Definitely a source of differences of opinion on this issue. I’ve noticed that like the Texas Supreme Court we have some Freepers with a very high degree of toleration for child rape, provided, of course, it’s kept inside the “extended family”.
On the other hand, I have had the unenviable position of dealing professionally with the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS), which I have affectionately renamed “Don't Call for Service”, which is a more accurate description of the agency.
I have witnessed, personally, them leaving kids in situations where there were being severely beat and the report comes back “unfounded”. I have witnessed severe neglect cases where the parent was a crack head and the report comes back unfounded. Over the years there have been many cases where they have “reunified” children with mentally ill, drug addicted, parents who have killed their children.
I have also witnessed when students were an annoyance in school and the parents refused to place the child on Ritalin and DCFS took them to court for medical neglect (something which a number of lawsuits finally put an end to).
I have also seen them, without evidence, take children too many times to count, because a divorcing spouse alleges abuse to further their divorce settlement.
I have witnessed cases where they will go out of their way with every resource imaginable to support neglectful 14 year old, inner city mother (and not take the child), while pulling a child from a stable two parent family with little to no evidence.
In my opinion of my dealings with them, most of their workers are overworked, incompetent, and full of themselves and their “power”. When they want to go after someone, they do.
So forgive me if I have a rather jaundiced view of this government agency that is supposed to “protect” children.
This appeared to me that most of the “facts” were unsubstantiated and unproven by the Texas Family Services agency and apparently the Judge agreed. Additionally, it is an absolute abuse of power to pull hundreds of kids out of their homes. If they had specific allegations of instances of individual children being abused, they should have followed the law and their department policies and investigated the cases individually. But that clearly was not their agenda and they do not have the resources or manpower to have done that.
Where ? I have seen no degree of toleration for child rape here on FR.
“State officials kept tabs on media reports from across the country and circulated talking points to ensure public comments stayed consistent and on target.”
Seems to have worked on you.