In my upcoming book about child protective proceedings I will dedicate some space to discussion of the so-called "derivative child neglect".
That is when parents are charged with child neglect of children who were not actually neglected or abused, but are "presumed neglected" because of a finding (or even an accusation) of neglect pertaining to other children in the care of the same parents.
Derivative neglect is often used to pluck newborns from their mothers right out of the maternity hospital.
Recently, a 3-day old baby girl was plucked from her mother (in Texas) and put in non-kin foster care where her two older brothers already were, while placement with family members was rejected by CPS.
When the girl turned 6 months old, she ended up in the ICU with head trauma, brain damage and then her life support was disconnected (apparently by the CPS, the girl's legal custodian at the time), and the girl died.
Guess who is investigating the girl's death in the custody of CPS? CPS itself, of course.
No matter what the result of the investigation, nothing can bring back the little girl back to her mother and her brothers.
CPS took the child to protect her. And put her in the harm's way. And I doubt that, with CPS investigating itself, anything good will come out of that investigation.
The concept of derivative neglect, in my opinion as a legal expert and civil rights expert, is a gross violation of parental constitutional rights and should be legislatively abolished and prohibited.
There is no need to even say that the mother is not wealthy and is Hispanic. Discrimination against the poor and minority parents under the guise of child protection continues - and is a deadly menace to the safety of those same children CPS claims it seeks to protect.
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