Hi my name is Nikki. My 14 year old daughter flew to Columbia, SC from Dallas, TX to visit her aunt and paternal family on April 16, 2014. She got into trouble in school for trading her iPhone for cold medication and cigarettes on May 21st. On Thursday, May 22, she was taken into state custody and immediately placed in foster care.
Not My Children: A True Story of CPS and Government Funded Kidnappers
I received a text message on her aunt’s first court date stating, “Please call about Dominique Jackson.” I have placed my daughter in psychiatric care due to suicidal threats years ago but she has not had any issues since. This is my daughter, whom I have full custody, but I did not, and still have not, received a single phone call from DHS. They did not attempt to call a single family member pertaining to my daughters case either. Which to my understanding is breaking federal laws.
Her aunt says that all charges of negligence were dropped against her. Now they are placing her in a work camp! I have spoken to my daughter many times and she has told me that her case worker stated, “I don’t go chasing after grown folk. If you were my child, I would have already been up here raising hell, if your mom cares, she would have called the day you were taken into custody!”
I was not even aware until after the fact because I was not contacted. The DHS caseworker also told her aunt that she spoke with me and I said, “my daughter is not to live with any one but her aunt, and this is why she is in foster care.” I have NEVER spoken to DHS for fear they will twist my words and I will lose my temper, giving them an actual leg to stand on.
When I spoke with a man claiming to represent my daughter (court date) May 27th, he told me that I could “not come up there and bring her home. They will not release her to me.” I recorded the conversation. Now the caseworker said I could have taken her home that day! I can prove they have broken many federal laws.
They claimed they were worried about her mental state but if that is the case, why is she not in a psychiatric facility? Why is she in a foster home? I am trying to find a lawyer through legal aide but any direction you can point me in, I will be eternally grateful. This is my daughter and I want her home where she belongs right now. They are breaking the law and causing emotional stress on the entire family. Especially her little brother.
I’m a former foster child. I had suffered abuse at home with my step dad. I stood up to my abuser and asked for the help of child protective services. He confessed and was convicted for his crime and I was placed in foster care. Even though my step dad was the criminal he was released years before I was. Foster care had become such an abusive prison for me I finally ran away, homeless out on the streets, to young to work and no where to go.
Not only do I have physical scars from the abuse I received in foster care but some days I still cry from the type of mental maltreatment I received at the hands of my supposed protectors. I’d come a long way since foster care. I had worked full time and went to school at night to finish high school and continue further in my education to become a surgical dental assistant. Later, I changed my career path and began working for scholastic books. I refused to allow CPS, my therapist, and the foster parents opinions to control who I would become or to limit my future. (I was lucky to be stubborn and rebellious.)
Here recently I’ve had a great opportunity to become connected with other former foster children, and we each share our stories with each other and give each other support. But I started to notice something. The opinions and ordeals each former foster child had faced in foster care, seemed to echo the same opinion or same unacceptable situation when thrown into foster care. For example:
An ex foster child said something recently that had caught my attention. She said, “One thing that bothers me is society says parents who use drugs, abuse their kids, neglects them, and many more things, aren’t good enough to be parents and forcefully removes the children. This very same society looks the other way when we’re abused in foster care, moved several times, remain in limbo for years without any stability.
We go years if not forever, waiting to be adopted by these people, but they go overseas to adopt. We get dumped out on the street and left to survive like animals when we age out of the system with absolutely nothing. Society doesn’t care what happens after we leave our unfit parents. When in some cases the unfit parents are 100% better than the numerous foster homes who have been checked out by the state and approved. Just because we leave our unfit parents doesn’t mean we live happily ever after.”
Here are some numbers found on Wikipedia that support this former foster child’s statement.
Maltreatment per 100,000 US children.
CPS Parents
Physical Abuse 160 59
Sexual Abuse 112 13
Neglect 410 241
Medical Neglect 14 12
Fatalities 6.4 1.5
I’ve also had an ex foster child contact me wondering why foster kids are treated so badly and no one pays attention. His reasoning, his temporary foster parent had run him over with her truck. He was pronounced dead but then had finally been revived. He sued the state for this and somehow only ended up with $40 thousand dollars and mass long term pain (his court appointed lawyer received the bulk of the money) and he also has many bills from the doctors, him and his bio mother are obligated to pay. ( I can understand his frustrations.)
I’ve been reading many ex foster kids stories (including having my own) and what I find is more atrocities after they were removed then what they experience at home. I can not help but wonder why this agency has made such great leaps and bounds on how to manipulate, maneuver through the law, and perfect how to remove children but they themselves have no idea how to raise children. They have spent millions upon million each year for over 30 or 40 years on these state run agencies yet in general all they have produced is abused and neglected children who go on to struggle in society.
Look at these statistics copied from children’s rights.org
12-30 percent struggled with homelessness
40-63 percent did not complete high school
25-55 percent were unemployed; those employed had average earnings below the poverty level, and only 38 percent of those employed were still working after one year
30-62 percent had trouble accessing health care due to inadequate finances or lack of insurance
32-40 percent were forced to rely on some form of public assistance and 50 percent experienced extreme financial hardship
31-42 percent had been arrested
18-26 percent were incarcerated
40-60 percent of the young women were pregnant within 12-18 months of leaving foster care.
Nancy Schaefer already further summarized all of this as, “The National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect in 1998 reported that six times as many children died in foster care than in the general public and that once removed to official “safety”, these children are far more likely to suffer abuse, including sexual molestation, than in the general population. Think what that number is today ten years later!”
Senator Nancy Schaefer reported, “that poor parents very often are targeted to lose their children because they do not have the where-with-all to hire lawyers and fight the system. Being poor does not mean you are not a good parent or that you do not love your child, or that your child should be removed and placed with strangers; that all parents are capable of making mistakes and that making a mistake does not mean your children are to be removed from the home. Even if the home is not perfect, it is home; and that’s where a child is the safest and where he or she wants to be, with family;
I’ve also read countless ex foster children’s stories of how they had been medicated for one thing after another and even witnessed an adopted child so overly medicated, he could not control himself. Thankfully after talking to his adoptive parents they agreed to slowly back him off of the 10 medications he was on. (He spent a lot of time in my home during this time) he has calmed down greatly and has now been able to focus and excel in school.
Some ex foster kids talk about the long term effects these medications have caused them, long after they have finally gotten off of the drugs. Some must continue taking different types of meds to help them deal with the after effects of the medications forced upon them in foster care, (all under the guise of being in their best interest).
Here’s one former foster child’s statement of what she had been through and how the medications affected her.
“I was living in Maryville, Tennessee and was 14 years old. I was depressed but I was a really quiet kid and a laid back type. These folks decided to start me on meds for my depression (a little red pill that I don’t know what it was) shortly after, I noticed I was feeling anxious and nervous. Then I noticed that I started having a short fuse when it came to my temper and it was more difficult to calm down. I told the group home owner this, but she wouldn’t have me taken off the meds.
I started spitting the meds into a paper Dixie cup they would give me water in to take my medications and crush the cup so no one saw. I started to feel normal again, I did that for a month before I was ratted out by another kid. Any way they took me to a doctor that put me on Paxil. The night they gave me that stuff, I was wired for sound and tried to play sumo wrestling with my roommate Donelle. The medication made me constipated and I felt overly psycho, again, no one would listen to me asking to be taken off the meds.
I also noticed I had more issues than usual on concentrating on my school work and I started being mean to others, really mean, as in hitting folks and yelling, it was like I was losing control. I found myself withdrawing because of it and crying my eyes out at every turn. That’s the same year I started having panic episodes. One day decided to ditch school and just go walking… I was told that I cussed out all of the group home staff but I do not remember it… Eric blankenship could tell you a lot about that. I was picked up by the police and taken back to the group home but then I was moved to a teen psych ward.
There at the psych ward they gave me a higher dose of Paxil and added Milloril to my meds and some pill they were telling me was a vitamin but I’m sure it was a tranquilizer because not long after taking it, I could barely hold my head up.
This went on for a month solid until a caseworker (a man) showed up to take me to my next placement. I was on those meds from foster home to foster home then one day I was taken to an all girl group home in Knoxville, Tennessee where shortly after I was abruptly changed from the Paxil and Millorill, to Prozac and Trazedone. The first time they gave me the Prozac, I was 15 years old and was being given 3 Prozac a day and my head always felt like I had a chunk of lead tied to it. Schooling was hard because it was a new place and I felt crazy out of my head. I hated everyone and everything.
I felt as if my mind was working overtime and I was suicidal because i could not calm down and in that same place I was fondled by one of the men staff workers when we went on a trip to the University of Tennessee Race Track. I would scream in the night in my sleep and I would be so nervous every day. I got defiant with the staff and would cuss this one lady in particular named Deiadra. She was a reasonably nice person but I got to where nothing mattered.
Till this very day, I am a nervous type person and I still have the panic episodes that started as a teenager, I have a very hard time coming down from any emotion whether it be anger, anxiety, joy, depression, fear, etc. I know it was because of the meds because prior to the meds, I was able to keep my emotions in check. I’m angry that this has to be this way, with me but this crap has forever changed me, along with all the being passed around like a dooby. It, all has an effect on me that, will never be normal again. I still consider myself a glitch ”
Theda Clark was the name of the woman at my first foster home. It was a temporary home. I was allowed to stay there only two weeks. Whose dumb idea was that? I was just getting settled in.
Burger Chef
I worked hard around her house, but frankly she needed the help. She had three or four other kids, funny I don’t really recall now, just that she was always busy. She had homemade cookies and as long as I was home by six (for dinner), my time was my own. I got to hang out with my friends at the Burger Chef.
I would sweep and mop her floors, talk her head off and sometimes even helped bake cookies. She was a sweet grandmotherly type. I helped her out and she treated me with respect. I could have been happy there. She asked Child Protective Service if she could keep me, by they turned her down. It was with tears in my eyes and a heavy heart that I left the foster home.
Twice within just as many weeks, I was ripped away from everything I knew and loved. Yes, I loved Theda and she will always have a special place in my heart. Being with her was a special time. The cleaning gave me a chance to think. Theda would slip me a couple dollars for a burger and give me some space…something I was sorely in need of.
I went through about 5 or 6 foster homes after that, one had cockroaches and I had to sleep with another girl. I can remember thinking that was quite odd and I was not happy about it. I had only ever slept with one other person – my Grandmother – and that was a place of honor. The girl turned about to be about three years older than myself. She was nice enough and we got along. I don’t recall her name.
It was during that time I learned to fit in wherever I was, whether it be a biker bar or a fancy restaurant. I could be anyone I wanted, act any way I wanted. Let’s just say I tried on several personas; once my name was Tony. Another time, I went by the handle Tennis Shoe. It was interesting but unfulfilling, and I soon tired of it. Besides, it was hard to remember to answer to someone else’s name.
It was a crazy, mixed up, time. I never knew when I would be forced to move. I had no say in what happened to me. My stuff was rifled through repeatedly and stuffed into plastic bags. It’s humiliating and degrading. I think it’s great that they now have groups who gather suitcases for foster kids.
At my last foster home I really learned not to trust anyone, and for the most part I don’t let anyone get too close anymore. Trust is something very fragile and I can count those I trust on one hand. Today, I have a lot of phobias. I have to be in control but I don’t like to make decisions. It’s as bad as it sounds.
I found myself at 14 out on the streets, left to fend for myself. I stayed on people’s couches and floors at first, then it became harder to find friends to stay with.
The Salvation Army
I will forever be grateful to the people at the Salvation Army. They helped me out so much. It was the middle of the winter in Howell, Michigan. There was about 6 inches of snow on the ground. My boyfriend and I had no place to stay, so we stole a bale of hay (sorry), dragged it under an overpass and used it for a bed. I thought we were going to freeze to death.
The Salvation Army not only gave me clothes to wear, but a job. Then one of the ladies had a room for me to rent. So many people have helped me along the way. It’s the little things that people do that touch my heart. I don’t see the world as others do, because I’ve seen the evil that exists in the world. I’ve been homeless, eating out of trash cans, and planning where to do your business. Where do you leave the few things you own, so you can work?
Without a place to live it’s very hard to get a job and without a job it’s impossible to eat and have a place to live. It’s a vicious circle, it’s no wonder so few get their lives back. I blame CPS for a lot of the troubles I’ve had in my life: they did everything they could to get me to lie about my parents. I heard them lie in court, on the witness stand. I am NOT an unbiased individual. I hate CPS and will do everything I can to make sure no child lives the life I have.
Kidjacked is a place to share your stories, plan, a link to tons if information. Are you writing letters? Are you planning an event? Send them to me, I’ll add them as soon as I can. We can win, but we must band together and push back hard.
I have 4 grandchildren that were placed in my home 4/26/2012, by Harrison County, WV CPS.
When my daughter in law had the baby last August she let the doctor know that she had been taking Subutex. She had previously had a problem with narcotic pain killers and had gone to the local clinic for help. They put her on Suboxone and when she got pregnant she had to switch to Subutex. But we could no longer afford for her to go to the clinic.
Suboxone tablet
She asked her OB about a regular prescription but he said he was not allowed to do that. So a friend was getting it for her. Also, to make things worse she got my son also addicted to it.So, when she had the baby CPS was called, even though the baby’s system was drug free. They opened a case in February, 2012. Both parents were taking a minimum dose of Suboxone once every day. No one even had any idea that they were taking anything.
The children were always well taken care of, home was spotless, good meals always served, and they were very involved in the kids activities. But because of the addiction, the kids were removed 2 months after the case opened. This has gone from bad to worse.
The case worker told me that I was to keep the kids in their “normal” routine. I told her that the older ones always spent part of the summer in Ohio with their cousins and she said that was fine. So today she calls to tell me I had to get my granddaughter home today, they are not allowed to go out of state except for maybe a weekend and with me.
Also, she had asked me if I WANTED to certify as a foster home and I said I didn’t know, and she said well I will contact a home study and you can look over the paperwork. I did that and because I decided that some of the information they wanted was absolutely my own personal, private business (how much life insurance do I have. who is it with, etc) I decided I did not want to do that.
Then she said I could not keep the kids if I didn’t. And she also said that “WHEN” parental rights were terminated and the kids put up for adoption I would not be allowed to do that if I was not certified.
I want to know what I can do to fight this? Are my grandchildren going to have a lifetime of punishment by this woman? Why are they being punished?
My name is Edward Bogan (and my wife Kimberly) here is my story, please find time to read this. WE NEED HELP.
BCCYS illegally took my children Monday afternoon from there home. BCCYS Took my children Monday 2/13/2012 @ 1:30pm
The big guy in the videos is Eds case worker thru BCCYS (The blonde hair girl is Noelle and she works for him) Greg the case worker came to the house Monday morning when Ed told him not to because it was his birthday and Ed told him to come Tuesday. But he showed up unannounced on Monday when Ed was in the basement with the kids.
Ed didn’t hear him knocking, but Greg heard the tv in the living room on and assumed they were home. He called the police, the police had maintenace open the door. When Ed heard someone walking around upstairs he came up and found 2 police officers standing there. Ed freaked out. The police said that Greg heard the tv on and they wanted to check the kids to make sure they were alright. So Ed let the police check the kids but told Greg that he wasnt allowed in because of what he had just pulled.
To have police in his house with 4 little kids scared was too extreme and there was no need for it. So Greg took that as Ed not complying with him or BCCYS any longer so he came back 3 hours later and took the children. Hence the videos that were posted on youtube and facebook.
My 8 yr old little girl, Hailey is a type 1 diabetic who receives at least 5 shots a day. They took her from her home without getting any of her medications. When I found this out I made some phone calls and found out where and who to deliver it to. Since then my oldest daughter Katelynn who is 11 has been calling us and informing us of Haileys medical conditions.
BCCYS Placed my child in a home WITH NO MEDICAL TRAINING OR KNOWLEDGE IN DIABETES. They did not know how to give her the shots, nor her regimen (how much she should eat at each meal, how many carbs, how often she should eat, and when to administer the shots, nor the locations of where to give the shots). When she began to become really sick Alyssa my 9 yr old stepped up to the plate and started giving Hailey her shots. But regardless, other steps weren’t taken and Haileys blood sugar numbers have gone crazy.
I got a call from my kids Tuesday morning saying how sick Hailey was with a bad belly ache, and a headache, and she felt really tired. (Which are signs of ketone acidosis … which happens when a diabetic eats too much and doesnt recieve enough insulin.)
I have been calling around nonstop since then trying to find out answers of why they took our child and placed her with foster parents that cant take care of her medical needs. When I spoke to Greg and Michele (Gregs supervisor) they said they were concerned for Haileys health but they had nowhere else to place her and that they would eventually get the foster mother some beginners training classes in diabetic awareness.
When the childrens case worker “Mr. Ed” they call him found out Alyssa had been giving her sister the shots he threatened her and yelled at her not to tell her parents. And after I spoke with Michele and Greg and told them how unhappy I was at their poor decisions in caring for and treating my daughters medical needs a few hours later they took my daughters cell phone from her to eliminate all contact.
My daughter called us screaming saying they were taking her phone, and she screams “get off me!!” just before the phone hangs up…. and that was the last we heard from our children.
THEY ARE PUTTING MY DAUGHTERS LIFE AT RISK!!! And no one is listening to me. I need help before something terrible happens to her.
Katelynn and Hailey have learning disabilities and are suppose to go to an afterschool reading program to help them. Since they were taken they have NOT attended. And because they don’t have adequate transporation for all the kids, they take the 3 girls to school and then they bring my son. Who has been late to school this week because of it.
How can CYS take children from a home that has no allegations of abuse or neglect and place them in a foster home that is not meeting there required medical and educational needs??!!
Please help our family. Something is seriously wrong with this system and children are being hurt in the process.
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