[email protected]

In a message dated 11/25/01 12:41:53 AM Mountain Standard Time,
[email protected] writes:


> she asked me on the phone
> "what would she see if she opened my closet door? Ha!!
>

What in the world? Does she know you that well to ask such a question? I
wouldn't even say this to a best friend. YIKES!

Best of luck.

NICKI~


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Joseph Fuerst

Yes, there are horror stories on each side....those children left with
abusive parents and those removed for seemingly crazy reasons.

However, in the United States.....it is the only the Court/legal system
that has the 'power' to remove any child from the home. Children's
Protective Services Workers are typically entry level personnel, many of
whom have no background in Social Work. And CPS is a publically funded
program; most of the CPS workers work for public agencies; though in
recent years, there has been a movement toward public agencies
'sub-contracting' child protective services.

Sometimes, the worker will believe/see abuse or neglect are present, but
are at a loss to find *legal* evidence. Currently, the Courts lean heavily
toward keeping childrem in a curreent family situation, in part due to the
fact that Foster Care is completely inadequate and/or unavailable in most
areas.
Susan

> >Where did you get the idea that social workers are given power to
take
> >children? Who gives them power?
> >
> >In fact, Social Workers have practically no power in removing
children
> >from homes/families
>
> I think it varies drastically from state to state and province. I
hear
> about cases where children were removed from the home for
ridiculous
> reasons,

I've heard my share of horror stories too.
Sheila



________________________________________________________________________

Tia Leschke

>
>However, in the United States.....it is the only the Court/legal system
>that has the 'power' to remove any child from the home.

Only the courts can do it permanently or even long-term here, but the
social workers have the power, in most parts of Canada anyway, to remove
children immediately if they believe they are in danger.
And they've used some pretty weird excuses for danger over the years.
Tia

Tia Leschke leschke@...
On Vancouver Island
********************************************************************************************
It is the answers which separate us, the questions which unite us. - Janice
Levy

Kolleen

>And they've used some pretty weird excuses for danger over the years.


LOL! This reminds me of my sister who lives in Canada. Social services
came to visit her unexpectedly and was ready to take away her younger son
if they found anything wrong.

It turned out that the young kid was telling his friends and teacher
about how 'mamma' chases him around and the house and scratches him if he
tries to kiss her.

'mamma' is their cat.

Luckily the cat ran by and was called by name before the incident turned
scary.


k

Tia Leschke

>
>LOL! This reminds me of my sister who lives in Canada. Social services
>came to visit her unexpectedly and was ready to take away her younger son
>if they found anything wrong.
>
>It turned out that the young kid was telling his friends and teacher
>about how 'mamma' chases him around and the house and scratches him if he
>tries to kiss her.
>
>'mamma' is their cat.
>
>Luckily the cat ran by and was called by name before the incident turned
>scary.

Oh yikes! Too bad people don't make more of an effort to read the emotions
that go along with what a child is saying. If it was really his mother
doing that, and not in just a joking way, you'd think the emotions he
showed as he was telling about it would have been obvious.

On the other hand, it can look a lot worse than it really is. My
granddaughter had really awful tantrums until just a few months ago. She's
almost 7 and quite strong. There were times when my daughter had to
physically pin her, to keep her from doing her or the baby any serious
damage. (These were screaming, hitting, biting, pinching, hair-pulling,
throwing things, completely out of control kinds of tantrums.) When Skye
was being pinned, she would be screaming as loud as she could, "You're
hurting me. You're hurting me.) I witnessed one that happened in a
parking lot, and saw people walking by obviously trying to decide whether
to step in or call CPS or something. It was a real worry for a while, to
the point where Heather actually considered having cards printed up,
explaining what was going on, and that the only pain Skye was feeling was
because of her resisting being pinned. And that she was only being pinned
to avoid physical injuries to any of them.

Thankfully, her parents found her a supplement that made a huge difference
in her behavior, and then she recently had a native-syle healing circle
done for her, which seems to have made even more of a difference. She
still isn't an easy child to parent, by a long shot, but the physical
violence and most of the screaming has stopped. (This is a child who was
born at home, attachment parented, breastfed "forever", everything Heather
could discover that might help her to grow up feeling empowered and
emotionally healthy. It certainly seems to have a chemical basis, to the
point where Heather was close to letting the docs put her on Lithium or
something.)
Tia

Tia Leschke leschke@...
On Vancouver Island
********************************************************************************************
It is the answers which separate us, the questions which unite us. - Janice
Levy

Kolleen

>And they've used some pretty weird excuses for danger over the years.


LOL! This reminds me of my sister who lives in Canada. Social services
came to visit her unexpectedly and was ready to take away her younger son
if they found anything wrong.

It turned out that the young kid was telling his friends and teacher
about how 'mamma' chases him around and the house and scratches him if he
tries to kiss her.

'mamma' is their cat.

Luckily the cat ran by and was called by name before the incident turned
scary.


k

Bridget E Coffman

Tia,

Heather sounds a lot like Wyndham. His problems are chemical allergies.
Have they investigated that with Heather? Just a thought. Not a
diagnosis.

Bridget


On Sun, 25 Nov 2001 14:37:13 -0800 Tia Leschke <leschke@...>
writes:
>
> It certainly seems to have a chemical basis,
> to the
> point where Heather was close to letting the docs put her on Lithium
> or
> something.)
> Tia
>
> Tia Leschke leschke@...
> On Vancouver Island
>
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^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it
goes on.
- Robert Frost

Tia Leschke

At 08:28 AM 26/11/01 -0500, you wrote:
>Tia,
>
>Heather sounds a lot like Wyndham. His problems are chemical allergies.
>Have they investigated that with Heather? Just a thought. Not a
>diagnosis.

Heather is my daughter. It's her daughter, Skye, with the
problems. <g> They've had her to 2 or 3 naturopaths, who all said varying
lists of foods were the problem. Keeping her off those foods helped some,
but not enough. I think I posted before about Skye waking up and asking if
they could go get something she wasn't allowed to have that day. She had
become completely obsessed about food. Heather decided to let it go, that
it hadn't made enough of a difference. After a couple of months of letting
her eat what she wants, she's pretty well back to a reasonable balance
between healthy and junk foods. I assume that the docs tested her for
chemical allergies at the same time, so she probably doesn't have the
chemical allergies.
Tia

Tia Leschke leschke@...
On Vancouver Island
********************************************************************************************
It is the answers which separate us, the questions which unite us. - Janice
Levy