Posted on 10/17/2005 12:14:30 PM PDT by Carry_Okie
Interested Parents,
Tuesday, October 18th at the Biltmore Hotel & Conference Center – 7:00 – 8:30pm, we are holding a meeting to inform, educate, and rally the public around the egregious abuse of power by the Santa Clara Social Services, Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) – Child Protective Services (CPS) as they attempt to rip my family, and many others apart. The Biltmore is located just south of Montague Expressway, east of highway 101 at 2151 Laurelwood Rd, Santa.
At issue are three key points that will be of interest to you as a parent:
Because we are home schoolers, we initially consulted the HSLDA who advised us not to allow CPS into our home or to interview our children unsupervised. We were further advised to seek the services of a local attorney to ensure that our rights as parents were not violated as we work to clear our names related to the allegations of child abuse, which we did.
The DFCS, as a result of our refusal to allow them to interrogate our young children without supervision, together with the fact that we home school and therefore they are unable to gain access to our children without our permission (as is commonly done when children attend school outside of the home), went to court and swore out a Protective Custody Warrant to force themselves into our home, to have their way with our children, and to remove my oldest son into their protective custody. Today, my wife and children are in hiding to protect our family, in a location not even know to me, while I have been engaged in a very distressing and disruptive court battle in an effort to have the Protective Custody Warrant quashed, a request that was denied last Friday.
To date, no one at DFCS has been interested in understanding our unique parenting needs, the resources we have used and the third parties who can speak to quality of our parenting, and love that we have for of all of our children. Their action, based on our stance of “tell us what you are concerned about so we can give you reasonable access to our family to resolve them”, has been to take the child and ask questions later. They have leveraged the courts in this effort.
Since DFCS has no interest, nor apparent requirements to ascertain the facts before they have ripped our family apart, we’ve decided to share them with you. Perhaps when you speak out someone in the agency will finally listen to how they are about to destroy yet another family in an effort to “protect” a child that does not need protection and initiate policy based changes. This is why I urge you to come out Tuesday evening! This is a completely free event paid for out of my paycheck.
Thank you for your support,
Mark I. Johnson
No offense but, well...duh! The state is trying to take his child away. I'd be pretty dramatic, too. I'm surprised how so many people are automatically biased against the father. Anonymous complaints can be filed against a parent and even if the charges are baseless, CPS retains files on the family. Combine that with the fact that CPS detests homeschoolers and situations like these occur. This is not an isolated case.
Such as? The "accuser" is a minor who was sitting the other two kids. She told her mom about his room and the mother called it in. The boy has bladder control problems among other things. The police came, checked out the house, and left. The warrant from CPS came a week later without either the sitter, the mother, or CPS ever having met the child.
The standard procedure is for CPS to go to the school and interview the child without the parent's permission. Because Mark's wife homeschools the kids they did not have access.
Mark called the Home School Legal Defense Association, to which he belongs. They recommended that Mark NOT surrender his kids and get an attorney. He did. The attorney he got has been a thorn in CPS' side.
The attorney removed the wife and kids into hiding. Even Mark does not know where they are.
That's much as I can tell you.
That's exactly what I would do to protect my kids from the foster care system.
Why didn't they just let them interview the kid? Do they lock the kid in his room all the time, and that's why he pisses in it?
Well, I'm not in the area, so I won't be of much help. However, I have seen some cases such as this where the removal of the child was warranted, I'm afraid.
For that reason, I don't rush to judgment without further information. You say you have not met the boy...just the father through your church. That's inadequate, IMO, for forming a clear assessment of the situation. Not everyone in any church, or any other group, is a reliable source, I've found.
There's simply not enough information to draw any conclusions.
Not at all.
I don't understand calling a group that defends those who homeschool instead of a group that defends those falsely accused of child abuse.
Sort of like calling a lawyer specializing in personal injury cases when you have a case involving real estate law.
I'm a million miles removed from this case, but it just raises a red flag for me, that there is something going on that we're not privy to.
Someone I know knows this family personally and they say Johnson is a stand up family man. This is REALLY FRIGHTENING!!!!!!!!!!
Actually, his own email says that they did try to ascertain the facts, but that Johnson wouldn't let them.
I assume, then, that you also home school. I'm not trying to be a jerk here, I really do not understand why a group defending those who homeschool would be the first call you'd make if you were accused of child abuse.
Seems other lawyers might have greater expertise.
Prayers for this family. If they can do it to this family, they can do it to any of us. Stick it to us at the expense of our children. The authorities detest home schoolers. Something needs to be done to protect the rights of good parents.
Reactive Attachment Disorder is not a well understood diagnosis and can require unorthodox parenting methods. Why were they unwilling to talk to his therapist, first? It was offered.
I'll tell you that from my personal experience with that system when I was a kid, I would never do it without an attorney present. Kids with fetal alcohol and cocaine histories can be really tough.
Do they lock the kid in his room all the time, and that's why he pisses in it?
Your fantasies are getting the best of you. Didn't you read it? THERE WERE THIRTY PEOPLE AT THE HEARING WHO KNOW THIS FAMILY THROUGH A LOCAL HOME SCHOOL GROUP. If you think they would do that if the family was locking the kid away, you are one sick human being.
Red flag here! These parents seem oddly focused on their right to "seek and utilize resources that will help solidify the bonds of attachment", but no info is given on what sort of resources they're using that CPS is objecting to.
Remember the family in Utah (mother convicted just a couple weeks ago) who killed their adopted pre-school-aged girl with "forced water drinking therapy", which they said a therapist had recommended as treatment for the girl's alleged "attachment disorder"? And many years ago, there was a similar case in which an older adopted girl (age 9-10, in Colorado, IIRC) was also killed by an unorthodox "therapy" for attachment disorder -- that therapist insisted the girl needed to go through a re-enactment of the birth process with her new mother, and with her mother and the "therapist" restraining her as she struggled to get out of the rolled up blanket which was supposed to simulate the birth canal, she suffocated to death.
I'm not a big fan of CPS meddling. but if they have any reason to believe that dangerous wacko therapies are being used on this child, they're right to investigate. And if their investigation turns up evidence that the parents are indeed involved with one of these dangerous pseudo-therapists, CPS is right to grab the child.
"Today, my wife and children are in hiding to protect our family, in a location not even know to me, while I have been engaged in a very distressing and disruptive court battle in an effort to have the Protective Custody Warrant quashed, a request that was denied last Friday."
Stupid move. Going into hiding is sufficient to create a legal presumption of guilt that is damn near impossible to contest.
That's true, but let's just step back a minute... This doesn't seem to have much to do with homeschooling. A babysitter notices that the room of one kid, the adopted kid in the family, is a wreck, and stinks of piss. She tells the kids biological mother, who understandably calls the Gov't. The Gov't comes by to check it out, and the Dad won't let them.
Is it totally unreasonable for the government to assume that there is abuse going on?
Probably the best people he could have called
About HSLDA
Home School Legal Defense Association is a nonprofit advocacy organization established to defend and advance the constitutional right of parents to direct the education of their children and to protect family freedoms. Through annual memberships, HSLDA is tens of thousands of families united in service together, providing a strong voice when and where needed.
HSLDA advocates on the legal front by fully representing member families at every stage of proceedings. Each year, thousands of member families receive legal consultation by letter and phone, hundreds more are represented through negotiations with local officials, and dozens are represented in court proceedings. HSLDA also takes the offensive, filing actions to protect members against government intrusion and to establish legal precedent. On occasion, HSLDA will handle precedent-setting cases for nonmembers, as well.
Well, the room did smell like urine. I have a hard time imainging how that could be the case.
Duh. That's because the state of calif hates homeschooling families.
Yes, we do. I have a daughter sitting next to me waiting patiently for me to help her with her study of ancient Rome.
I'm not trying to be a jerk here, I really do not understand why a group defending those who homeschool would be the first call you'd make if you were accused of child abuse.
That is because a great many lawyers are not familiar with the true legal requirements for home schooling nor the usual (and often duplicitous) tactics employed by districts to get the kids. HSLDA specializes in that body of law. They offer what is effectively an insurance policy. We pay $125 per two years. If we ever have a problem, the attorney is free.
I'll see if I can make it, but I have an overlapping event to attend to first.
Are you suggesting that child services should have ignored the complaint?
That you are immediately jumping on the "they hate us 'cuz we home school" as the reason for this is odd to me. There is nothing in the email or anything else that we've been told that suggests the means by which they educate their kids is even part of the issue.
What part of this am I missing?
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