Defending parents against the power of the state to take their children

...is a thankless job, is it not?

DCF psychotropic meds report

In the aftermath of the tragic Gabriel Myers case, DCF set out to review the numbers of kids in the system who are on psychotropic medication.

I hope to study the report more and comment further, but for the moment I'll give you the link to it:

Meds report

Unless I just don't know how to read anymore, the numbers for Orange County seem absurdly under-reported.

Slightly related: I often wonder if the compulsion to perform a CBHA (Comprehensive Behavioral Health Assessment) on each and every child in DCF care leads inevitably to many, many more diagnoses of mental health problems than there ought to be, and perhaps wouldn't be, if either (a) the CBHAs were never done in the first place, or (b) the first such assessment were done by licensed doctors and not the folks who routinely produce the CBHAs.

The Breakout Group That Wasn't

...If only we'd had a SIGN.

It's like that Eddie Izzard routine about lacking a FLAG when claiming a discovered country.

I attended the Florida Dependency Summit the past few days, which is always useful, if for no other reason because you get a fresh copy of Chapter 39. Intrepid blogger at Guardian ad What? and I thought a dependency blogger breakout session (rather a renegade pirate rebel unauthorized forbidden dependency blogger breakout session) would be a nice addition. We just lacked a sign, so it was not to be. Not to mention that neither of us know each others' names or what we look like, but that's neither here nor there.

Next year there SHOULD be a blogger forum. And there SHOULD be a push by someone to discuss forming a voluntary bar association of dependency lawyers. What are we waiting for?

What we're waiting for is for lawyers to enter into a spirit of cooperation when there is no real money in it, that's what we're waiting for.

Link to global revolution church audio

...in anticipation of my appearance tomorrow on Fox and Friends. The link below demonstrates several things that I will argue in court, and not here (at least not now), but I want to present some basis for my claim that it appears that the Global Revolution Church renamed Rifqa Bary "Anna" during the 2.5 weeks that they had her in Florida.

Note also the simple act of Ohio police questioning a man in Kansas City in an honest attempt to locate a missing teenager (by the way, it worked, the Kansas City man apparently somehow knew that the child was with the Lorenz family and tipped them off that the police had questioned him) is portrayed by the pastor as "illegal" and as persecution.

Note also the emphasis on surrounding "Anna" with people telling stories about honor killings. How much of this did she hear in that 2.5 weeks?

Link is below. Admittedly, it is edited. The full sermon audio is on the church's website. I edited it for time and to focus on the things described above, but not to change the meaning of anything said in the full context.

LINK TO THE "ANNA" (RIFQA BARY) GLOBAL REVOLUTION CHURCH SERMON

[update: If clicking on the link doesn't work, cut and paste the url below to download audio:]

http://dependencydefense.com/revchurchedited.wav

Lawyer for Rifqa Bary's Mother Reacts to Governor Crist's Statement

The Governor's unfortunate decision to make a public statement taking sides in the Rifqa Bary case before any evidence other than allegations has been presented underscores the need to return this case to the child's home state of Ohio. Governor Crist stated that he was “grateful” that the judge ruled a specific way and in support of his “administration's position”. The entire Bary family has already been exploited by those who recklessly wish to force this case into a clash of religions, and now by the Governor's statement the Bary family's case has become a political matter as well.

Given that the Regional Counsel responsible for defending Mr. Bary is a political appointee of Governor Crist, a public statement of the Governor's pleasure with a specific ruling in the case is not appropriate. Now the Barys can only conclude that chances for impartiality and straight-forward dealings with DCF are slipping away.

Hey! One of the Regional Counsel Offices has a website!

I've been stunned and amazed for a couple of years that none of the Regional Counsel offices bother to maintain a website, as you might recall from this old post.

So in fairness I ought to point out that one of them actually has a website now.

Now the clients for the 4th Regional Counsel can find out how to contact their attorneys via the internet.

Excuse me?

Now this is a headline: "Former DCF Employee Sentenced For Embezzling $1.5 Million"

It was an emotional scene Thursday evening in a Broward County courtroom after a judge sentenced a longtime state employee who, along with two others, embezzled more than $1 million from the Department of Children & Families.

It was money that was earmarked for needy children.

Violet Jones, the ringleader in the embezzlement scheme, was the last to take the stand.
..."I should have known better," said the former DCF supervisor.
...Jones was sentenced to 17 years in state prison and 13 years probation for stealing $1.5 million dollars from DCF accounts and spending the cash. The Shorter sisters were sentenced to 10 years in prison, 20 years probation.

Words found in other news accounts...."widely respected" and "supervisor".

Wow. Well that sort of eats up a good chunk of the money Florida saved by pretty much destroying the private dependency defense bar, doesn't it?