Family Court and the Judicial Murder of Children's Lives

Yesterday, on the Susan Murphy Milano Show we highlighted mothers who have lost custody of their children because the court system in this country is ill equipped to properly deal with family issues involving the safe placement for custody of minor children.

Mental health experts prescribed in court by a judge on a “short list” mandated to determine the fitness of a parent and the well being of the children. What is often not determined is the safety of the child, especially when there are serious issues including sexual abuse, as we heard from Taylor’s mother a case in Virginia that wreaks of cover-up all in the name of winning a sick game called “Maternal Deprivation Abuse”. Imagine a legal system who determines financial matters and legal property disbursements using the same method on human lives under the age of 18 with total disregard for the safety and mental wellness of a child. A legal system taking on the burden of proof and yet throws it in the waste basket under their judicial bench. Sadly, with no regard for human lives and more importantly children unable to defend themselves from two evils the courts and theirabuser parent as discussed in Lundy Bancroft latest book.

The switchboard was inundated with calls from across the country from mothers asking for solutions on behalf of the silenced, their own children. After the show the email box filled up quickly because we were unable to get to all the callers woith questions.

One particular note we received on face book happens to be in my neck of the woods in Will County, Illinois. The same county where the trial for Christopher Vaughn is yet to begin for the brutal slayings of Kimberly Ellen Vaughn, 34, and her three children, Abigayle Elizabeth Vaughn, 12; Cassandra Ellen Vaughn, 11; and Blake Philip Vaughn, 8; all of Oswego, were found in June of 2007, shot to death in an SUV in far Illinois southwest. "Neighbors and friends said they were a nice family and a quiet couple."

This of course it is also the same county Drew Petersonwas finally arrested for the murder of Kathleen Savio and remains a suspect in the vanishing act of Stacy Peterson. And let us not forget that Lisa Stebic also from Will County going through a divorce has vanished and no one has been arrested. All of these women and in other cases across the country murdered because their abuser’s were not willing to split assets financially, pay child support or allow their wives to move on with their lives. These women fought and lost with their lives all in the name of a system that is like the storybook character humpty dumpty. It cannot be put back together again because it is broken.

The note said: "I know you are an advocate and maybe you can help - Right now in Will County Courthouse there is mother actually fighting for custody of her two little girls that have undergone sexual abuse. She has DNA evidence - Will County Sheriff's police refuse to send evidence over to the DA and she is being given run around. The DCFS case worker is friend of ex-husband's family and refuses to believe that there is anything going on - Basically they want her to recant and submit herself to intensive therapy which is unwarranted... based on her career, lifestyle and children's success from a previous marriage. The action is occurring in Room 300 in the Will County Courthouse- Many wonder how The Connelly children wound up dead... anyone watching in that courtroom can see how awful our family courts can be…."

On Wednesday, July 1, 2009 at 3:00 PM Central Time onThe Susan Murphy Milano show will continue the discussion on Mothers losing Custody. Returning to the show are Co-Founder of Protective Mothers Alliance and the case of Taylor and her mother’s fight to regain custody of her daughter lost to a system that denies a mother her rights.

If you would like to email your questions before the show we will try to answer them on-air. The address iskindlivingpress01@gmail.com. Please include the state and city where you live as different laws apply.

We will be taking your calls live at 347-326-9337

To listen to the show Mother's Without Custody"turn on the volume on your computer and it will automatically play.

Comments can be made here: http://www.miamiherald.com/457/story/1090000.html  (short registration required)

Stories on Florida foster children drugging are being compiled and are searchable here: http://gabrielmyers.wordpress.com/

Miami Herald
Drug rules to protect kids were ignored, DCF says
A first detailed look at the youngest foster children on mental-health drugs offers a disturbing glimpse into the state's failure to heed a 2005 law -- and its own policies.

By Carol Marbin Miller

In Print - Front Page June 10, 2008

Florida child-welfare administrators are largely ignoring a host of rules put in place to protect children from potentially dangerous -- and sometimes unnecessary -- drugs, according to a detailed state review of the records for more than 100 young foster children who are being given powerful psychiatric medications.

Caseworkers under contract with the state Department of Children & Families are failing to comply with almost every benchmark governing the use of psychotropic medication among foster children, according to the DCF report, obtained Tuesday by The Miami Herald.
''The deeper I get into this thing, the more my blood pressure rises,'' DCF Secretary George Sheldon said. ``This really is unacceptable.''
The study, which included 112 children younger than age 6, is the most recent measure of the state's progress in curbing mental-health drug use among foster children since the April death of a 7-year-old boy who had been given several psychiatric medications during a nine-month stay in foster care.
Recent revelations come only four years after state lawmakers passed legislation to curb the use of mental-health drugs among children in state care. The law requires, among other things, informed consent from a parent or judge, second-party review of doctors' prescriptions for the youngest children, and annual reports to the state Senate.
Among the most troubling findings, child advocates say, is the state's almost complete failure to seek a second opinion from a psychiatrist under contract with DCF before administering mental-health drugs to the youngest children in state care -- younger than age 6.
''We knew it was bad. We just didn't know it was this bad,'' said Andrea Moore, the former head of Florida's Children First, who has led efforts to reduce the state's reliance on mental-health drugs for almost a decade. ``It is more than frustrating, because children have been left at risk.''
Sheldon, who ordered the ongoing reviews, said he, too, is not surprised by some of the findings, though he was a bit struck at ``the number of places the system has broken down.''
''Some physicians don't want to be second-guessed. Some case-management agencies were aware of our policies, but haven't been communicating them to caseworkers. And you've got the department that hasn't been doing appropriate oversight,'' Sheldon said. According to the study, conducted over three days last week:
• Caseworkers did not complete a treatment plan for 83 children, or 74 percent of the 112 whose files were studied. The treatment plans are designed to ensure that troubled children receive psychological care, in addition to drugs, and do not become overly reliant on powerful medications.
• In more than 95 percent of the cases studied, the foster child's doctor did not review his or her plans with a consulting psychiatrist under contract with DCF to ensure the children in state custody are well cared for.
• In 72 percent of the files studied, caseworkers had entered inaccurate data in the state's computerized child-welfare database, called Florida Safe Families Network. Erroneous information included mistakes about the names of medications and dosages prescribed.
• Caseworkers had failed to obtain informed consent for the medications for 45 percent of the children studied.
The issue of consent has gained significance in the wake of the April death of Gabriel Myers, a 7-year-old foster child who hanged himself in the bathroom of his Margate foster home. A report in The Miami Herald that Gabriel had been on several mental-health drugs -- including anti-depressants linked to an increased risk of suicide among children -- prompted DCF's investigation on the use of such drugs.
For 36 percent of the kids, parents already had been stripped of their right to raise the children, potentially freeing the children for a possible adoption, the report said.
The lion's share of the 112 youngsters whose cases were reviewed last week were age 5, said DCF Family Safety Director Alan Abramowitz, and most of the children had a diagnosis of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder.
None of the foster kids in Miami-Dade in the study younger than age 6 were taking mental-health drugs, and only three from Monroe County were on such drugs. Ten Broward County foster children younger than 6 were included in the study.
''What concerns me is that the Legislature may have taken action, a lot of attention was paid to it, we wrote a lot of policies -- and then just assumed those policies would be followed,'' Sheldon said. ``Frankly, there's got to be an enforcement arm that goes along with that, and an oversight arm.''

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