Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Foster Planet

3 days after giving birth,
a Newport, Pennsylvania woman had her newborn taken away from her
after testing positive for drugs.
Her drug of choice: poppy seed bagels.

Child Protective Services (CPS) seems to be pushing the bar these days.

A New Hampshire couple recently had their child returned to them after CPS
took custody of their 7-day-old daughter Cheyenne after insisting the father had guns
and was the member of a militia, the group in question: the Oath keepers.
Whose sole purpose is to ensure those who enrolled in the military or civil service maintain the initial oath they took upon being sworn in.
They are hardly militia (a title which has lately been associated with homeland terrorism)
and are more like citizens of liberty who have perilously sacrificed life & limb for state.
Upon a short custody battle the couple went to visit their child who was unresponsive,
under CPS supervision the mother began to change the diaper when she noticed blood smeared all over the newborns vagina, the baby was quickly rushed to the hospital.
The couple were at first denied the right to be present in the doctors office while the child was inspected but were granted visitation by the sheriff, who then took custody of the child away from CPS and brought the baby to a sexual abuse specialist.

Approximately 26,000 children per state are taken into custody every year.
Rumors have arose as to whether or not there exists quotas which social workers must abide by.
Every parent walks a razors edge upon birth of their child.

If by chance:

-your child accidentally gets hurt
-you are involved with a spout with your loved one
or
-a neighborly feud results in a phone call to CPS
you run the risk of losing your child.

As an oldest child growing up with 6 siblings and a single mom,
the kids would often cause hell in the neighborhood, typical of most children,
and neighbors nowadays are too lazy to leave the house to chastise the parent,
but are more prone to pick up a phone in retaliation and report false allegations of neglect or abuse.
Next thing you know a social worker is at the door and questioning a 2 year old.
This is where social engineering and predictive programming come into play.
Recently my son was watching television,
when out of nowhere he starts mimicking a cartoon character on the television who blames another character for breaking his arm.
Next thing my child's running round accusing us of breaking his arm,
the end result of viewing a cartoon aimed at preschoolers.
All it takes is for those words to fall upon the wrong ears and somebody gets the wrong impression.
I've noticed many subliminal instances of social engineering, this was only 1 example.

Some stats:
-children are 11 times more likely to be sexually abused in foster care then in their own homes

-while 59 out of 100k are alleged to be abused in general population,
160 are abused in foster care

-490 per 100k are neglected in their homes
760 in state care

-1.5 per 100k are killed in general population
6.4 killed in foster care
for every 4 children that die in general population
an equivalent 21 will perish under foster care

-18% of children are taken from their homes with unsubstantiated reports of maltreatment

-1 in 25 children run the risk of being subjected to an abuse/neglect investigation annually

-throughout the 1990's children remained in foster care an average of 2 1/2 years
the ASFA requires states to terminate parental rights after 15 months

-In 1998, 238k children were removed from their homes
34k more than the number of children who left the system that year
In 2005, 67k were removed for adoption
another 110k were waiting for adoptive homes

-In 2000 more than 550k children were in state custody
In 2010 463k reside in foster care alone

-In 1998 2,806,452 reports of child abuse/neglect were phoned in to hotlines
34% (955,186) were immediately found unfounded & "screened-out"
Of the 1,851,267 investigated, 295,169 were substantiated for physical abuse
or 11% of the 2.8 million reports
15% of the calls are alleged to have been made by the social workers themselves
police officers account for an additional 13%
disgruntled neighbors & family members: 17%

-In 2005, over 3.3 million reports involving 6 million children were made to child abuse hotlines

-child welfare spends over $12.3 billion in expenditures annually

-laws have passed which require certain professionals to report suspected child abuse/neglect
these mandated reporters often file "knee-jerk" claims to cover their own ass
accounting for 53% of the reports in 1998

-an estimated 2 million children are in foster care worldwide
800k coming from central or eastern Europe or the commonwealth of independent states

The After-Effects
-youth in foster care are 44% less likely to graduate high school

-30% of the nations homeless are former foster children

-30% have severe emotional problems

-80% of inmates have been through the foster care program

12-18 months after leaving foster care:
-27% of males, & 10% females will be incarcerated
-33% will receive public assistance
-50% are unemployed

The Adoptions & Safe Families Act (ASFA) passed in 1997 sets adoption quotas
with money bonuses for exceeding them
and even larger bonuses for processing large numbers of "special-needs" children.
Therefore nabbing children becomes a sale transaction, beat the quota, snatch the cash.

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