Wednesday, September 30, 2009

EVEN MY WEEKLY VISITS ARE TORTURED

CPS is so inconsistent, that even my weekly visits have become a torture. It seems that every single week something happens. Today when I get there, the social worker is not there and so the visit is being monitored by the foster parent, the same foster parent that clipped the end of the child's nail too close, the same one that the child was in the care of when the possible bump on the head took place. So.....today, we had to sit out in the lobby with this person. About half-way through the childrens' mother comes in to the lobby and starts to come over to us. At that point this foster mother announces that we are not to be together visiting the kids. I am not aware of anything that says anything like this, and in the past we have been allowed to have the visits together. I have nothing against having the mother there when I visit with the kids. This was very disruptive and upsetting to the two year old. She doesn't understand why her mother can't come over and give her a hug and kiss. It seems like this agency does whatever it can to cause hurt!

I have now had, I don't know how many, foster parents contact me with the same kind of inconsistent stories about CPS. It's not just parents and families. It happens on both sides.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

THE END OF THE BABY'S FINGER WAS CUT

Today when I went to see the baby and his little sister, the end of his finger had been cut, like a little oval circle right at the end of the nail, and the little tiny nail was almost gone. I mentioned it to the social worker and she said that it had been cut too close when they were cutting his fingernails. I just cringed when she said that, and cried when I got to the car. How can they do this to a baby and allow the baby to stay with the same inefficient foster caregiver? I didn't take a picture this time, although I should have. I will document it with a letter and ask that a photograph be taken of it for the record. I went to the Court and obtained all of the forms to do what they call a 388 Petition to return placement to me. At least the Court will have all of the documentation and information that I have mentioned previously to review in making this decision. Again, how awful!!!

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

LOS ANGELES COUNTY CIVIL GRAND JURY

I have just printed out the form and will be compiling all of the mass of paperwork to file with this form, regarding all that you have previously read in prior weeks, in a Citizen Complaint to the Los Angeles County Civil Grand Jury. I also have issues with the decisions of the Family Law Court that took the older child away from the wonderful foster mother, who wants to be a mother, and who took the younger child out of my custody, subsequent to which he appears (according to a note in a medical record and a picture that I took) to have gotten a bump on the head in the foster placement that he is in, but that is dealt with in another forum. Then CPS allowed the two children to stay in that foster placement even though there was a question as to whether or not the injury occurred. They always say that they lean toward the side of caution. They didn't in this case. I have the pictures, and I have the medical record.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

IT JUST OCCURRED TO ME THAT IF....

THEY WEREN'T GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES THEY WOULD ALL GET FIRED BECAUSE NO PRIVATE EMPLOYER WOULD PUT UP WITH THIS!!!

JUST MORE INCONSISTENCIES

I went to visit my grandson yesterday and his two year old sister at the CPS office. I arrived there at my scheduled time 0830. When I got there the two kids were sitting with someone that I had never seen in the lobby. Because of all that has happened, I didn't approach them, however the two year old did come over to me and I gave her a hug. The person that she was there with told her that she didn't know who I was, and I assumed that meant not to come close to me. At 0845 I went back up to the window and told the attendant that the social worker had not come out to "monitor" my visit. Usually we go into one of the visiting rooms with one of the social workers or someone who is an employee there. At 0900 I went back up to the window and asked that the supervising social worker be called. He did come out and said that he didn't know what was going on and that he couldn't find the social worker on our case. At 0920 I was finally taken to one of the visitation rooms with a "monitor" who is someone that I have seen there before and talked with before.

Subsequently the social worker on our case did come in to the visitation room and informed me that my visit had started out in the lobby but that the girl that the kids were with wasn't aware that she was supposed to monitor the visit. I was informed that she is the daughter of the foster mother.

First of all, I don't need to be monitored, especially by people who are so incompetent. The same kind of thing had happened last week, when I went to visit at my scheduled time of 1230 and the kids weren't there. No one knew what was going on. The social worker on the case couldn't be reached, the supervising social worker was in "training" and the "worker on duty" knew nothing about this visit. I was standing in one of the rooms, when I saw the kids get out of a car at 1300, a half an hour late.

So my question, as always is: how can such an incompetent agency have so much power over children?

Monday, September 7, 2009

An article in the Daily News in Los Angeles

I just read the following article in the Daily News in Los Angeles:

http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_13274571?source=rv

The comments tell another story. I haven't forgotten my grandkids in fostercare, it's just that it is very painful to deal with and I am trying to figure out what to do next. I am waiting for my house in KY to close so that I will have the funds to proceed.

In an interesting twist, I received a letter from my grandson's (the one in foster care) great grandmother. I am considering the possibilities of asking her to come out to California from West Virginia and help me raise these kids. We have not always seen eye to eye about things, but I do believe Hillary when she said "it takes a village" to raise kids. I will need all of the help I can get. Maybe I and she have it in us to raise two more kids. Maybe we've learned alot over the years. I know I have. So I am thinking of writing her back to ask her if she would consider coming to California and living with me to raise these kids. She was wonderful with my kids when they were young, and in the letter, if she is being honest, she may welcome the opportunity to be the grandmother and greatgrandmother that she describes her mother to have been (and she was).

I have continued my one hour a week visits with my grandchildren. My son and his wife seem oblivious to the dangers of foster care. I still have not received the "records" alleged about the "hits" on my past on the DCFS data base even though I sent the paperwork back to the County Counsel's Office weeks ago requested this information. I don't believe anything like this exists. Although the SW told me that what she saw in the record was that I was frustrated by my son and my difficulty in handling him at the time was reflected in a report that she had read. And I will admit to that. He was difficult and he is the same son whose children are now in foster care. So maybe it wasn't me.

I have come to believe that the difficulties that two of my sons have in life are genetic. Their father has never fully recovered from these same difficulties, and I've been observing this since 1979. I have also come to believe that people, such as my children's grandmother and my grandson that is in foster care's great-grandmother (same person) and I have more insight into these difficulties because we have now dealt with them for all of these childrens' entire lives. She is an R.N. and so am I and we have seen first hand the outcomes. We may even be experts on these behaviors, although not recognized by any educational institution, we have lived it.