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Topics - cmack

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31
Feed Your Head / Teen gets restraining order against CPS
« on: November 01, 2011, 11:33:16 PM »
http://www.imperfectparent.com/topics/2 ... -services/

Crime and Punishment
Texas teen gets restraining order against Child Protective Services
14 year old girl's parents file for order of protection against CPS
September 30th, 2011 by Jessica King | Permalink

Teen and her family just want CPS to leave them alone so they sue them and win.

A 14 year old Texas teen reportedly had to endure alleged abuse in a group home where she resided for a year and a half, having been taken away from her family over an incident which was reported by KHOU TV to be a misunderstanding. The girl eventually ran away from the group home and the girls parents found her after a case worker called her home and reported her missing. The family’s lawyer claims that the case worker told the family that ‘if they found her, they could keep her’.

The family’s lawyer contends that thousands of children are needlessly taken from their families every year and placed into foster homes or group homes where they are abused.

The girl’s family decided to fight back. They took CPS to court and asked for an order of protection, which the judge granted. The court ordered CPS to stay away from the girl and stop harming the chld in the name of “protecting” her.

The National Coalition for Child Protection Reform says this is the first time they’ve heard of filing restraining orders against Children and Family Services. The family of the teen hopes that this sends a message to CPS agencies nationwide — to help children in real danger and stop using valuable resources to place children who are loved in abusive situations.

32
Feed Your Head / When Your Kid Smokes Pot
« on: October 29, 2011, 10:22:54 PM »
I was wondering what others here thought of this article. I think it makes a lot more sense than most of the advice directed towards parents.

http://mensnewsdaily.com/2010/08/08/whe ... mokes-pot/

When Your Kid Smokes Pot
2010-08-08
By Paul Elam


O.K., so you found some weed in your teen-agers room.

Depending on the kind of parent you are, your reaction to that can range from mild amusement to thermonuclear. But assuming you are not going to smoke the stuff yourself, you are confronted with making some decisions on what to do about it. Perhaps you think it is time to call a counselor, or maybe even the thought of a treatment center for young people with drug problems crosses your mind.

As someone who worked in the chemical dependency treatment field for two decades, and who wrote and directed several treatment programs, let me make a suggestion about that.

Don’t.

Don’t even think about it.

To clarify, let me tell you some things you won’t hear from the staff at treatment programs, or anyone else interested in making a buck off your child’s “problem.”

First, there’s this funny thing about teenage drug addicts. There aren’t any. Or at least they are so far and few between that I can count the ones I have seen on two fingers. So for your benefit, an understanding of addiction is in order.

We’ll view it in simple, objective terms. Chemical dependency and/or abuse is defined, in that Holy of Holies, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM IV), in pretty explicit terms, regardless of what drug we are talking about. There are two main criteria.

First, for physical addiction to be established there has to be the presence of physical withdrawal symptoms when the drug use is stopped. My money is on the fact that if you take your kids pot away they won’t even get so much as the sniffles. This probably has something to do with the fact that marijuana isn’t addictive.

The other diagnostic criteria, and the one the treatment centers rely heavily on as their cash cow, is the continued use of a particular drug or drugs despite the onset of severe life damaging consequences. In this we are talking about things like multiple arrests, lost jobs, physical ailments and failed marriages, all related to the use/abuse of drugs. Again, the odds are good that Johnny didn’t lose his paper route or burger flipping position from smoking some weed, or suffer any of these other complications.

And as much as Johnny, or even you, may protest, getting caught by your parents isn’t severe and life damaging- unless there is something really wrong with the parents.

So why then, you might ask, are there treatment programs spread across the entire western world that will gladly take Johnny in and “treat” him as long as the money or insurance holds out?

Well, money, of course. There’s gold in the ignorance of them thar parents.

And in their fear and desperation- and in their failure to be good parents.

But before we get to that, let me illustrate one of the dirty little secrets of the “helping” profession, just to make the point.

The money is in the diagnosis.

Up till 1991, there had been something like 6 documented cases of Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD) in the entirety of world history. But then a psychiatrist in Houston, a right smart lady with a really keen eye for those pesky extra personalities, diagnosed enough of them in that city to keep a 22 bed unit at a psychiatric hospital full of them for months on end.

At around $1,200 a day per head, for stays that often ranged in the months, MPD was a gold mine. The Doc was getting rich, hospital administration was ecstatic and the insurance companies continued to pay.

Eventually the authorities took notice; Lady Freud was figured to be Lady Fraud and was charged with scamming the insurance companies. That hospital’s administrator lost his job. Later though, the charges were dropped, mainly because the burden was on the prosecution to prove that the patients, whose confidentiality -and thus treatment information- was protected by law, didn’t have MPD.

Case closed, and the lady walks with the money, perhaps to go on and treat teenage drug addicts.

The point here is, though, if one psychiatrist can find hundreds of MPD’s, mostly from the same city, all with insurance to cover the stay, how hard do you think it is to find teenage drug addicts?

That’s right. They are as close as the nearest scared and insured or affluent parent.

And the corruption is just the light side; surface stuff. We are, after all, talking about your child. Who cares if it is expensive, right?

I would tend to agree if locking your child away in a treatment program and calling them an addict would somehow resolve their problems. It would be worth the expense. But the truth is that it is more likely to make things worse.

It reminds me of a joke. Mom and Dad find Johnny’s stash of pot and take him to the treatment center. Dad is concerned, mom is crying and Johnny looks scared out of his mind.

The counselor asks, “Johnny, do you know why you are here?”

“Yes,” Johnny says, voice trembling, “I was smoking pot.”

Just then another couple walks in with their son, also named Johnny. Dad is angry and reeks of gin, Mom is crying so hard she can hardly open her bottle of Xanax.

The dad says, “We were just on our way out of town when we had to come here. Can you fix the little bastard? We’ll pick him up when we get back. A month O.K.?”

The counselor turns to the other Johnny and asks again, “Johnny, do you know why you are here?”

“F*ck you, bitch,” says the boy.

“Isn’t this great!” says the counselor. “Johnny, meet Johnny. You can both share the experience of treatment together. Perhaps we’ll make you room mates!”

And yes, that is the punch line.

Adolescent drug abuse programs, more than any others, become dumping grounds for all manner of problems, except real chemical dependency. If you take your kid there because you caught them smoking pot, they will be tossed in with a population of conduct disorders, budding sociopaths, even the occasional emerging psychopath.

Of course they will all have that evil pot use in common, if nothing else.

Treatment programs need customers in order to make money. And as we learned in our MPD program, they are often not too picky about how they get those customers, as long as the money is there.

Johnny and Johnny won’t be the exception.

In fact, in all the years I worked in that field, I never saw anyone turned away who wanted to be admitted (or whose parents wanted it), unless there was no funding. Those that didn’t want to check in were always encouraged to change their minds in the strongest possible terms.

Plenty of the great unwashed were sent packing no matter how bad their circumstances. The standard for the business was, and is, if you’ve got coverage, you’ve got a problem we can help you with.

What do you suppose happens when you mix these types of personalities together and concentrate them behind locked doors with their lives under the control of external authority figures while the rest of their family enjoys freedom?

Johnny One and Johnny Two might not have much in common when they are admitted, but you can bet they will become fast friends during their stay together. It’s what happens when you create a penitentiary environment. And what your relatively innocent kid doesn’t know about drugs, sex and a host of other things before treatment, he will quickly learn during the process.

All this and there is not one bit of reputable evidence to suggest that treatment will stop him from doing drugs in the future.

So what, then, is a concerned parent to do?

I am afraid the answer to that one is almost as unpalatable as treatment itself.

There is one other bit of information that you won’t hear from professionals who are financially invested in keeping the cash flow coming. 99 out of 100 screwed up kids come from screwed up homes- screwed up parents. In fact, if you get someone who works in a treatment setting with adolescents to tell you the truth, they will tell you that the greatest frustration with their work is that they spend all this time trying to help kids with their problems, only to send them right back to the same dysfunctional environment -the environment that caused their problems- when treatment is done.

Of all the adolescents I worked with (and quit working with because of this problem) they had more in common with bad parents than with drug use. It was a virtual broken record of the same old same old; parents that were outraged because their kids turned to drugs, but couldn’t tell you the name of any of their teachers at school. Often there was violence and abuse in the home that the parents wanted to call “discipline,” or active real addiction by one or both parents. They often had Dads that didn’t know they were alive unless they were in trouble, and Moms that had turned them into little emotional spouses because they had run off the fathers affections long ago.

But that joint in the bottom drawer? Something had to be done!

And these parents, afflicted by those or a myriad of other problems, all had something in common as well. Their kid was the problem. Their kid was the only problem. And you could see it in the vacant, glazed over look in their eyes any time you tried to talk about anything else.

But what else can a treatment provider do? You push the truth too hard and the parents (read money) goes bye-bye.

And so the dance of lies picks up tempo; and the music drowns out every relevant reality that might actually help these struggling people. The kid, in many cases, is often the most sane person in the home. More than likely, they are acting out and calling attention to the problems that Mom and Dad are pretending didn’t exist; screaming at them for help in the only way they know how. And their reward for this service is to be locked up and stigmatized in order to get at their parents money.

Or, heaven forbid, some of them are just a normal kids experimenting with some pot. It happens you know, and more than a few of them go on to become happy, well adjusted adults who happen to like marijuana.

But for the ones that are real problems; the really troubled kids, parents can likely find the best solution in the mirror. Your child didn’t get to where they are in a vacuum. And your money or insurance cannot help them near as much as your love, ongoing involvement in their lives, and willingness to clean up your own act.

There is clearly some cases where some short term counseling might help with that. When kids are in trouble, good parents can often figure it out by figuring out what is wrong with themselves.

So do yourself and your child a favor, go there without them first. Or better yet, just take a good long look at yourselves before you talk to anyone else.

It’s amazing what that can do.

33
Feed Your Head / Poor Plan to escape Aurora Behavioral Health Care
« on: October 27, 2011, 05:32:33 PM »
Two teen boys staged a fake hostage situation in a ploy to escape Aurora Behavioral Health Care in San Diego. I don't know anything about this place, but anywhere that locks kids up against their will is suspect in my opinion.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011 ... -hospital/

Quote
Two 17-year-old boys who are patients at a hospital in Carmel Mountain staged a hostage situation early Thursday to try to escape, San Diego police said.

Police were called to the Aurora Behavioral Health Care hospital on Avenue of Industry off Innovation Drive just after midnight, police Lt. Andra Brown said.

When officers arrived, they found one teen at the second-floor nursing station with his arms around the other boy holding a metal object to his neck, Brown said. He demanded to be let out of the facility, she said.

Police talked with the boy for about 15 minutes. He let the other go and was detained by officers.

“They were in cahoots,” police Capt. Chris Ball said. “They were using this ruse as a plan to escape.”

The metal object turned out to be an aluminum can, Brown said. One of the teens was wearing a makeshift backpack that was fashioned out of pillow cases, she said.

This is the link to the program
http://sandiego.aurorabehavioral.com/index.php

34
Feed Your Head / Teens Shackled, Strip Searched
« on: October 27, 2011, 05:27:15 PM »
If you're a teen then walking across a neighbors yard can get you shackled and strip searched in Mississippi. This was so outrageous that the judge was suspended from the bench and ultimately the kids were found Not Guilty.

http://www.desototimes.com/articles/201 ... 570072.txt

Quote
Three juveniles, including one Southaven teen, were shackled and then strip-searched at an Alcorn County Youth Detention facility following an incident in Tate County in which they were arrested for walking through a neighbor's yard.

Cliff Johnson, attorney with Pigott and Johnson, a Jackson-based law firm, plan to hold a press conference today in Senatobia concerning the incident.

In a related matter, the Tate County Board of Supervisors have approved a "no confidence resolution" in Youth Court Judge Leigh Ann Darby of Senatobia who also serves as Drug Court Judge and family Master for Tate County.

Attorneys argue that While Darby did not order the strip search of the teens, her actions by ordering the children be taken into custody instead of being released to their parents set in motion the series of events which unfolded in Alcorn County, including the strip search incident.

*
Attorneys for the parents and children allege that Darby ordered all three children be taken into custody immediately rather than being released to the custody of their parents which is normally the custom.

The resolution requests that Chancery Court Judge Percy Lynchard, Senior Chancellor for the Third Chancery Court District, remove Darby.

Lynchard suspended Darby as Tate County Youth Court Referee for 60 days following the July 8, 2011 incident. She is scheduled to resume her position on Nov. 1.

The Third Chancery District is comprised of DeSoto, Grenada, Montgomery, Panola, Tate and Yalobusha counties.

When the complaint first surfaced, Lynchard said he ordered his own investigation into the matter.

"Quite frankly, she (Darby) overstepped her bounds," Lynchard said. "I felt like some action needed to be taken and it was."

Lynchard said Darby is approaching her fourth year as Youth Court Referee.

"Up until this past May, I had heard no complaints," Lynchard said. He did not elaborate on what other complaints he had received concerning Darby.

Johnson said shortly after the teens, all 15 years-old, were taken to the police station, Darby, who was at the police station on another matter, insisted all three children be given a drug test.

When a father of one of the teens said he would like to talk with an attorney, Darby ordered all three children be taken into custody immediately, according to Johnson.

"There was no hearing, the children had no legal counsel, and there were no formal findings made by Darby," Johnson said.

Police shackled the teens' hands and placed them in a transport van.

"They then were driven over two hours to the Alcorn County Youth Detention Center," the complaint alleges. "Upon arrival, the two girls and one boy were stripped naked and forced to squat and cough while being closely observed by guards. They remained incarcerated in the facility from Friday night until Monday morning."

On Oct. 3, 2011, the Tate County Board of Supervisors passed a "no confidence resolution" declaring that the board has "no confidence in Leigh Ann Darby, and that it is not in the best interest of Tate County that Leigh Ann Darby continue to serve as Youth Court Judge, Drug Court Judge and Family Master for Tate County."

Johnson said the legal counsel for the parents and children were informed by the administrator of the Alcorn County Youth Detention Center that it is the policy of that facility to strip search every juvenile who enters the detention center regardless of age and regardless of offense with which they are charged."

However, Johnson said the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, which hears appeals of federal cases from Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas, has made it clear that "a strip search of an individual arrested for a minor offense must be premised on a reasonable suspicion that the detainee is carrying weapons or contraband."

"According to the Fifth Circuit, any strip search conducted without such reasonable suspicion violates the guarantee of the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution that American citizens will be protected against unreasonable searches," Johnson said.

On Oct. 20, 2011, the three teens faced trial on the trespassing charge brought against them on July 8. Darby was recused from the case.

All three were found not guilty.

"This is an extremely disturbing case that highlights the need for strict oversight of youth court judges and youth detention centers," Johnson said on his clients' behalf.

"These three children, like all children in Mississippi, deserve better. We are deeply troubled by the fact that Leigh Ann Darby will resume her position as Youth Court Referee for Tate County on Nov. 1. We applaud the members of the Tate County Board of Supervisors for so clearly declaring to Judge Lynchard their belief that Leigh Ann Darby should not serve as a judge in Tate County."

Johnson said the Alcorn County Youth Detention Center, and any other youth detention center in Mississippi with the same policy of strip searching each and every juvenile entrusted to them, "must end immediately its practice of conducting invasive and degrading strip searches of children without regard for the unique facts and circumstances of each case. The effects of a child or adolescent being forced to strip naked and be searched by a prison guard is profound and Mississippians should be outraged …"

Darby could not be reached for comment when a reporter contacted her office in Senatobia.

35
News Items / Gay teen flees to avoid Utah boarding school
« on: October 24, 2011, 04:38:30 PM »
A teen boy, either 14 or 15 years old, fled a CA airport because he didn't want to return to an unnamed Utah boarding school. He is described in news reports as being autistic with high-functioning Asperger's syndrome. Mainstream news reports give scant details, but a West Hollywood blog gives a much more detailed account and says the boy had been sent away because he is gay.

First news article below:

 
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2 ... chool.html
 
The parents of an autistic teen who left Bob Hope Airport on Wednesday and was found hours later in West Hollywood did not pay the airline for an attending escort, an aviation source said — allowing the boy to escape the notice of officials until he was long gone.

Cameron James Smith was scheduled to fly to a specialized school in Salt Lake City. When he was found seven hours later, he told police he was running away because he did not want to return to the school, the Burbank Leader reported.

Cameron was spotted a little after 5:30 p.m. by two people in the heart of West Hollywood. They recognized him from a news alert they had received on their smartphones.

They informed Cameron the police were looking for him, and he ducked into the Pizza Rustica restaurant near Santa Monica and San Vicente boulevards, Burbank Police Sgt. Darin Ryburn said.

They followed him into the restaurant, where Cameron locked himself in the restroom. They called the Burbank Police Department, and Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies contacted the boy in the restaurant.
Cameron was brought back to the Burbank Police Department, interviewed and released to his mother, Ryburn said.

Earlier in the morning, Cameron's mother had taken him to the airport to make sure he boarded a 10:30 a.m. Delta Connection flight safely. But when the plane experienced mechanical problems, it returned to the gate, where the passengers exited the aircraft, according to airport officials.

Cameron left the airport and took a shuttle to the airport's entrance, where he caught a bus to West Hollywood, Burbank police said.

The aviation source, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter, said Thursday that Cameron's parents did not pay an unaccompanied minor fee and told the airline that Cameron was older than 14. They also did not tell the airline he was autistic with high-functioning Asperger's syndrome, the source said.

Each airline has its own guidelines for minor passengers. The policy at SkyWest, which operates Delta Connection, is that an unaccompanied minor fee must be paid for passengers 14 and younger who are flying alone, an official for the airline said.

Airport officials on Wednesday said the boy's mother, whom authorities have not identified, told them that her son was 14. In later conversations with Burbank police, officers said she told them he was 15.

--------------------------------------------------------

BELOW IS THE REPORT FROM THE WEST HOLLYWOOD BLOG

http://www.wehoconfidential.com/2011/10 ... up-at.html

Cameron James Smith made it on every news affiliate yesterday afternoon when he ran away from Burbank airport only to be found ordering a vodka orange juice at the Abbey.

The wait staff recognized the runaway boy from the news & asked for ID before serving him a regular orange juice. When asked for his name Cameron told the Abbey Manager, Nick Lambert, that his name was George. Nick showed Cameron his photo on the news and Cameron bolted. He kicked off his freshly acquired Casual Cool boat shoes in the park & ran into Pizza Rustica where he asked to use the restroom. He locked himself in & eventually surrendered to Lambert when he sat a table in the pizza shop.

The story the media portrays is that of "an autistic child is safe today after running away from the Burbank airport when his mother failed to ensure his safe departure". The media won't tell you that Cameron is gay, that he's being shipped away for his homosexual tendencies (again) or that he'll be bullied into a closet for the next four years no thanks to his parents.

Cameron didn't run away from school. He simply fled to the only gay sanctuary he'd ever heard of, hoping that someone there could save him. It was almost as if he was told "It gets Better" by a president who believes that marriage equality should be left up to the state & when he tried to seek sanctuary the universe said "not today kid!" Without realizing it Cameron's only hope was to land on safe soil but unfortunately this young man didn't flee Cuba & the Abbey is not Miami beach aka freedom.

So as important as it is to recognize the boys who committed suicide this month it's more important to recognize the one who reached out for help but was never heard. Cameron is already being sent packing, back to some bleak second rate version of a life away from his family.

When asked for comment Abbey founder David Cooley had this to say:



This brave young man was in the process of being returned to the state of Utah where being gay is not tolerated. Cameron obviously fled to the Abbey because it's renowned for being a safe haven for members of the gay community & my heart pours out to him during this difficult time in his life. I hope Cameron knows he has a family here & that he touched our lives in a very powerful way today.


We hope that someone reaches out to this boy, while he's still alive before it's too late. The boy who had the balls to follow a path that didn't end in suicide. Maybe GLADD, EQCA or HRC could reach out to Cameron... or are they too busy worrying about your checkbooks?

------------------------------

BELOW IS A LINK FROM THE ABOVE BLOG POST ABOUT ANOTHER TEEN'S EXPERIENCE AT A PROGRAM. I CAN POST THE TEXT IF PEOPLE WANT BUT IT'S QUITE LONG.

http://www.wehoconfidential.com/2011/10 ... -utah.html

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