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Kidjacked | Jacked Up
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From 2000 to 2004 - 256,000 children were adopted and another 624,000 languish in foster care waiting. Michigan CPS News Archive
Michigan News Coverage
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Volunteers sought for foster care board
The state court administrative office of the Michigan Supreme Court is looking for volunteers to serve on the Muskegon County foster care review board.
The board meets once a month to review the cases of children who have been removed from their homes and placed in foster care because of abuse and neglect. The purpose of the review is to ensure that all agencies involved, including the court, have established a permanency plan for the ward.
The Muskegon Chronicle
January 7, 2009
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Charges in chained girl's death
CENTREVILLE, Mich. -- The parents of a teenage girl who was found chained to her bed after a house fire now face criminal charges.
16-year-old Calista Springer died when her family's house caught on fire in February. Calista's adoptive mom, Marsha Springer, escaped from the burning home.
WWMT News 3
December 1, 2008
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State's foster-care costs to rise by $50M Settlement calls for added controls
by Rod Smith
ALLEGAN -- A statewide lawsuit against Michigan's child-foster-care system means a significant financial drain in Allegan County, county-board members learned last week.
And other counties are facing the same cost burden. Since Oct. 1, all foster parents, even if they are relatives of the children, have had to have background checks and be trained, human-services officials said. They also are being paid.
Kalamazoo Gazette
November 28, 2008
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Ideology gives way to nurturing for adoptive parents
by Audora Burg
Jim and Anne Cook, longtime Sturgis residents have raised six children and been foster parents to more than 70 children in the last 36 years.
35 years ago, foster parents were counseled not to attach to the children in their care. She knew even then that was bad advice and said it "broke her heart." "Attachment - holding, responding - is what makes human beings," she said. "Studies have shown that if we leave babies to 'cry it out,' their cortisol response is the same as if they had been stung by a jellyfish."
Sturgis Journal
November 26, 2008
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Child Protective Services With Too Much Autonomy
by Stan Williams, Ph.D.
I've been on the fringe of a Gestapo-styled Child Protective Services (CPS) case for the past year, and I've been told by someone who should know that my name is probably listed on a "Child Abuse" list somewhere.
What concerns me more (than my name being on the SS's list) is the rampant abuse that CPS inflicts on families under the color of law, without a court hearing. And when there are hearings the judge usually only hears from the CPS workers, who's job appears to be the prosecution of easy marks -- poor persons and the uneducated.
Crossing Nineveh
September 28, 2008
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Family hopes child-protective system gets fixed
A West Michigan family is speaking out in hopes a system that protects newborns gets fixed. Amber McIntyre-Roden was charged last month with murdering her 2-month-old daughter, Tamiah.
The adoptive parents of Tamiah's sister tell 24 Hour News 8 Tamiah could have been saved -- rescued from her mother. The Sees adopted Kylene. In July, when Kylene turned 3, her birth mother, McIntyre-Roden, paid her a visit. McIntyre-Roden brought another visitor - her new baby, Tamiah.
Wood TV 8
August 12, 2008
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Parental Rights Organizations Across the Nation Will Encroach on U.S. Capitol for Civil Rights Event
Children's and Parent's Rights organizations from across the nation are scheduled to encroach on Washington DC this August 15th & 16th at the Upper Senate Park.
They say they are doing it because government policies do not reflect what is truly best for children and good parents. "Where we have a government that thinks it has the apparent authority to confiscate children at will, as we can see from the recent issues in Texas earlier this year, something needs to be done." Holland stated.
Salem News
July 2, 2008
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Michigan is letting down its foster kids
The breakdown last month of settlement talks in a federal class-action lawsuit against Michigan's foster care system is unacceptable.
Michigan children abused and neglected in their families are likely to be no safer in foster care, concluded John Goad, who reviewed the deaths of five foster children. Goad, former director of child protective services in Illinois, said in the February AP story that he found serious shortcomings in how DHS is structured and managed.
South Bend Tribune
June 25, 2008
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O.C. mom spends '30 Days' in a different lifestyle
by Peter Larsen
It only takes Kati Blackledge a minute or two to make her stand perfectly clear on tonight's episode of "30 Days" on the FX network. "I believe that same-sex parenting just shouldn't be happening..."
Blackledge, herself an adopted child, as well as the mother to two adopted sons. And then to get the action going, she packs her bags to travel to Ann Arbor, Mich., where she'll live for 30 days with Dennis and Tom Patrick, a gay couple raising four adopted sons.
Orange County Register
June 23, 2008
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Talks stall in suit against Mich. foster care system
LANSING -- Settlement talks have broken down again in a federal class-action lawsuit against Michigan's foster care system.
U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds in Detroit set trial for July 7 after negotiators reached an impasse Wednesday. This is the second time negotiations have stopped. They ended last year when the Michigan Department of Human Services said it had no money to enact reforms. Talks resumed earlier this year.
Wood TV 8
May 28, 2008
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A Lifeline for Students Left Behind
by Jack Stripling
Nina Williams doesn't even remember when she entered the foster care system, and at the age of 18 she says she has little interest in learning exactly what put her there.
Now a student at Western Michigan University, Williams has other concerns, like student loans and textbook costs. When Williams came to WMU - a university in Kalamazoo, Mich. - she says she felt like an outcast. One of just seven students on campus who grew up in foster homes, Williams formed friendships that were built in part on mutual frustrations.
Inside Higher Ed
May 27, 2008
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Todoroff's Original Coney Island apparently closed
A Blackman Township restaurateur who faces criminal charges stemming from his mistreatment of employees has apparently closed his restaurant.
Owner Kurt Todoroff withheld employees' last paycheck until they paid for damage to their work shirts and if they confronted him, prosecutors allege he made false claims about them to Children's Protective Services.
Jackson Citizen Patriot
January 22, 2008
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Chapter 1: Ricky enters foster care
by Jack Kresnak
Casey Gann was 19 and homeless when she brought her 3-year-old son to the Jackson County Department of Human Services to place him in foster care seven years ago. Tears in her eyes, she asked for a few minutes alone with Ricky.
By September, Casey was out of options to provide for Ricky. On the afternoon of the 23rd, she turned Ricky over to the State of Michigan. It would be six years before Lisa Holland would be found guilty of first-degree murder and child abuse in Ricky's death and Tim Holland would plead guilty to second-degree murder.
The Detroit Free Press
December 2, 2007
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Possible privatizing foster care worries some, backed by others
by Barrie Barber
Kimberly L. Rowan and her husband, Phillip, have two foster children in their Reese home, the latest of 45 youngsters who have lived with them in the past half-decade.
The 47-year-old mother, who adopted two other foster children, doesn't want her relationship with the Saginaw County Department of Human Services to change, but she worries what could happen if the Legislature passes a Senate bill that would privatize foster care.
The Saginaw News (MI)
June 4, 2007
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Foster mother to be tried in death
by Susan L. Oppat
A Canton Township woman charged with manslaughter and child abuse in the death of her 2-year-old foster daughter has been found mentally competent to stand trial.
Wayne County Prosecutor's Office spokeswoman Maria Miller said Carol Poole is expected to argue at trial that she did not know that what she was doing was wrong at the time she did it.
The Ann Arbor News
April 5, 2007
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Parents of slain foster child receive mixed custody ruling
The biological parents of a 2-year-old boy who authorities said was beaten to death by his foster mother had their parental rights to another child terminated.
The couple from Wayne County's Canton Township lost parental rights to their 11-month-old daughter, who was removed from their custody 18 days after her birth, but not to their 4-year-old daughter. The latter was in a foster home with Isaac Lethbridge, who stopped breathing Aug. 16 and died at Children's Hospital of Michigan.
M Live (MI)
March 31, 2007
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Homeschoolers fight bogus poisoning claim
Arsenic and Christian music are two of more outlandish allegations that have been made against families whose children are homeschooled recently.
The family let the social worker physically see the children, including the daughter, so he could confirm they were fine. But they declined to let him into their home for interviews with their children.
World Net Daily
February 16, 2007
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5-Year-Old Lives Several Days With Mom's Body
Authorities in Muskegon County, Mich., said a 5-year-old girl took care of herself for days while she was home alone with her dead mother.
Police discovered the body of 39-year-old Tina Tietz on the couch of her Fruitland Township home on Sunday afternoon after a concerned friend called 911.
WPBF-TV (MI)
February 13, 2007
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Day 1: How state's big system failed this little boy
by Ruby L. Bailey, Jack Kresnak and Tina Lam
In photos, Isaac Lethbridge looks like a mischievous, dimpled elf. He has a big grin and electric blue eyes in a cheery, heart-shaped face. Isaac traveled a painful journey in his 2 1/2 years.
He was neglected by his parents, moved through three troubled foster homes in less than a year and was dead by last Aug. 16, beaten and burned, his collarbone broken. What happened to him under state supervision exposes a child welfare system so overwhelmed and lax in its oversight that, despite attempts at reform, children still are being placed in danger.
The Detroit Free Press (MI)
January 28, 2007
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Newborn screening has parents seeing red
by Anna Jo Bratton
To the Spierings, Nebraska's requirement that newborn babies undergo blood screening within 48 hours of birth is an infringement on their religious beliefs and their right to decide what's best for their four children.
The mandatory newborn screening test, in which a few drops of blood are drawn from a baby's heel, screens for dozens of rare, congenital diseases, some of which can cause severe mental retardation or death if left undetected. Nebraska is one of just four states - South Dakota, Michigan and Montana are the others - that doesn't let parents reject the testing.
Columbus Telegram
January 26, 2007
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The FIA Game
by Janet M. Frederick Attorney
Many citizens in our great State of Michigan are unaware of Michigan's dirty little secret that falls under the guise of the Child Abuse and Child Welfare Protection Laws.
The advertisements and literature surrounding this area seem to be doing a magnificent thing for the children of our state. We have been led to believe that the State of Michigan is saving thousands of children from severe physical abuse and neglect. This is far from the truth.
False Allegations
January 17, 2007
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Holland case may lead to changes at agency
by Jack Kresnak
Lawmakers who reviewed a report Wednesday on Ricky Holland's death also saw progress on a proposal they say would remove political overtones from investigations into such cases.
The state Senate approved a package of bills that moves authority over the Office of the Children's Ombudsman from the executive to the legislative branch.
Lansing State Journal (MI)
December 14, 2006
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Verdict: Lisa Holland guilty
by Joe LaFurgey
Lisa Holland will spend the rest of her life in prison after being convicted of first-degree murder and first-degree child abuse in the death of her adopted son Ricky.
A state legislative committee is looking into the actions of Child Protective Services in the Holland case. Both Tim and Lisa Holland will be sentenced in early November.
Wood TV (MI)
October 27, 2006
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Equal Time with Both Fit Parents
A Child's Right: Equal Parenting by both fit parents.
Find information on the benefits of Shared Parenting, Children and Parental Rights Events, Title IV-D, links, and more.
A Child's Right
October 27, 2006
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Citizens for Parental Rights (CPR) Promoting Fairness and Justice for Parents
by Bernie Nyhof
Child Protective Services and other government agencies that are supposed to protect children from neglect and abuse don't always protect.
Many times these agencies are the ones that abuse parents at the expense of the very children they claim they are protecting. Some things need to change and change very soon.
citizensforparentalrights.org
October 17, 2006
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