Here's more info on the family Jill posted about the other day. I know the father through WoW and we talk sometimes on yahoo messenger. The more I talk with him the angrier I get. The police have not contacted them at all reguarding this case, they have gotten all of their information from MEDIA calling them. Still NO arrests have been made but the agency has been shut down temporarily. They are suing the agency, social workers, and foster home involved. I really hope they win. Something needs to be done. I just can't believe that during all this the DHS asked a judge to terminate their parental rights to their 4 year old daughter... At a time like this!

News article
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060823/NEWS02/608230314

Blog
http://missingandmurderedchildren.facesofthemissing.org/?p=111#comments

I put this in here because I suppose there could be debates on it, but I'm really dissapointed in the system. I started to be upset with the whole system about a year ago when I read about a case in Hawaii. It was an old case but details were just coming out. Now that I know someone who has personally gone through this I'm just disgusted. They say they are protecting children, but from what Matt has told me they weren't protecting the children from anything. They PUT the children in danger when they took them from home.

I used to think that all parents who had their children taken were obviously just awful parents but this has all really opened my eyes.

it is truly sad. the mom gets on MDC and keeps us updated...when she can. i can not even imagine:sadeyes

I understand that this is a sensitive subject, but can I ask why the children were taken from their homes in the first place? :dunno

The dad hasn't told me the whole story but what I have gathered is that their oldest had disabilities and so they had a social worker. There was one time that she fell and scuffed up her lip but didn't take her to the ER. There was a possibility that the accident could have given her a seizure but it didn't, they were keeping a close eye on her to make sure instead of just taking her to the ER. Supposedly too I guess their house was "dirty". It says in the article that they failed to clean things up, which I believe is false as well. The agency just refused to return the children. That's he said, she said about them complying with the demands of the agency but they parents said they complied with everything, inspections etc. and that things were up to par but that the case worker was against them from the start. It seems that Michigan has a pretty sad excuse for a foster system anyhow.

ETA: I just find the dirty house thing ridiculous since there are people in the Navy who I know live in deplorable conditions and their kids aren't taken away... Even when cleaning crews come in and find the house thrashed after they PCS.

So sad.

ETA: I just find the dirty house thing ridiculous since there are people in the Navy who I know live in deplorable conditions and their kids aren't taken away... Even when cleaning crews come in and find the house thrashed after they PCS.

Yeah I agree... not that I by ANY means condone children living in undesirable and unsafe conditions, but I don't understand how that is reason to place them in the system and out of the hands of their parents. Unless it somehow affected their safety, it doesn't make sense to me... and even so, wouldn't they have received a warning or something first? To just take them seems a little harsh to me.

Either way, it really is a sad sad story. It breaks my heart and makes me wish I could just take in tons of children myself! :sad

I just don't believe in this system anymore. I hear about cases in Hawaii where kids were taken away from parents because of abuse... And then given back where they were abused more. And in one case, the one I mentioned, the boy dissapeared. He's been missing for 10 years I think it is. I honestly believe that the father killed the boy, but the dad says he "gave" the boy to an Aunt Rose. Nobody has been able to find this person.

Then my grandma Lola has told me some stories, she used to foster babies. One in particular she remembers was given back to the mother after being neglected. When my grandma recieved the baby she was incredibly malnurished, underweight, under developed for her age. Then she thrived in their home but was given back to the mother. My grandma Lola actually somewhat stalked this lady and found so many times when the child was left home alone as a baby/toddler. She would call CPS and they didn't do a thing about it. She told me by the time the girl was 13 she was a prostitute :(.

Then you have children taken away because of a "dirty" house. What do they consider dirty eh? Makes you wonder. But their children were taken from their parents who did not abuse them and put into foster care where they were abused, and then murdered. Isaac had old injuries besides the ones that killed him. That means that in the other homes he was in he was abused as well, and his sister was too. I just can't put faith in a system where children are returned to abusive parents and taken away from non-abusive parents to be put in abusive homes.

Its truely sad.

The system is wrong.. if the kids have a real reason to be taken away from the parents then they should be treated with the best care they can get.. not shoved in any home just so they are off the streets.

My friend is going through hell right now- he is deployed in iraq and has been there 10 months.. he got his leave about a month ago and when he got to his home he noticed his wife nore his child was there.. and the house wasn't even leased to his wife anymore. She had vanished without a trace and so had the child. He was in the middle of divorcing her so they really didn't keep in contact. Well anyway- he does some searching around.. and he finds out that his wife is in prison- and had been for over a month, for drug charges. He found out that she was on meth and that the child had been gone since the day she got put in. The officers couldn't tell him where his child was, and his wife had no idea because she was so blind that day- and she hadn't tried to find out during her time there.

Well the next day he had to go back to Iraq- not knowing where his daughter was last seen. She is still missing. Command hasn't allowed him to go back home because apparently custody of his daughter went to his wifes boyfriend. He apparently has no idea where she is either. So my poor friend is absolutely dying right now- he has always talked about his daughter so highly so i know he must be doing it tough. Apparently there is a search out for her but nothing has come up. In 7 weeks he will be home. I hope he finds her. I cant imagine what he is going through. His daughter is 3 btw.

My point to this story is that the system is yet again screwed. But this time in the army. His daughter is missing yet he isn't allowed back home.. because of some custody issue he had no idea about until he went over there. How horrible for him!

:( That's very sad.

Somewhat of the same thing happened to this father with the last two children to be taken. He and the mother were divorcing so he was living with his parents. When they took the children they arrested the mother and NEVER contacted the father. It took him two months to find his children after he found out. I believe they were trying to regain custody of the children as well and the hearing was post poned because the judge went on vacation. The hearing was supposed to have been in July. This death could have been avoided :(

Indeed it could have. I hate to say it but i dont think the chances of my friend finding his daughter again are likely. She has been missing for over 2 months now- and shes 3 years old.. and no friends or family were looking after her. Apparently she was seen with her mother the day the mother got arrested so who knows. It just dosn't seem good.

Something has to be done with family rights. The system obviously isn't always working so it needs to be fixed. How many children have to suffer before the point is made?

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2006608290417

there are a lot of things about the system that I don't agree with
Very sad indeed

This is why I will never work for the state. It is such a high pressure job. The workers are usually case workers (who do not have a degree or just have an AA) rather than social workers (who have a BSW or MSW). It sometimes is impossible to tell what's really going on in such a short amount of time. Some parents are smart.

Some workers just royally fuck up and ruin the reputation for the others who are doing a good job. The service needs to be there to protect the kids from abuse and neglect, which sadly there is no shortage of. Unfortunately the system hasn't found a good way to figure out when parents are ready to take the kids back and when they're not. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn't. It's the kids that pay the price.

the system is overworked and underpaid. the state needs people so desperately they will overlook some minor things that would normally disqualify candidates

I'm actually glad you replied Lauren since you have experience with this sort of thing. I know not everyone that works for the state is horrible, but it's hearing that people did not do their job properly by not reporting things that are required by law. That just makes the system fail more than it does already.

What bothers me most is that yes, the children are the ones who suffer. Fixing this system would be incredibly hard because there are just sick people out there who can lie through their teeth and people who just don't care enough. :(