Just about every person in America would agree with the statement: child abuse is a terrible crime, and we should do whatever we can to prevent it, or to stop it.
But Americans often disagree on the details of how to do that. In particular, battles have arisen over the Fourth Amendment's protection against unreasonable searches and seizures, and whether this amendment applies to social workers investigating a claim of child abuse or neglect, even if this claim has come from an anonymous tipster and there has been no corroborating evidence that it might be true.
On the one hand, no one wants a child who is being abused to have to wait a long time for help to come. In cases where there is clearly immediate danger of harm to a child, we don't want to tie up investigators' hands with too much red tape.
On the other hand, heartbreaking stories of parents who are investigated, and children removed from their parents' loving care overnight or even longer, on the strength of what turns out to be a malicious or completely fabricated report of abuse made by someone who wants to hurt the family (sometimes, sadly, a feuding relative) send chills up every loving parent's spine. Sad statistics show that a child is much more likely to be a victim of some kinds of abuse while in foster care than in his own home (often at the hands of other children in the home, not the foster parents). The thought that a misunderstanding, or worse, an act of malice, could lead to one's children being removed is terrifying to many parents.
That's why I was interested in this blog post, written by the head of the Texas Home School Coalition, Tim Lambert:
SB 1064 by Senator Kirk Watson was filed early in the session, and it sought to allow CPS, in the course of an investigation of abuse or neglect, to get the medical or mental health records of children who are the focus of an investigation. In order for CPS to accomplish this, the person refusing to give the records and parents must be given notice and a court hearing and CPS must show "good cause" for the action before the court would order the release of said records to CPS.
However, the bill was substituted in committee for a very different SB 1064, which was passed out of the Senate and sent to the House. The new SB 1064 gave the court authority to force parents to give CPS access to the child and/or transport the child for "interview, examination and investigation," without a court hearing or notice to the parent. Worst of all, the language in the current statute that requires CPS to prove "good cause shown" was stricken. Thus this bill would allow CPS, during an investigation in which the parents would not waive their 4th amendment rights, entrance into their home, access to medical or mental health records of their children or transportation of the child, on the simple filing of an affidavit by a CPS worker with no hearing or opportunity for the parents or their legal counsel to present their case.The reason that the committee substitute was not filed as the original bill is clear. It would have caused a firestorm of opposition for the wholesale destruction of parental rights in the course of an investigation of child abuse by CPS. When the bill was scheduled for a hearing in the House Human Services Committee, officials of the Parent Guidance Center - a pro-parent group that helps families who are under investigation by CPS - presented written testimony and signed witness cards in opposition to the bill. Strangely, that testimony and those witness cards were not entered into the record of the hearing on the bill.
On the last day of the session, Representative Patrick Rose, chairman of the House Human Services Committee, offered a floor amendment to SB 1440 (another bill by Watson), which was on the Local and Consent Calendar. The amendment offered by Rose was the language of committee substitute SB 1064, and since SB 1440 was considered non-controversial and the sponsor of the bill (Rose) agreed to the amendment, it was adopted on a voice vote, and the final language of SB 1440 includes the committee substitute language of SB 1064.
More:
(UPDATE: be sure to read the lengthy comment in the comments thread by Richard Wexler, the Executive Director of the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform.)
The bill, now SB 1440, has caught the attention of other concerned parents in Texas in addition to homeschooling parents; the issue isn't really specific to homeschooling, but affects everyone who thinks that allowing CPS workers to show up at your front door and remove your children from your home without probable cause, without a warrant, without any evidence besides an anonymous tip that somebody heard a child yelling in the back yard (no, seriously, CPS investigations have been conducted for no more than that), isn't really the best idea in the world.
I've read and seen some things from the CPS side, too. They're often understaffed and overburdened, under-budgeted and overextended. They see heartbreaking stories unfold of children treated worse than most of us would ever like to imagine, and when they're handed a stack of cases and told to investigate, they do.
But the anonymous tip system, while saving some children, is tearing apart the lives of others. How long does it take a four-year-old, say, to recover from being taken from his home and placed with strangers, even just overnight? What lasting fears of danger or of abandonment will cause him to suffer, especially when the case was without merit and his parents good, loving people who never harmed him at all? And from the CPS side of things, how many hours and how much time and effort is wasted investigating people for no reason other than that their neighbors don't like that they let the kids play outside in the early evenings, or because an ex-husband or ex-wife wants to hurt the spouse who got custody?
SB 1440 should be opposed by Texans; I've already made my opposition to this bill known. But what I'd really like to see is an end of the anonymous tip system--yes, let the person reporting be anonymous to the family, so long as they're willing to give their names and addresses to the CPS workers to be kept in a confidential file. That would decrease the number of false or malicious tips made, freeing up social workers to spend more time on the tips that have some merit or some evidence aside from a tipster's word.
At the very least, I'd like to see language inserted into Section 4, subsection c-2 of SB 1440 that says something like this: "Neither the reasonable and prudent belief that a child's physical or mental health or welfare has been or may be adversely affected by abuse or neglect, nor the fair probability that that allegations of abuse or neglect will be sustained if the requested order is issued and executed, may be based on an anonymous tip, on hearsay evidence whether anonymous or not, or on any single allegation which has been unsubstantiated by corroborating evidence or signed testimony by at least one other party."
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One thing we are taught over and over in our child abuse reporter sessions. If a child reveals something to you, it is usually true. The instances of a child, especially a child younger than 2nd or 3rd grade, being able to tell a fabricated story about child abuse without a parent at his/her side to coach them is extremely rare...almost (but not quite) negligible.
This is a very useful thing to assume, and I am glad everyone is being taught that.
However, given the difficulties of figuring out just what is "true" in such a situation, not to mention the near impossibility of assembling a lot of data on this issue ("X children recounted abuse, and in Y% of those cases, actual abuse had actually taken place"), make this approach more of an act of faith than a statement based on factual information.
I have two grandchildren in the age bracket you name. They are being well raised by very competent parents in very stable families. Still, their grip on what an adult would call "reality" is quite wavering. Fantasy, games, pictures, conversation, and real experience all tend to blend in together. My children are at pains to explain to these little kids the distinction between all this other material and what they call "IRL" ("in real life"), and the lesson is difficult to grasp. One can easily imagine a small child who is less carefully raised being more than a little fuzzy on the concept. Even these carefully-raised grandchildren wink in and out on that one.
When a child, especially a small child, tells such a story, he or she should be believed, but somewhere in an adult's mind should lurk the possibility that what is coming out might not be an account of the event as an adult might perceive it.
"When a child, especially a small child, tells such a story, he or she should be believed, but somewhere in an adult's mind should lurk the possibility that what is coming out might not be an account of the event as an adult might perceive it."
Observer: I can tell you have had the luxury of not having one of your kids being molested. Praise God for that!
When I first went in to make my report of abuse, I faced a roomful of skeptical adults, the most skeptical of all was the detective. I give information, why I brought my child in, etc. Then the investigators inform that sometimes kids come up with stories, etc and that no abuse has occurred. After which, they interview said child with no parents around. The investigation process is meant specifically to figure out what is truth and what is fiction. It was listening to the specific details that came out of the mouth my 3 year old that my skeptical detective became a criminal investigator.
Is it possible that a child is coached? 1 in 3 girls and 1 in 6 boys will be molested, folks. We have bigger problems here than a possible coach job. I can tell from the comments here that we don't want to face what has produced full time careers for many people in our cities. Until going through this myself, I had no idea how many families face this.
1 in 3 girls and 1 in 6 boys will be molested
Where are these numbers coming from? May I have a citation? I'm wondering how anyone could possibly know something like this.
We must stop the encroachment into the family by CPS and other state and federal regulatory agencies and powers. We cannot continue to think in "ends justify the means" terms!!! The Constitutional freedoms of all children AND PARENTS must be protected! We need to stop thinking so much about the tiny percentage of kids who are being abused and think of our Constitutional structure as a whole. As a victim of child abuse, and as a former family law attorney, I see that children generally are protected. What we need to protect is the FAMILY - protect the rights of parents to be free from unwarranted violations by CPS, and protect the family to be free from intrusion upon our rights as parents. Legislation such as this further erodes our Constitutional rights. If there is abuse, let the accuser face the accused, let it be after Constitutionally required fair notice and opportunity to be heard to parents! We all need to place ourselves in the position of parents who are falsely accused - I represented plenty of them. Check out the statistics - the percentage of true allegations of abuse are very small, while children are taken from their parents by CPS over NOTHING!!!
Check out the statistics - the percentage of true allegations of abuse are very small
I'd love to. Citation, please?
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