I was on the other hand of the CPS--I took in a distant relative who had been removed by CPS. CPS did their job! IF you have issues with CPS, there are court attorneys appointed for the child, and CASA also. THey should also be allowing monthly visitation with the children --someone is not doing their job. There is an investigation, a plan for the parent and continuing court hearings before a judge. How is all this going? The child we took in ultimitly went back toone of the parents--CPS did all they were suppose to do in this case. My heart goes out to those people (CPS Caseworkers)who have to deal with abusive families and the innocent children who love their parents even though they beat the %#$#^& out of them.

stepmom07--

If you have an attorney, and these children are still in a situation as you describe, why aren't you firing that sorry attorney you have and getting one that will get your husband the custody of his children?

You are depending on CPS to determine that those children belong with their father. That is not their job. Their job is to investigate abuse and neglect, and then do what is necessary to protect those children.

One of the biggest abuses of the system is attorneys and families who expect this third party to settle their custody issues. I understand why folks do that--it's cheaper than a lawyer.

Rather than ragging on CPS, find a attorney who will work harder for you.

@Rebecca

That is the stuff of nightmares, how terrible.

I completely understand children taken away from their families can be destroying, but in this case, these children are being abused: physically and mentally, and neglected. AND yet CPS does nothing. what they are suppose to do!!!

I wish i could have Stood Next to him!! CPS doesn't care. They are suppose to be about reuniting families, and looking for a solution. I have 3 step- Children. The oldest has been living with us for a year because her mom beat the **** out of her. She does have protection order against her. But When CPS was called by the ER doctor when her father and i took her in. The case worker assigned said there is no threat to the other children. We have hired a lawyer and are fighting with everything we have. And CPS is on her side. Every time the children come to our house their mom and step dad were fighting, they are up all night cause of them fighting and have school the next day. one of them choked one of the kids, we have an endless list of abuse. Mind you she had all of her children removed from her home once before for a strap mark to the face of one of her other children and the school called CPS. even then they said NOTHING. just let children go home about 6 weeks later. To this day every weekend they are with us we have to listen to the abuse they go through, they are threatened that if they tell, they are not allowed to call their dad when something is wrong because their mom does not want the truth of what she does to her own children to get out!!! We strongly believe they are over medicated. Their mother has them seeing the same doctor she has been seeing for lots of years, and they are all considered ADHD, Bi-polar, Manic Depressants, and take medications for each. We have been going through lawyers to get them re-evaluated, and everything but NOTHING. Then again CPS was called by the counseler we had them seeing over the summer. Their living conditions, holes in floor of trailer, rats, roach infestation, were all questioned, but CPS did not enter house or they would have found all this. And my middle step son told CPS case worker that he was "touched" by his step dad, When we had to take children to their video Testimony, the accused molester was present. CPS was the ones that set up meeting at the Harbor House In Port Lavaca. Is that just the best thing ever to have the accused present. ONCE AGAIN case was closed with no findings what so ever. Children continue to tell me and their dad everything that happens to them, and we have to just sit back listen, document and tell our lawyer.

I'M GLAD SOMEBODY FINALLY GOT THE COURAGE TO FIGHT CPS. @ REBECCA, THAT'S THE SAME THING I SAID " GUILTY UNTIL PROVEN INNOCENT". THAT'S THE WAY CPS HANDLES THEIR CASES. I'M NOT SAYING EVERY CPS CASEWORKER IS A MONSTER BUT, I KNOW ONE OR TWO WHO HAVE ABUSED THEIR POWER.

I had a friend (a non abuser) who moved to a new town and had no friends or family there. A teacher reported one of her children to CPS because the child had a scratch on his arm and when asked about it the child said his mom did it. She had accidentally scratched him. Both of her children were taken from school, without her knowledge, and driven to another location where they were both questioned. There was no abuse found but there is a file on them because of the suspicion, right? The family was new to the area and no one knew them so the worst was assumed. I was furious when she told me the story. What if the children had been in a wreck while being driven to and from the school? What if the children had been abused by these strangers while in their care? She was guilty until proven innocent.

If severe cases of abuse can get overlooked and ignored while some focus on a scratch - something is wrong.

No matter the particulars of the case, the Advocate's story highlights the frustrations many families have experienced in dealing with CPS: encountering power-hungry CPS staffers (often people with no children of their own) who execute a removal of children (kidnapping) from the family home on barely credible, sometimes merely circumstantial evidence; the follow-up line of communication is closed off (chided for "calling too often" -- about her own children!, not updating the family on the whereabouts or the health of their own children); and exuding an air of suspicion toward home-schooling parents and parents of strong religious faith.

The issue is not about abusive parents: sadly, and throughout history and across every cultural and social line, there have been those who do not value their own children.

The issue here is about the government. Do your research, folks. Almost all of what the government does or proposes to do in regard to children is only superficially about the good of the children; at its heart, every government program, especially but certainly not limited to the government-run public school, is about control of the citizenry.

The name, Child Protective Services, is a safe-sounding label that is designed to deceive. While some children may have been assisted over the years, the agency is designed to further put the citizenry on edge against one another, making us easier to control.

@Rebecca

Just wow!

CPS is in a lose-lose situation. Half the time they are chastised for seemingly not doing enough. Then in the other half they are chastised for seemingly doing too much. I personally have had occasion to feel both ways about them numerous times over the years. It is a job I would not have.

The only thing I know about CPS is that two different people from CPS have called me to ask about homeschooling legalities. One wanted me to give her a list of all the homeschoolers in town, which I did NOT. She admitted that she suspected families homeschooled so that they could get by with abuse.

CPS has no jurisdiction over education.

If you get a call or a visit from CPS because you homeschool your children call Tim Lambert 1/806/744/4441

(When I try to type a phone number it gets "Skyped." Darn Skype.)

This comment was removed by the site staff for violation of the usage agreement.

In my life I have seen CPS do some stupid things. From taking time to investigate a call. Not even looking into a case and just use judgement. Few years back CPS was called about a child, CPS come out everything was reported to be ok. Then a Pizza lady come to male a delivery and reported that the child had a bad head injury. Then finaly about 2 weeks after that report CPS come to look into the matter. The child had already passed away, by being beating by his step dad for un known amount of time. If CPS would have done there job at first that child would still be alive today. Then cases when CPS is called in, hardly do they take the child no matter how much drugs or anything. Then they usualy call for a close family member for the child to go to if they are taken if not the stupid state takes them. But I agree CPS is not fit to do anything them selfs, they have been known to be understaffed awhile. They just leave a bad taste in my mouth. PLAIN AND SIMPLE IM AGAINST CPS AS WELL PERIOD !!!!!!!

We've heard ONE SIDE of the story. There will always be someone AGAINST an agency/entity/another person as life goes on. These agencies DO GOOD-but, as the old saying goes: You can do all the ATTA BOYS you want, but the "AW CRAPs" are the ones people are going to remember the most.
AS FAR AS CPS: their mission IS NOT to break up families, but to intervene on behalf of someone who needs help from outside the family.
Also, the article DOES NOT EXPLAIN why the children were removed. The do mention "questionable bruising", but that's to the extent of it. The article spends more time on "THE PROTEST."

I FIRMLY BELIEVE CHILDREN SHOULD NOT BE REMOVED AND FAMILIES SEPARATED UNLESS THEY ARE IN IMMINENT DANGER WITH REGARDS TO HEALTH AND SAFETY.

Agencies should work to keep families together, and from my own experience, they do to the best of their ability on a case by case basis. I am not defending CPS. I can only come to the conclusion that we have NOT heard the whole story in this article. So, until BOTH SIDES are published, I cannot find any wrongdoing against the family or CPS. This is just one case-one family-voicing their opinion.
------ I wish them well and wish the children well. My prayers are with them.

--------------------oh well, just my two cents----------------------------

American Family Rights Association has been trying to educate people since 2002 about the domestic terrorism that CPS is.

We could only wish for the TRUTH to be told about what REALLY happens to kids after they are UNCONSTITUTIONALLY kidnapped from their homes by CPS, their families DESTROYED by character assassination and Legal Abuse, often for utterly false allegations.

"There are more than half a million children and youth in the U.S. foster care system today. Studies reveal that children are 11 times more likely to be abused in state care than they are in their own homes, and 7 times more likely to die as a result of abuse in the foster care system."-- John Walsh Show April 16, 2003

"As many as 75 percent of all children in foster care, upon leaving the system, will have experienced sexual abuse. One study by Johns Hopkins University found that the rate of sexual abuse within the foster-care system is more than four times as high as in the general population; in group homes, the rate of sexual abuse is more than 28 times that of the general population." --Sexual Abuse: An Epidemic in Foster Care Settings? By Orlow, Orlow & Orlow July 17, 2009

"Not since the overthrow of the Weimar Republic have the leaders of a major democracy used their offices and the mass media to disseminate invective against millions of their own citizens. In fact it was Adolph Hitler who urged that "the state must declare the child to be the most precious treasure of the people" and who explained, in the words of Rabbi Daniel Lapin, that "as long as government is perceived as working for the benefit of children, the people happily will endure almost any curtailment of liberty."

Using children to tug on our heartstrings may be not only a weakness of the sentimental. It also may be a ploy by those cynical and unscrupulous enough to exploit children for their own purposes.

This is likely to be remembered as one of the most diabolical perversions of governmental power in our history, a time when we allowed children to be used and abused by fast-talking government officials and paid for it with our families, our social order and our constitutional rights."-- STEPHEN BASKERVILLE (in about 2000)

Leonard Henderson, co-founder
American Family Rights
http://familyrights.us
"Until Every Child Comes Home"©
"The Voice of America's Families"©