Sunday Journal: For social worker, biggest lie didn't come from 'hoodlum children'

By Derry Smith

Driving a child to the Florida School for Boys in Marianna was not in the job description when my mother accepted the position of social worker for the Pinellas County Juvenile Justice System in 1959.

Fresh out of college, she felt privileged to join the department. She intended to work toward improving the future for kids who lived with neglectful or abusive parents. What she learned was that Florida's state and county agencies didn't have much compassion for kids.

Children, some as young as six, were arrested for such petty crimes as trespassing and taken away from their homes. Typically, parents weren't punished for neglecting or even abusing their children.

As a juvenile guardian for the court, my mother would hear tales from kids about the horrendous punishment they had to endure at the hands of foster parents. When she took these revelations to her supervisors she was chastised for believing "lies."

The Marianna School for Boys was a threat that was part of the protocol when working with disobedient kids. And her charge, Jackie, had been threatened many times. He knew first-hand about the place, being a seasoned attendee by the time he was 11 years old.

Jackie lived with a mother who showed no interest in him. She didn't keep him fed or clean. The truant officer visited regularly, and the neighbors called the police often about the boy trespassing in their yards and stealing fruit. His mother finally gave up custody, and the state put him in a foster home. Within a month Jackie ran away. The authorities caught up with him. My mother was the social worker who interviewed him.

"The foster mother doesn't feed me," he told her. "I only eat if there's something left after her own kids do."

Again my mother reported the complaint to supervisors. Her report was met with indifference.

"Children lie," she was told as before. "Especially hoodlum children."

Her orders to escort Jackie to Marianna came as a "gift." She understood that the state had an expense account for traveling to the School for Boys and she was expected to use it.

Her supervisor informed her of the nicest hotel in the area and the best places to eat. She made the reservations and, accompanied by my father, left on a Friday. With the blessing of her boss they intended to make a weekend of it. It wasn't until they sped north with Jackie in the back seat that she realized this would be no blissful vacation.

He was small for 11, and his freckled face lacked childish wonder. His haggard eyes seemed too old for tears, and this may be why he didn't cry. He begged to be taken somewhere else. Anywhere else.

"Please don't take me there," he said. "They're mean. They beat you."

My mother looked at the child, his brown bangs almost in his eyes.

"You've survived this place before," she said. "And I bet if you cooperate, the guards won't beat you."

But still he begged.

"It's only an eight-month sentence," she said. "Use it as an opportunity to turn your life around."

She had no advice for what he said next.

"The big kids. They chase the little kids," he said quietly. "And when they catch ya' they blow ya'."

"They blow you?"

My mother assumed he spoke of oral sex. After listening to more description she realized he meant sodomy.

"I seen 'em even kill dogs that way," he concluded.

She felt sick to her stomach.

She contemplated not taking him. He wasn't handcuffed. He ate lunch with my parents in a restaurant outside of Tallahassee, and she waited for him to run away. But he didn't. Instead he tagged along behind her like a wounded animal, begging her not to leave him.

My mother didn't ask any more questions. She didn't say much either. She was young and inexperienced and stuck with a system that didn't care. She listened to his pleas, knowing she could do nothing for him.

When she returned to work on that Monday, it was only to hand in her resignation.

Derry Smith lives in St. Petersburg. She shares her stories on her blog, storiesonthenines.org.

Source http://www.tampabay.com/features/humaninterest/sunday-journal-for-social-worker-biggest-lie-didnt-come-from-hoodlum/1201820

Interesting Recordings of CPS - Parent Calls

There are no pictures on these videos - they are voice recordings but they are most certainly interesting and show the garbage families go through in dealing with CPS - DCFS. It also shows how our freedom of speech is being trampled on.

Services Part 1



Services Part 2



Allegations -V- Evidence Part 1



Allegations -V- Evidence Part 2

CPS Lies - Kidnapping, Corruption, Organized Crime

CPS LIES #1; Baby P Effect, Worldwide Kidnapping, Organized Crime



CPS LIES #2 Most Foster Parents Care



CPS LIES #3 Child Protective Services Criminals' Doublespeak

CPS Demands Truth When They Do Not Tell The Truth

When dealing with CPS, you will find that they will demand you to be truthful and sometimes, they will even accuse you of telling lies when you are not. But don't wait for the truth to come from their lips because that is not how they roll.

CPS will twist, exaggerate, omit, fabricate and whatever they can think of to their benefit and to your detriment. Your caseworker may be sneaky and may make things up but we have found that caseworker supervisors and regional supervisors tell lies more frequently. Even some of the CPS personnel associated with your state capitol offices have been known not to tell the truth about procedures to remedy wrongs done to you by CPS. (We have found that they frequently tell parents and relatives that there are no processes available through the state, such as administrative hearings.) CPS will do whatever they can to make you and your family look bad for the sole purpose of keeping your children until they are adopted out.

What is a lie?

A lie (also called prevarication, falsehood) is a type of deception in the form of an untruthful statement, especially with the intention to deceive others.

To lie is to state something with disregard to the truth with the intention that people will accept the statement as truth.

Somtimes, CPS will state part of the truth out of context, knowing that without complete information, it gives a false impression. Likewise, they can actually state accurate facts, yet deceive with them.

There are times that CPS will create a complete fabrication which is a lie told when they submit a statement as truth, without knowing for certain whether or not it actually is true. Although the statement may be possible or plausible, it is not based on fact. Rather, it is something made up, or it is a misrepresentation of the truth.

One of CPS' favorites is telling lies by omission (selective omission.) They omit an important fact, deliberately leaving another person with a misconception. Lying by omission includes failures to correct pre-existing misconceptions. Also known as a continuing misrepresentation. CPS is famous for selectively omitting anything good about you when they are in court or any other process where that information might be valuable and a benefit to you, your case and your children.

CPS often uses exaggeration to make your case even more crazy than it is. This occurs when the most fundamental aspects of a statement are true, but only to a certain degree. It is also seen as "stretching the truth" or making something appear more powerful, meaningful, or real than it actually is.

Many people who have fallen victim to CPS lies have stated that CPS even tells lies in court - directly to the judge. This is known as perjury. Perjury is the act of lying or making verifiably false statements on a material matter under oath or affirmation in a court of law, or in any of various sworn statements in writing. Perjury is a crime, because the witness has sworn to tell the truth and, for the credibility of the court to remain intact, witness testimony must be relied on as truthful.

So just how can they expect anyone to trust them? How can anyone believe even one word that they say?

Well, no one can but in most instances, only the judges in the courtrooms do believe them.

Victim after victim has come forward for years and each tells the same story. CPS lies to your face, behind your back and in court.

Why do they lie?

Job security - Those lies enable them to take children from their parents or guardians and feed them to the greedy CPS / foster / adoption system. The amount of money generated by our beautiful children is enormous. As long as there are children to funnel through their money machine, their jobs are safe. In the meanwhile, each state is making a ton of money also.

When it comes right down to it, the biggest lie is - "the best interest of the children." CPS could care a less about what is best for the children. All they care about is lining their pockets and scratching the backs of all their accomplices.

When dealing with CPS in person or over the phone, record everything! Check your state laws about recording conversations first but whatever you do, make sure you have proof of what was said. Using a mini-cassette recorder is best because other forms of recording would be considered easy to manipulate. You can get a device to use on your phone at electronics stores that is fairly inexpensive.

Click Here To Read Oral Coversation & Telephonic Recording Laws - State By State Information