the doctor they had no idea how where the cut on their two month old came from, thinking it might have happened it daycare.
"They called Children's Voice and they said that Creedance needed to stay overnight there," Bowling said.
"As soon as I asked for a lawyer...they came here and took the other kids out of the house," father Mike Becker said.
They've now gone more than three weeks without their children with no idea when or how they might get them back.
"It makes me scared to take my kids to the doctor ever again. When we do get them back I'm just going to wrap all of my kids in bubble wrap so nothing ever happens to them, because if you do have to take them to the doctor, this is scary that this could happen," Becker said.
All they have is a letter saying there were no signs of abuse, but the CPS says it did find signs of neglect.
"Neglect can be a number of things, when the parents or caretakers don't meet the needs of their children. That could be not responding to a health issue, could be failure to thrive," Division of Child Protective Services Director Virgena Wieseler said.
Its one of many cases medical providers are required to report.
"It may not be full-fledged physical or sexual abuse, just not having the child taken care of, not properly feeding the child, certainly is another reason we will contact child protective services," Avera Emergency Physician Dr. Jared Friedman said.
"The only time a medical professional is going to contact law enforcement or child protection is if the child presents with an injury and the explanation by the caregiver or the parent is inconsistent with that injury," Wieseler said.
She says common injuries would not be reported.
"Parents should not be afraid to take their children to the doctor," Wieseler said.
"We don't want to have accidents happen or injuries happen where they are injured significantly and then they don't receive the proper evaluation and that leads to long term pain or long term disability for the child," Dr. Friedman said.
As for Mike and Molly, they still have no idea when their three young children will be able to come home. Right now they don't even known the next time they'll be able to argue their case in court.
National advocates say thousands of cases they call medical kidnapping are happening all over the country. In some cases taking children away from their parents for years.
I remember one time our family was traveling and both my three year old daughter and I had black eyes and I was afraid people would think my husband was abusing us - she’d clonked herself on a swing in the back yard, and I had morning sickness so bad the blood vessels around my eyes were broken.
“Stitches were needed but thankfully there were witnesses.”
Yea, you have to COLLECT NAMES and phone numbers in a case like that, and ONLY THEN take him in. Otherwise you do the best you can to treat it, and maybe later get some plastic surgery to clean up the scar.
Ask a kid if he’s rather have a forehead scar, or a new set of parents - that is TODAY’S SOCIETY. Sticking our heads in the sand and thinking it’s the 1950s no longer holds water, especially if you’re white, as social workers now have orders (in many jurisdictions) to “better balance out “ the races of the kids they are removing from parents.
I hear you. Where we live, we don’t have the option of relatives taking the kids...so maybe our choice was much easier than for others.
Don’t project. I am trying to protect children not punish my parents.
You didn’t “play by the rules”; you assumed a worst case scenario and allowed your fear to override your child’s need for medical attention.
The answer to the problem is not “keep my kid out of the hospital when he has a dislocated _________” but “I’m going to act in faith, do the responsible thing and get my kid the appropriate medical attention the first time”.
Using the government as an excuse to not provide your child medical attention when needed is disgraceful.
“You didn’t “play by the rules”; you assumed a worst case scenario and allowed your fear to override your child’s need for medical attention.”
You can take your chances, based on how you see fit. 50 years ago, my parents had NO FEAR regarding taking a kid to a doctor or emergency room - they could report parents (and did) back then, but ONLY if they saw something suspicious. Now the RULES HAVE CHANGED and the medical workers face FELONY CHARGES if they don’t report me. So I respond in kind.
Others can keep living in their Ozzie and Harriet world, but I live in a world where the state can AND DOES take innocent children, and I am forced to play by THEIR RULES, if I want to keep mine, in certain circumstances. Others find out the HARD WAY when they think that the old rules apply.
But I BEAT THEM ALL, my kids are grown up, happy, healthy, with good families, and never with a CPS or Shrink case file. I was successful and a few attacks from people living in the past (i.e., thinking that rules haven’t changed) and a few hours of unnecessary crying from my kid was a VERY SMALL price to pay.
...and I suspect others that had their kids FORCIBLY REMOVED would agree that that they should have done things differently...and hopefully some others will be careful in the future and follow my advice.
I agree in general - except that you offer two few options for baby getting an object into his mouth. No matter, the issue is the behavior of the state. The state was out of line.
Not a projection. You are not trying to help children, the trauma of forcible removal from their parents is not trivial. But you are willing to punish the parents AND the children (children being taken for one day is a large punishment for loving parents) without proof, and sometimes precious little evidence.
Protecting children is fine, but what you and the state need to recognize is this: Protecting other peoples’ children is the primary responsibility of the parents, grandparents, and the extended family. Next, the church. Third the very local community - friends and neighbors. Then......way down the list, is you and the state.
Amazing isn’t it? Casual observation gives clear evidence of this trauma. But liberals are still convinced they know better.
That is the problem, the parents, grandparents, etc. don’t do it. I am talking babies with spiral fractures, broken ribs, cracked skulls. Failure to thrive means no food. Is madre a meth head? She doesn’t need food and forgets her kids do.
You don’t have a clue.
Kids living in tiny hotel rooms with multiple male and female druggies........miserable. Resisting going to visit their parents. Someone has to do something. But no one will.
Is this the story we are talking about? I read NOTHING like what you mention.
“That is the problem, the parent, grandparents, etc. don’t do it.” This sentence you wrote displays the problem. MOST parents, grandparents and extended family DO do it, but you continue to talk is if all parents and family are uncaring and even harmful...just like the state’s attitude.
You are speaking of the minority, but you are ready to believe that they represent the majority, and want the state to act as if they do.
Do you have proof of parental neglect or abuse? Then by all means, go after them! But until you do, keep you mitts off them until you have the proof...because your (and the state’s) assumptions are wrong more often than not.
Here again, you are projecting your personal experience and horrific but statistically rare situations into this particular story. There is nothing in the story to make one assume drugs or tiny hotel rooms or that the kids don’t want to be with their parents.
But you assume that is the story.
There are a small minority of people out there who have brutally tortured and killed people - should we all assume that you are one of them, and lock you up until we can prove that you are? Or do you believe you are entitled to due process and proof before you are punished?
If you think you are entitled to be presumed innocent, why shouldn’t these parents be afforded the same legal right?
NO I am giving examples from other instances, not this particular case.
The article mentions the baby having cuts on his tongue and the parents not knowing why.
Very low iron can cause the tongue to crack and bleed painfully.
If they are formula feeding, the baby may have low iron with no abuse at all.
Why is it interesting? Don’t get it.
EXACTLY! Those examples from other cases have nothing to do with this case, or any other case.
But you allow the emotion of those other cases to effect your opinion of this case...just like the state workers have done. These children were taken from their parents because of other, unrelated, cases.
Wrong! The harm done by the state in snatching kids from their parents is far worse than a dislocated _________. Do not EVER give the state monsters the chance to snatch your kids!
It is a pathetic commentary on our current state of affairs that parents must be afraid to get medical attention for their children. The result of our fascist nannyism is that children are not getting the medical attention they would otherwise receive if the state did not view parents as the enemy.
cps “feels it necessary” in far too many cases. They begin with the false premise that they are the primary protectors of all children - AND THEY ARE WRONG!
That you support the snatching of children at the whim of some bureaucrat is chilling.
Yes, being placed with grandparents or aunts and uncles is better, but it still does not erase the trauma of being forcibly removed from and separated from their parents.
If you have PROOF of abuse, by all means, get the children to a safe place. Without such proof, know your place!.
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