A lot of people ask me what is the horrible thing that we’ve done that brought C&Y into our lives and why they’ve decided to stay as long as they have.
This probably the most-asked question I get. Well, I owe you guys this much:
Considering we “claim” that we don’t drink, do drugs, physically, mentally, verbally or sexually abuse our children… I guess it’s only natural for you to wonder this.
Fair enough. I’ll tell you.
Are you sitting down?
A year and a half ago, my eldest daughter didn’t want to go to school.
Her guidance counselor sicced them on us after repeated warnings.
*GASP!*
Whaddya mean, “That’s it???” ??!!??
It’s big shit out here. Schools lose big bucks from the state, based on student attendance. They have their own police that show up at your door (anyone remember “Truant Officers”?). Parents get fined, parents go to jail, kids get taken into protective custody.
Our case worker at the time: “I can’t wait to close this, so I can go back to *REAL* cases”.
When we moved out of Monroe County, and into Pike… my wife decided to Home School them ( Hi, Ruminator! ). We worked closely with the East Stroudburg School District and Pike County C&Y on how to go about doing this. My wife was handed applications for “Homebound Instruction”, the caseworker approved it, and it sat in the doctor’s office for over a month, unsigned.
Guess what? Do you know the difference between “Homebound Instruction” and “Homeschool Instruction”? We didn’t. “Homebound Instruction” is when your child can’t go to school because of mental or physical disabilities.
The dumbass woman at the district handed us the *WRONG* papers.
Once the superintendent of the district got word of this, he had our caseworker’s ass *NAILED* to the wall. She should have known the difference. I understand she was driven to tears with the reaming she got for her share of the incompetence.
That caseworker eventually became our CASE SUPERVISOR a month or two later.
…. and a lightbulb flips on over everyone’s heads! Now you get it?
Our lives have been living hell ever since. Then the “Animal Abuse” saga happened over the summer, that was all she needed to hook her claws in …and good! The case was supposed to close in March 2001.
Visits twice a week, surprise visits, court–ordered counseling, parenting courses… and all sorts of ludicrous demands in a “family plan” that we signed under duress, because they had our kids hostage at the time.
My personal favorite is the fact that I had to pay them “Child Support” through this.
We have to remake the kids beds, because it’s not up to their standards. They’ll flip if they see so much as a crumb on the rug. God forbid there’s a toy on the floor… that’s “clutter”.
Our psycho landlord stopped paying her mortgage in May, 2001. The house we’re renting is in foreclosure.
July, 2001, on a cell phone call to the court house, when we were *this* close to getting our kids back… she told our case workers we owed three months rent, and eviction papers were drawn up. No one ever bothered to ask her the name of the law firm handling it… ‘cuz the sheriff’s department knew nothing about this. We paid psycho landlord all that money (some of you helped!). We paid rent faithfully until we were served by the sheriff at the end of September 2001 and *advised* not to pay rent, and save up for a new place.
We have less than a month to find a home, approved by them, or the kids are spending a minimum of 6 months in foster care.
I have a “Wanted to Rent” ad in the paper. I have friends calling and emailing leads. Our names are listed in every Real Estate in the Poconos. We look at at least 2–3 houses a week. Either they’re ridiculously–priced, dumps, we have too many kids…,
Or if we manage to get as far as “when can you move in?”, C&Y calls and verify things with the landlord. Suddenly the landlord has “other people looking at the house/moving in”.
The case is confidential. They can’t discuss the details with the landlord. I wouldn’t rent to a pack of child abusers, would you???
Now you know the *WHOLE* story. At least as much as you need to.
Btw, my eldest daughter was in the paper last week as she made honors. Last month, another was cited for her community service in the Girl Scouts. Another just asked me today if I can take time off next week to see her honored in assembly as “Student of the Month“….
Of course, that’s all irrelevant.
Just something for you to think about…
With all the time they spend on us, there’s a little Kare, a little Deborah, or a little Matt Rossi out there being beaten, raped, and/or murdered by subhuman trash who had no right to reproduce. In the time it took you to read this blog entry, a child died in the United States. Four more will be dead in the next 24 hours.
… and those sadistic bastards at Children and Youth are nowhere to be found to help any of them.
Breaks your heart, doesn’t it?
Hell is for Children.
Eric Brooks
Musician, Programmer, Graphic Designer, Evil Clown - A thorn in the Internet's side since 1997 with no intention of stopping any time soon.
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You are a lucky man in many ways, Eric. But I’m sure you know this already. Love you.
Oh, and you know something else? You’re not the only one who gets tired of being overlooked. I suppose I should be used to it cause I’ve always been the one working behind the scenes while others got credit for the job, but I’m not. And I’m not sure I ever will. Anyway, I’ve ranted enough.
Oh yeah… well, not around here, babe! You will always be the Creator of the Z–Chat™, BlogBuddies™… and the very first Wheel O’ Webpeople!!!! (Which I stole the idea off you, btw.)
Love you too, sweety!
As horrible as they are, none of the things that have happened to you surprise me that much. When I worked for our county I actually heard a social worker say a yard full of toys was sometimes a sign of sexual abuse. WTF?? You can bet your ass I ran home to clean the toys up out of my front yard!
The people who do those jobs are just ordinary people who have bad days like the rest of us. Unfortunately they have extraordinary powers to take their bad days out on others if they choose to. I’m sure you know it’s a game and you have to play it according to their rules. Hard to do when you know they are wrong but worth swallowing your pride in the long run.
"Toys in the yard"… incredible.
I hope, if anything, people learn the valuable lesson to just Go along with them, and play their game, and not be smartass rebels like we tried.
These kids are my whole world, Lisa.
They say they’re going to take them away from me April 1st.
I have no reason to doubt them.
It’s an amazing thing… once anyone in power decides you are guilty , lazy, not up to speed, or the like ………your life becomes a living hell. I just went thru this at work. So, Eric once again we live in a parallel universe…….the only dif was mine was work related and did not involve any children.
Just remember : What goes around comes around.
I can’t wait ……..those who "got" me will get so much more and so much worse than they can ever imagine/
You know what else is sad? All those bright eyed folks who want to make a difference and fight for the little guy and for the abused children – who get into social work thinking how much good they’re going to do – and then find themselves surrounded by the paperwork and incompetency that you describe. Hard to fight the good fight if the system is half the problem – so much so that the workers inside that system see how wrong it is.
When you’re out of the middle of it Eric and safe from the govtgoblins – go get your story out to media somehow. You have the contacts. This kind of thing needs to stop happening.
I couldn’t agree with Batgrl enough..
Eric, you must get this story out to the media. This story is horrible. And in the middle of all this crap you did the zlist stuff?
I can’t believe you may lose your children by April 1. This is harassment by the Government!!
And you’re right, they have so much they could be doing..
(Get after those Catholic Priests if you ask me)
I’d wish they’d leave you alone, Eric, this must be terrible for you.
You must let the media know. Is there a television station that wants to do an investigation?? This would be a great one to uncover..
"who get into social work thinking how much good they’re going to do"
Oh yeah… there are plenty of them. Our caseworker, Frank, from when it started. The man was a saint, the kids loved him and he was there to *help*. He quit over the summer to become a teacher. Maureen was another caseworker we had when Carole was in jail for the 30 days… she fought her bitch supervisor tooth and nail to keep the kids with me and give me a chance. She was moved to another department, and a new one is in her place… a clone of the supervisor. Snippy & insulting.
There are *great* social workers out there that really do want to make a difference… but they get frustrated by all the bureaucratic bulshit.
" go get your story out to media somehow. You have the contacts."
I do and I wish… I would have loved this recent story we ran to be me & the kids. But at what price?
The Newspaper can’t run a story until it’s settled in court (That whole "libel & slander" thing). But they’re well aware of what’s going on & I suspect that’s why they’re hitting Monroe County C&Y as hard as they have recently. (They love me… *GUSH*!)
Over the summer, I was advised by one of my editors to get a lawyer. I have one hell of a case, despite all of the other legal entanglements Carole faced with her business. However, we’re also working with another agency (who hates C&Y), and their advice is to ride this out… a lawyer will make this 1000 times worse. They *do* have legal custody of my kids, and they *can* pull them out until this is resolved.
… maybe when it’s over. But for now, they’re holding all the cards. I’d *gladly* talk to the media…
Carole was supposed to spend *years* in jail over the bad checks… I turned the tables around on that one, maybe I can do it on this one when the smoke settles.
Hell, my Brother–in–law read “The Last One Out“, and thinks I should write a book, or submit it to Reader’s Digest… now THERE’S an idea!
(Which I might add, the Pocono Record ran a series about the Home Builder Scandal two months later!)
if i were you i would not point any bad press their way till you are done with them and living somewhere far, far, far away.
they are evil, those C&Y people. that story you linked, in which a kid was traumatized and wrongfully yanked from a home and they call that a "harmless error"? a HARMLESS error? fuck.
I’m praying for you and your family, Eric. Others are, too. If there is anything that I can do to help, please let me know. This whole situation stinks but it’s got to get better––keep your head up!
I’ll say this. When I was a child, we lived on an island for summers and weekends. Our house in the city wasn’t a house we considered a home, and anyone who came by probably wouldn’t have found anyone. So even if someone had called whatever the Rhode Island equivalent of DCYF was/is, it probably wouldn’t have done any good.
That being said, no one did.
To be honest, that was much of my fault. I hid what was happening to me…what my uncle did, what my father did, even what my fellow students did…hid it behind a facade of disinterest and read more. The worse things got, the deeper into a book I jammed my head. Of course, that becomes untenable after a while…had I not changed physically, I don’t know that I could have made it without going full–bore insane.
I don’t know what the answer is. I know that we have departments like DCYF for a reason, that they are often understaffed, underfunded, and run on Orwellian bureacracies that people genuflect in front of rather than challenge. For all I know, they’ve got a real conception of Eric and his wife as dangers to their children from somewhere. And often, if they take their eyes off of the ball, children are victimized and do die. But it seems to me that you need to be able to approach these questions with a level head, instead of with a draconian fist.
But that’s me. I’m unusual that way.
"For all I know, they’ve got a real conception of Eric and his wife as dangers to their children from somewhere."
No Matt…
The supervisor in this case is just looking to make our lives a living hell for her getting in trouble last Spring.
It’s as simple as that.
They have come up with a new excuse to keep this case open every time it comes up for review.
They have Legal custody of the kids & if they *REALLY* thought we were a danger, they would have never given them back.
We were told last year to have them registered and in school by May 9th or they were petitioning for legal custody.
We did it on May 7th, the day after we got the warning. They took us to court anyway.
Their word is worthless & they can’t be trusted. They violate so many rights, it’s not even funny.
The whole point of this post is… children NEED their help, but they’d rather waste their time on wild goose chases, and bully "easy targets".
I can fax you or anyone *any* court document you’d like to prove this…
Unbelievable! what are these people Stassi or something! and like someone said up there, get this story out to the media in any way shape or form you can, cause this is just plain insanity.
I’m for putting that bitch case worker up against a wall, covering her in honey and unload a bucket of fire ants on her(for starters) then take her and her whole stupid crew through the courts for everything they’ve got, the pain & suffering that they’ve caused you guys and your kids is incredible and so bloody real, and yet I bet they’re all collecting their paychecks, going home at night and thinking the sun shines out of their arseholes!
Geezez H bloody christ, how can they get away with this kinda stuff?
Eric…you and your family are in my thoughts and prayers…
Thanks! :0)
*SMOOCH!*