North Carolina CPS News Archive

Hemp Babies

by Laura Wilkerson

It is odious because it's so clearly profiling; racial profiling and a subtler economic and class based form of criminal profiling resulting in newborn babies and their families caught in the crossfire.

Nurses at a North Carolina Hospital became suspicious when an unusually large number of discretionary drug tests performed on newborn babies tested positive for THC. These false positive tests did not trigger further, more sensitive, drug tests but, rather, a report to Child Protective Services and Law Enforcement, the arrest of the new mother, the trauma and danger to bonding of having a newborn infant separated from his or her family, the expense and intrusion of court proceedings including the cost of hiring an attorney and of subsequent drug tests, the rank governmental intrusion into a person's family life, in short, it is a major and extremely drastic chain of events.

open.salon.com

July 3, 2012

Mike Worley helps homeschoolers hone skills on field

by Donna Isbell Walker

Kids who are home-schooled or attend private school don't always have the chance to make a touchdown or spike a volleyball against an opponent from another school.

But Mike Worley wants to give them that opportunity. He is athletic director of the Greenville Hurricanes, a program sponsored by the Upstate Homeschool Co-Op. The program fields teams in football, volleyball, soccer and basketball.

greenvilleonline.com

June 20, 2012

New DSS director dealing with tough issues

by Karissa Minn

SALISBURY - At her first board meeting as Rowan County's social services director, Donna Fayko said she's impressed with the department but has concerns about a recent child death.

Fayko said the state's draft child fatality report shows similarities to one from 2009. That year, the State Child Fatality Review Team found that co-sleeping was a factor in the 2008 death of a 10-month-old Salisbury infant.

salisburypost.com

May 23, 2012

Foster parent pleads guilty to sexually abusing 17-year-old girl in his care

A Forsyth County man who had served as foster parent to 10 troubled children over the years pleaded guilty Monday to sexually abusing a 17-year-old girl in his care more than two years ago.

According to testimony, the Forsyth County Department of Social Services initially investigated the allegation but closed the case without interviewing the girl. Then seven months later, the Forsyth County Sheriff's Office looked into the allegations after the girl said her foster father had sent her sexually charged text messages and a nude photo of himself, prosecutors said in court. Steven Matthew Lepley Sr., 46, of 6010 Habersham Drive, pleaded guilty in Forsyth Superior Court to nine counts of first-degree sex abuse in a parental role.

journalnow.com

May 22, 2012

Celebrating North Carolina's history of embracing educational options

by Darrell Allison

I often sense an adversary tone when listening to discussions about the different educational options available to our children.

However, we often fail to recognize that whether a child attends a traditional public school, public charter school, private school or is homeschooled, each learning environment enjoys a symbiotic relationship with the other - where one model is actually interdependent upon the other, especially with our public school system.

the-dispatch.com

February 2, 2012

Reports of child abuse, neglect up 50 percent in New Hanover County

by F.T. Norton

The depressed economy is affecting even the littlest residents in the area - child abuse and neglect reports in November increased by 50 percent over the same time last year.

In November 2010, the DSS' Child and Family Services division received 218 reports of child abuse or neglect, said Wanda Marino, assistant director for the county agency. In November 2011, the department received 328 reports.

starnewsonline.com

January 8, 2012

Woman uses quilts to touch the lives of children in foster care

by Rebecca Clark

A thick roll of snowy-white batting rests on her bedroom floor, stacks of colorful lap quilts are folded on the bed and her old Singer sewing machine, where she spends most of her days, is on a table near the window.

For years, Bryant has been collecting scraps of cloth, stitching them together and creating beautiful lap quilts. She always gave them away. Bryant said if a man came to mow the lawn, she would ask him if he had a wife and children. If he said yes, she would send him home with a few quilts. About a year ago, Bryant decided she wanted to find a way to touch the lives of Cleveland County's neediest children.

shelbystar.com

December 23, 2011

People for the logical treatment of the Constitution

by Meghann Evans

There are always those people who give everyone else in the group a bad name. For example, as a former homeschooler, I always used to hate encountering homeschool kids who actually fit all of the stereotypes.

You know, those kids who had no social skills, who were either complete robot-like geniuses or could barely read. Most homeschoolers I know aren't like that, but there are always those who give the rest of us a bad name. But PETA, or People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, may take the cake for making others in a group, in this case animal lovers, look bad. The organization's most recent lawsuit may be their crowning achievement.

mtairynews.com

November 16, 2011

Wallace Kuralt's era of sterilization

by Ann Doss Helms and Tommy Tomlinson

Mecklenburg's impoverished had few, if any, rights in the '50s and '60s as he oversaw one of the most aggressive efforts to sterilize certain populations.

As architect of Mecklenburg's program of eugenic sterilization - state-ordered surgery to stop the poor and disabled from bearing children - Kuralt helped write one of the most shameful chapters of North Carolina history. The Charlotte Observer has obtained records sealed by the state that tell the stories of 403 Mecklenburg residents ordered sterilized by the N.C. Eugenics Board at the behest of Kuralt's welfare department.

charlotteobserver.com

September 25, 2011

Sterilizing the Sick, Poor to Cut Welfare Costs: North Carolina's History of Eugenics

by Courtney Hutchinson

For the better part of the 20th century, half the states in the U.S. had sterilization programs in place to prevent those deemed unfit by the state from procreating.

Poor, a victim of child molestation and pregnant from rape, 14-year-old Elaine Riddick went into a North Carolina hospital in 1968 to give birth to her son. Though she wouldn't know it until years later, she would leave the hospital robbed of the ability to ever bear children again. On top of the poverty, abuse, and neglect that marked her childhood, Riddick had the misfortune of becoming the target of the North Carolina eugenics board, a 5-person state committee responsible for ordering the sterilization of thousands of individuals in the name of social welfare during the last century. Deemed "promiscuous" and "feebleminded" by a social worker at the hospital, Riddick, who came from a black family on welfare, was recommended to the state for sterilization shortly after arriving.

abcnews.go.com

July 17, 2011

'Tequila for 2-Year-Old' Case Sent to Child Protective Services - North Canton, OH Patch

by Morgan Day

A North Canton woman's friend turned her in to the police after she reportedly gave her own 2-year-old son tequila to help him go to sleep.

The woman who reported the incident told police her friend gave the child a "small amount" of tequila in a shot glass and then a quarter of a shot glass...

northcanton.patch.com

June 17, 2011

Christiansburg woman allegedly abducts granddaughter; Attempts murder-suicide in NC

A Christiansburg woman and her granddaughter are in a North Carolina hospital after police say the woman abducted the five-year-old.

Investigators say a housekeeping staff at a Hampton Inn and Suites in Winston-Salem found Lynch and the child during routine cleaning Thursday morning. Both were semi-conscious and in need of medical attention. Police believe Lynch injured the child and then injured herself. Both were taken to Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center.

wdbj7.com

May 26, 2011