Newest articles on The Sacramento Press tagged as "protection"

Juvenile Seeks to Rein in CPS Abuses through Legislation

2012-02-01T20:13:24Z

Now that Eric Smith, (not real name) a 17-year-old foster child, has been declared a dependent of the court, he is on a mission to change the laws that regulate CPS. “No one should have to go through what I did,” he said, citing his nine months in CPS custody last year. “They treated me like I was a villain, instead of a victim. Why? Because they can.” Eric wants to see that stop.

Just shy of 18, Eric is not yet able to fully tell his story. But that is not stopping him from writing letters to political officials and child welfare groups, recounting his experiences and proposing legislative changes. And what he can tell of his story, he does.

On April 1 2011, an emergency CPS social worker was dispatched to Eric’s high school to meet with him. CPS had received a phone call citing concern of emotional abuse in his home.

It was not the first call to CPS as court records would later show. But it was the first call to claim concern that Eric, who had attempted suicide before, might again attempt to take his life. A little-known provision in Welfare and Institution Code 300(c) allows the court to take jurisdiction if a child is suffering serious emotional damage.

The social worker who interviewed Eric that Friday afternoon promised him he would not need to return home. “She said she had a safety plan for me. But first she wanted to meet me at my house to talk with my mom.”

The social worker got to the house first. Eric arrived minutes later but retreated into a hallway at the sound of laughter. The social worker had discovered what Eric knew she would. It was what had kept him from confiding in others for 16 years. Eric’s mother was herself a former CPS social worker. Eric knew he wouldn’t stand a chance of getting the help he needed.

The two women gossiped like school chums, about coworkers, about supervisors, but mostly about Eric. “I knew he was lying,” he heard the social worker say to his mother.

Not less than an hour after arriving at the house, the social worker packed up her bags and closed the case. Before leaving, she placed a phone call. “Is Eric Smith at your house?” she said after identifying herself. “If he is, you need to return him immediately. There is no abuse in this home.”

Eric, crouching in the hallway, bolted.

It would be nine months before Eric would hear the words he’d doubted ever hearing, delivered at the final court hearing: “There is clear and convincing evidence of severe emotional abuse in this home.”

Eric’s story takes twists and turns to outrage even the most cynical. It’s a story he plans to tell in full one day. What he can reveal now is that the initial emergency social worker was removed from his case, a second was assigned and removed, and then a third and a fourth.

“All four social workers assigned to me over the past eight months put me through hours of crude and offensive questioning, consistently siding with my mother,” Eric said.

The second social worker was assigned after Eric bolted from his house. He had sought shelter with a friend until CPS could be notified. Unwilling to relinquish control to CPS, Eric’s mother allowed the second social worker to “voluntarily” place Eric in the Sacramento Children’s Receiving Home. On his second day in the home, his mother cut off all contact with his friends, his therapist, and his adult brother, claiming they had “brainwashed” her son. It was nine months before CPS would allow him contact with them again.

“CPS did not listen to me or believe me. They tried to put words in my mouth. They twisted facts. They tried to convince me of things that were not true and persuade me out of things that were true.”

Mike Johnson (not real name) was one of those social workers. Johnson reviewed the case and questioned Eric repeatedly. “He sat me down and said, ‘I am telling you, you never heard the words “there is no abuse in this home’ that afternoon. Do you understand?’”

“He wanted to cover for the social worker. He tried to tell me that I did not witness what I had seen with my own eyes and heard with my own ears.”

Johnson further told Eric that no court had ever taken jurisdiction under Welfare and Institution Code 300(c) and to expect to be sent back home. Emotional abuse could not be proved. It was his word against his mother’s. He was a teenage boy. She was a former CPS social worker and foster mother.

Thus began weeks of relentless interrogation. Johnson, as well as each new social worker, continued to side with his mother, accusing him of fabricating his story. When Eric asked them to interview his friends and other family members to corroborate his story, the social workers refused, saying juvenile cases are confidential to protect the privacy of the minor. Anyway, CPS added, they are not parties to the case.

“They told me I was lying,” Eric said. “They told me I was having a sexual affair with my friend’s mother. That she was having an affair with my therapist. They told me that my therapist was a quack. That I was not suicidal. If I was being abused, where were the scars? They believed everything my mother said. And they refused to talk to anyone else.”

Eric was put on 24/7 suicide watch for six months and told that “if I tried to run away or contact my therapist or friends, I would be placed in another city in a group home.” Johnson threatened the friend’s family with restraining orders if they so much as tried to contact Eric.

Meanwhile, the boy’s mother was being investigated on a separate matter. Her two-year-old foster child was removed, and she was charged with felony abuse of an adult dependent—her severely disabled adoptive daughter. Still, CPS hammered Eric with accusations. They recommended to the juvenile court that the case be closed and Eric be sent home.

Eric considered appealing to the State Foster Care Ombudsman until he learned that the ombudsman would go directly to the offending social worker to disclose the nature of the complaint as well as the identity of the child. It was a case of the fox guarding the hen house.

After six months in temporary placement—chosen by his mother—Eric finally received court permission to his petition to be placed in a foster home. Eric had been through dozens of hearings and still his case hung in the balance. Still CPS insisted there was no abuse in his home.

In early October, Eric’s foster father received a panicked phone call from the high school principal, followed by several calls from CPS. The police were looking for him. Eric’s French teacher had assigned a ten-minute free writing exercise and become alarmed at what she’d read:

The system has failed me. I have been denied the love, influence, and support from those who mean the most to me. Why? The simple answer is because they can. I am being punished by the very institutions put in place to help me....They say I am in ‘Protective Custody’ (that’s a laugh). I am the only one fighting for me.... No doubt in anyone’s minds why CPS will go to every length to protect one of their own.... I am going to escape. Come and watch the fireworks.

In November, the Juvenile Court declared Eric’s home unsafe to return to, bringing the CPS ordeal to an end.

“I felt trapped in a system meant to help me. Not only was I harassed, disbelieved, and mistreated by CPS, but I was denied access to the people I loved and needed the most. The laws meant to protect me, protected CPS.”

According to the attorney who worked on Eric’s case, “CPS works within a cloak of governmental immunity. Without a change in legislation, what’s hidden in the dark will stay in the dark.”

“Social workers need special training to recognize emotional abuse under WIC 300(c),” Eric said. “CPS put me through hell, and there was nothing I could do.”

With a rueful smile, he added, “I am nameless and faceless now. But in nine months, I will be 18. I will have a face. And I will be able to tell the whole story.”

Real Relationships: Scared to walk away

2011-11-14T16:11:25Z

Q: I am in an abusive relationship. It isn't ALL the time, but it does happen sometimes. I know the obvious answer would be to break up with him and leave, but I don't really feel like it is that simple.

On one hand, he has made references to being really angry if I ever leave him. On the other hand, we do have a good relationship most of the time. I dream of being in a happy relationship, but I don't know how to create one.

You know that saying, "I have come too far to go back now"? That is how I feel. I don't know if I will ever have the courage to stand up for myself and walk away.

A: Let me just first say that you have never gone too far to walk away from someone who does not respect you enough to not abuse you. Although I have never been the victim of an abusive relationship, I have walked alongside friends who have. It is hard, very hard. If you are ever going to gather up the courage to walk away, you will need a few things.

You need a trusted friend or family member who knows your situation and is willing to help you leave. That person will likely need to provide you with a place to stay while you figure out your next step. That person also needs to understand your need for confidentiality. Your location cannot be reveled for fear of repercussions.

You need a plan. It would be easy to, say, just get up and leave, but that isn't realistic. Unless you have a plan, you may become discouraged and decide to go back.

You need confidence. Remind yourself that you are a strong woman who deserves love, affection and respect. You can do anything you put your mind to. Remember that this situation is not your fault, but it is your responsibility to remove yourself from it. Do whatever it takes to get yourself into a safe situation.

There are plenty of local options for you to lock yourself away in a safe situation until you feel like you can start living again. Contact one of these organizations and share your story with them. They have the means to provide you with shelter, food, job training and emotional counseling. If you have any physical injuries, they can also get your medical care.

Don't hesitate to act. Make a plan, find people you can trust, and get out of there. You owe yourself that. Good luck.

WEAVE: Women Escaping a Violent Environment

Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence Center

My Sister's House

Have a relationship question? Email sacpress@live.com. Questions and answers will be featured every Monday in "Real Relationships".

Social Networking "In-Real-Life"

2011-02-21T02:19:12Z

Social media enthusiasts from around the city gathered Tuesday night at The Urban Hive for the Sacramento Social Media Club Relationships and Social Media presentation.

With Valentine's Day just behind us and the ever-increasing role of social networking in our day-to-day lives, relationships via the online frontier was a timely topic for discussion. Four speakers headlined the evening, and the audience was filled with some of Sacramento's most active facebookers and tweeps.

Up first at the podium was independent marketing consultant Paul Ardoin, who discussed facebook privacy settings and how to manage them. "facebook is a for-profit entity; every decision facebook makes on your privacy, they are thinking not about you, but about their revenue stream." Paul suggests checking your facebook privacy settings regularly to make sure they're still to your liking. He also recommends creating friends lists to take advantage of facebook privacy granules, especially if you have a boss who likes to critique your facebook activity.

Lanette Capellas, Staffing Director for The Agate Group, then discussed social media from an HR perspective. Layoffs are increasingly due to social networking negligence, and an overzealous willingness to share. One of her main points: think before you post. Is venting about a bad day at work worth losing your job over? Lanette thinks not, and most are likely to agree. If your fingertips get the better of you and you end up saying something you regret, thank goodness you took Paul's advice and already divvied up the permissions on your friends list.

Feel like your friends list isn't long enough to divvy up? Not to worry, "strangers are friendships waiting to happen," says Laura Good, executive director of Social Media Club Sacramento. Sacramento twitter use is ranked fourth in the nation. Utilize that to your advantage and engage people on social networks in order to realize the real-world potential of a virtual friendship. You can also use hashtags (e.g. #smcsac or #sacbeerweek) to find events going on around town. Laura also recommended MeetUp and Couchsurfing for connecting with like-minded people in town

If you just spent Valentines Day hopping from venue to venue and you still couldn't find your sweetheart, maybe an online dating site should be your next stop. MetroSpark.net is a locally based internet dating site that provides personally tailored classes to help your outward presentation match your inner self. Amar Dhariwal, founder and current CEO of the site, also discussed an array of other online dating sites and even the new generation of mobile dating apps that include geolocators for singles out on the town.

The night concluded with a raffle; the prizes included tickets to B Street Theater, Esquire IMAX, the Sacramento Zoo, California Lecture Series, de Vere's St. Patrick's Day in the Park, and the Sacramento Kings vs Clippers game. Food and beverages provided by Chick-Fil-A Arden Fair and The Sacramento Press made the after party all the better. You may watch the video of the presentation on the Sacramento Social Media Club's uSteam channel. “Like” their Facebook page to stay tuned in for information on future events. The club is also active on Twitter.

Ask Officer Michelle - Use of Force and Property Crimes

2010-04-11T17:05:49Z

Posted by gramy_24

With two recent break-ins to my car and fear of my home next, I find myself asking questions like. If I were to see these people in the middle of the night in my car what can I do? Do I confront them not wanting to lose my valuables and pay another 1000 dollar deductable b/c they break my door and hope they don’t shoot me? Call the police and hope they get there in time before I lose everything again? Or do I have the right to confront them being a registered gun owner? This is an honest question, what can I do? Living in Land Park this is becoming much to common- Can you guys set up a bait car or something and catch these guys??

Dear gramy_24,

Your dilemma is most unfortunate. I understand your frustrations. There are things you can do. First, if the crime is in progress, call 911. Be able to describe the suspects, what they are wearing, whether they have a bicycle or other mode of transportation and any other physical characteristics that you can describe to the dispatcher. The fact that it is a crime-in-progress makes it a higher priority. Even if the suspect(s) leave the scene before patrol gets there, the dispatcher would have put out the physical description you gave them and units approaching are on alert for a subject matching this physical description.
I would highly discourage you confronting the subject. They could be armed or attack you. It isn’t worth your life for a property crime. You may not be justified using deadly force on a property crime. You have a right to protect yourself but you have to be in fear for your life and that of others. Simply confronting someone who is committing a burglary on your car would not constitute using deadly force.

We do put bait cars out and it sounds like your area could use one. Call our south station at 277-6001 and ask to speak with the Land Park Sector Sergeant. Explain what has been happening. They will be able to assess the situation and either put the information out to his/her team and each shift, and/or set up a bait car.

We all sometimes forget to take valuables out of our cars, but if a crooks can see it, they will take it, even if it’s change in an ashtray. These tweekers are opportunists. They want in and out. They usually don’t spend much time. They will seize your valuables day and night if the opportunity presents itself. Lock your doors, take your valuables inside, and develop a partnership with your neighbors. Put a bright motion detecting lights that will illuminate your vehicle and potential thieves. Most petty thieves want it to be easy and will move on if you make it difficult for them.

You may want to develop a Neighborhood Watch if you don’t already have one. Call the number I gave you and ask the attendant that you want to set up a Neighborhood Watch group. Also, check out our web site at www.sacpd.org. There is valuable information on there as well. Good luck!

Officer Michelle