- don't trust that they have your child's best interest at heart
- don't sign anything without legal counsel, if you can't afford - wait until some pro bono service is found
"non-verbal youth arrived at school with significant bruising on his arms and legs, as well as a SWOLLEN FACE and bleeding gums" - the report given to CPS and what CPS used word for word in their internal report that was relayed to me AFTER they had my son in custody.
24 hours later: "child has no injuries to his face" and he is back home with me ONLY because when asked to sign a document that they presented as "necessary so your son can come home, so long as you find an adult willing to sign a "safety plan" and be in the same home as your son when he is not at school." I REFUSED.
They wanted me to sign on the spot, I said let me take it home and review. I had been told that under no circumstance was my son being released to me that day.
I attached the document without identifying information, I will not mention the jurisdiction apart from that it is in the United States.
When I reviewed it at home I realized the document was not as it had been verbally presented to me. Best summarized by the closing sentence
"I HEREBY AUTHORIZE THE BOARD OF SOCIAL SERVICES TO PLACE HIM/HER IN A FOSTER HOME OR INSTITUTION."
The next morning when asked to sign, I responded:
"I won't sign as it is not what I was told AND demanded that my attorney be able to see my son that day ASAP so that he can see the condition of my son's face"
The night prior I was allowed to see my son and I asked them to point out the bruises and injuries. There was absolutely nothing wrong or unusual about his face compared to any other day.
- His lips were dry, he picks at them, they bleed sometimes.
- His hairline was dry, he scratches and there were tiny scabs collectively no bigger than his pinky finger nail.
- They tried to say his upper lip was swollen, it wasn't - he has an orthodontic condition that causes his teeth to push his upper lip out very slightly (the same as any other day)
- They tried to say he had bleeding gums - he didn't; however, he had FRESH BLUEBERRIES just before getting on the bus and I had noticed they were stuck in his teeth.
BRUISES: He had one finger sized curved bruise on his calf that I had explained that I saw the week prior when I had inquired with the school about his skinned knees that did not happen at home (minor, 1/2 inch scabs) He had a bruise on this thigh and had two finger size bruises on his forearm - I had told them that I had not seen these before. That morning I got him dressed from pajamas to long pants in the morning in his dimly lit room and sat across from him at breakfast and then on our bright sun lit screen porch as he ate blueberries. He had a short sleeve shirt and I did not notice anything unusual on his arms.
My answers were written up as "questionable and INCONSISTENT"
Within hours of me stating that I wanted my lawyer to see my son's face as soon as possible, they said "YOU CAN PICK HIM UP FROM THE SCHOOL BUS STOP THIS AFTERNOON"
They did want me to sign a "Safety Plan" that repeated the allegations - I marked with an asterix and said that "this morning, CPS agreed that there were no injuries to his face" and I added several remarks similar to what I noted in this post in regards to other claims. I signed to get my son home. He slept from 5pm to 7am in spite of CPS claim that he had slept well the prior night. They begrudgingly accepted my mark ups after consulting their director.
I now believe that some CPS offices may have a very heavy bias to do anything to turn a child over to foster care and institutions - to wash their hands of any liability and unfortunately I am seeing merit to what I previously viewed as "conspiracy theory" - that institutions and foster parents form somewhat of closed eco-system that is incentivized to continually feed new "clients" into, in order to sustain with government money.
I hope mods read this and see the educational content and don't delete ,I have read the rules and don't see any reason as to why this should not be posted and a source for conversation and education. I posted under "non verbal" as I see the issue as a dramatic risk for non verbal children.
PS on reflection of how the other bruises came to be: he had rolled off the back of the couch the night before, in doing so pushed the large console table, pulled a small satellite speaker down and presumably landed on it and the rigid end tables I had under the console. I did not see, I just heard and he was up back on the couch when I came around the corner to see. The day before I had been trying to teach him "monkey bar" hand over hand swing at the playground - I was holding him by his fore arms to try and show him the motion, thinking he understood to hold with one arm; however, he released and I caught his fully 70 pounds mostly with one hand that was on his forearm.