Family Rights and Child Abuse News

Oregon - State of Unaccountability

by Wilbur and Pamela Gaston

In 1999, the Oregon Attorney General Hardy Meyers gave an opinion filed in federal court that Oregonians do not have the right to protect themselves if they are the victims of criminal abuse, fraud or abuse of authority by civil servants and authorities.

Mr. Meyers, through assistant Attorney General Cynthia Botsois, also stated that parents have no legal right to stand in the court for the protection of their children when the children are being knowingly abused in State custody, even though their parental rights have not been terminated by the courts.

A Voice for Children

February 23, 1999

Bruce Wiseman is National President of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) and opposes the use of psychiatric medications.

by Testimony of Bruce Wiseman

We stand at the dawn of the 21st century with technology hurtling us into a space-age future while an estimated 5 million American children have been legally placed on mind-bending drugs. These drugs are not only addictive but are ti

The use of these drugs - on a dramatic rise amongst school children, particularly over the last two decades - is a primary factor in the creation of acts of random senseless violence among our youth. Indeed, while all manner of reasons have been offered for the recent rash of school shootings, the simple but frightening fact is that the rise of senseless violence in our schools is date coincident with, and directly tied to, the increased use of these prescribed mind altering, mood-changing drugs.

Ecology of Mind

July 20, 1999

Parents Lack Savvy Lawyers

by Howard Mintz

Dependency Court: Those trying to regain custody of children often are represented by inexperienced attorneys.

Critics say overworked, underpaid and often inexperienced lawyers are shortchanging parents in a near-invisible but crucial corner of the justice system.

electpd.org

December 5, 1999

Parents Lack Savvy Lawyers

by Howard Mintz

Parents thrust into the child welfare system, most of them poor and unfamiliar with the legal terrain, might then get a few minutes to tell their story before they find themselves in front of a judge.

To juvenile law experts, this fleeting encounter between parents and their court-appointed lawyers illustrates a serious problem provoking debate in Santa Clara County and across California. Critics say overworked, underpaid and often inexperienced lawyers are shortchanging parents in a near-invisible but crucial corner of the justice system.

The Mercury News

December 5, 1999

Foster care too often fails to keep kids safe

by Patricia Callahan and Kirk Mitchell

Eleven children were molested. One was forced to have sex with a dog. One lay injured on a bathroom floor, his face smeared with his own feces. That toddler, Miguel Arias-Baca, later died.

They are the state's dirty little secrets. Foster children, wards of the state taken from abusive or neglectful relatives, suffered again in foster homes that were supposed to keep them from harm. Colorado child-welfare officials have watched these horror stories and many others unfold in foster homes chosen and supervised by private foster-care businesses.

Denver Post (CO)

May 21, 2000