A county's fumbling, a family's nightmare

Denver Post ^ | 6/26/2008 | Susan Greene

[Oyarsa]

Josh Raykin had never spent even a night away from his parents.

That is, until Arapahoe County snatched the 8-year-old from his home after an abuse allegation that social workers dragged their feet investigating.

The ordeal began while Josh was playing outside one day before dinner in April. A neighbor knocked on the door to tell his dad that police had come to take Josh away.

The strawberry-blond kid with pale blue eyes was born in 1999 after Michael and Melanie Raykin tried for 15 years to conceive. Michael, a courier, and Melanie, a hairstylist, work extra hours to send Josh to Denver's Montclair Academy and give their boy advantages they never had as kids in the former U.S.S.R.

[Glenn]

Sickening.

[goldstategop]

To do that to a child is despicable. I can find no words for it. To destroy a family with unfounded accusations of child abuse is even more contemptible. I know - the county was just doing its job. But it doesn't excuse the hell they put that family and child through.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[Soliton]

This is why we have a second amendment.

[mia]

Welcome to the home of the free.

[Oyarsa]

Innocent before proven guilty. An investigation could and should have been conducted before removing the child from his home.

[LiberConservative]

... We came from such a hard world to be free in a country where, just like this," says his mom, snapping her fingers, "they can grab your kid away from you right off your street."

What a delusional, right-wing nut job. The government was only trying to help. /sarc

[mommadooo3]

This is SOP in this country. They snatch your kid because you are guilty until proven innocent. Meanwhile..your kid sits in foster care and YOU have to foot the bill for that. You DON'T get that money back NOR does your kid get help recovering from the nightmare.

I know.

[HANG THE EXPENSE]

Disgusting.I dont know what I would do if they tried that with my family.

[Danae]

Liberals; Birth to Death Government Nanny State. This is the result. Horrifying.

[JayAr36]

More incompetence from our government. Seems to me that f . . . .ggovernment has become on word.

[Ukiapah Heep]

This is the ultimate liberal means of control. In Cleveland, Ohio it's used to separate fathers from their kids in divorce proceedings. If you have the money to fight it you can push DFS back, but they are never put out of business for such atrocities. If you don't have the money the kid goes bye-bye, and is possibly raped or killed in a foster home. All this courtesy of those operating "fer the children"!

In my divorce my ex lobbed this against my family. Not against me, but against my neice. My neice was 4 years old at the time. Nice going.

[adopt4Christ]

Sex offender laws in this country are insane. This is just one small, minor story of what happens every day, when men’s lives are ruined on the accusation of emotionally damaged children or paranoid social workers / psychologists who think all men are child predators.

Laws have to change before this stops happening. Trust me — it could happen to YOU when you least expect it.

And there is no such thing as “innocent until proven guilty”. Quite the opposite. You think this man’s entire life won’t be changed forever, by friends and family ALWAYS wondering if he DID sexually abuse his son or other children? Of course it has been altered permanently.

False accusations destroy lives every day. Your vote at the ballot box against ridiculous sex offender laws and outrageous sentencing is the only thing that will turn things around.

[ishabibble]

Every last person involved in what happened to this family should be fired and forbidden to ever work with children again.

[norwaypinesavage]

This is the same government that some want to provide them with health care, including emergency room treatment.

[SES1066]

1) Child Abuse occurs and there are true horror stories from all social classes.
2) Child Abuse ALLEGATIONS certainly exceed actual incidents by orders of magnitude.
3) Social Workers operate under a losing proposition, low status civil servants, bureaucratic straight-jacket rules, severe consequences upon error(s) [personally & client].
4) Child endangerment occurs quickly and in secret.
5) Information on abuse seldom comes with proof and certainty.
6) INNOCENT FAMILIES are EASILY caught in Kafkaesque nightmares without recourse because of the above reasons.

There are no easy answers and HINDSIGHT is 20/20. I feel strongly for this family and I remember the INFAMOUS 'Child Care Provider' witch-hunts of the 1980s that took so long to rectify. My belief is that a form of Ombudsman that can mitigate the bureaucratic jungle when clear errors occur should be used, but I would greatly hate to be in such a position because of potential errors.

[blu]

OH, it gets better (sicker). They put the JEWISH kid in a Jehovah’s witness family...who forced him to pray to Jehovah every night. they took away all his toys and his Pokeman toothbrush. They made him clean toilets with a rag.

Maybe someone needs to investigate the foster family?? Not holding my breath.

[blu]

And let’s not forget, the interview that was supposed to happen BEFORE the child is removed from the home, happened AFTER the child was removed. Due process my keister.

[maine-iac7]

Indeed.

When I was politically active, we fought against these Gestapo agents tooth and nail.

At one meeting, I even got an ‘agent’ to admit that “86% of the cases we act on prove to be unfounded...but we feel it needs to done for the safety of the children.”

I replied: “So, in the dept’s mind, it's okay to traumatize, to forever kill a child's feeling of security with his parents, to, in plain English, abuse children of innocent families to the tune of 86%, rather than investigate further to eliminate at least some of these unjustified actions?”

She looked at me with a blank, robot face and answered: “Well, yes.”

[maine-iac7]

Every last person involved in what happened to this family should be fired and forbidden to ever work with children again.

I envy you your innocence.

If this happened - as it should - in every such case of totally unwarranted action against families, there would be no Dept of Human Services left in any state.

This is rampant across the country. It's just one more Gestapo Arm of our Gov't