The Tale Of The Mandated Reporter: "Please Do Not Fire Me & Make Me Homeless" Asks ~ Do Foster Kids Have Civil Rights?

"Please Do Not Fire Me & Make Me Homeless"
the Mandatory Reporter Whistleblower

Once upon a time there was a little Mandated Reporter, who goes by the name of, "Please Do Not Fire Me & Make Me Homeless", but sake of brevity, we shall address them, in the collective form as a member of "The Poors" (always said with clinched teeth).

The Michigan Auditor General has just released a report on the ills of the State's Child Protective Services System.

But, as you well know, I shall craft my famous incremental inquiry for the next level of legal scrutiny through the lens of civil rights.

Do Foster Kids Have Civil Rights when it comes to reporting fraud?

Of course, not.

DOJ Finds Kids Have No Civil Rights in Child Welfare

So, why is this?

Because it is all about chattel law, or rather SystemSucks because Mandatory Reporters are not mandated by law or policy to report child welfare fraud and retaliation is real, because the child welfare system is privatized, whereby the Mandatory Reporter has no civil rights.

The following is an tutorial on what a SystemSucks is.

So, how can a Foster Kid report fraud and a violation of their civil rights when the Mandated Reporter knows that it has previously been reported and nothing has been done?

Report the fraud to the fraudfeasors?

Considering the fact that we are dealing with a licensed foster home that, obviously, is not being monitored, we have an issue of fraud, because someone is not doing their job, or maybe they are.

Here is where I present for public discussions, the question of how a Foster Kid can report a violation of their civil rights without the Mandated Reporter being arrested, fined and stripped of their professional license for simply just helping a Foster Kid who does not want to end up tricking in the streets to eat.

Foster Kids only get $150.00 a month in SNAP, you know, and all the "U-Buy-We-Fry" joints do not take EBT benefits anymore, now, praytell, how does one eat when the foster care placement is not, how shall we say this, conducive to a proper dining experience?

I thought it best to ask the professionals up there in Department of Health and Human Services since the Mandated Reporter is a paycheck away from meeting the eligibility criteria for SNAP.

In the spirit of fuchsia, of course... 

Greetings Linda,

It has been brought to my attention that there are open questions surrounding the proper way to address how foster youth may file a complaint. 

Although the foster home provider is said to be under multiple investigations, there continues to exist the environment of deteriorating living conditions of food and improper electrical, like running extension cords and limited outlets that spark. 

Can a mandated reporter direct the foster youth to contact their elected officials to file subsequent complaints against Child Protective Services? 

Can a mandated reporter assist the foster youth in filing formal complaints to the Michigan Auditor General in the light of the September 2018 Child Protective Services conditions illuminated in the audit? 

Can a mandated reporter guide the foster youth in the filing of a Civil Rights Complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice? 

Do foster youth have civil rights, and if not, please elaborate? 

Can a mandated reporter instruct, in a professional, educational setting, on how to file a grievance, as reporting fraud to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector?  I only present this question as it is suspect to questionable cost reimbursement activities by the Child Placing Agency. 

I look forward to your expertise, or referral, so we may address the continued, systemic ethical deficiencies in the Michigan Child Welfare System, by which it has been the global leader in child welfare policy development. 

I strongly encourage you to reach out to me if you have any concerns.

Have a great day!

Here is a great video I just so happened to have stumbled across to teach a Foster Kid on how to file a child welfare grievance, and I am not even a Mandatory Reporter and I know Bill Schuette is too busy campaigning to do anything about child trafficking or child welfare fraud in Michigan.

Hey Bill, Smooches!

Please share to all Foster Kids you know!

Now, here are a few more questions I have about Mandatory Reporters.

If a report is submitted to CPS about living conditions, does CPS report the living conditions to the City of Detroit Building, Safety and Environment & Engineering, since the Mayor has implemented city wide inspections or rental properties?

What if the home is one of those Detroit Land Bank Authority homes?

Would not that demand a conjugal collaborative in an open, working relationship with state, county and local governments?

Oh, wait... it is all up under those state registered foreign corporations called Public Private Partnerships where there are no civil rights, so I just answered my own question, again: Child have no civil rights, and if someone even slightly mentions that bloody Guardian Ad Litem (GAL) fake authority transfer, I shall pummel words of shame in your general direction.

A GAL, I know, in many states, is not even a mandatory reporter.

Hell, a GAL does not even have to be a licensed professional, not even an attorney.  (Sounds like a great job for those who have a nasty penchant for the tiny ones.)

See, a foster home is not considered a tenant in a rental property, and, as such, a foster kid is not a tenant, nor is a youth who has aged out of foster care and has to live in an Adult Foster Care Home.

Then, you have those instances, where you have no idea of who really owns the actual real property where the foster care license is issued to the foster parent, and not attached to the property address, meaning, there are multiple options of running foster care payment scams, like running a multiple roomed building, as a foster parent, where the majority of the foster kids are running the streets doing what they do best to survive, while those foster care payment checks are cashed and split with the foster care worker and case manager, because you know they are also billing for non-existent services.

(Sorry, I was experiencing a Post Traumatic recollection of fraud.)

Anyway, I believe it is time to end all that anonymous and mandatory reporting through threats of enforcing policies of economic deterrence against the Mandatory Reporter, and just put it all, out there on the front lawn, dirty panties and all, because neither do Mandatory Reporters have civil rights due to privatization, leaving the reporting of child welfare fraud open to prosecution in breaching privacy laws about foster kids.

Report Fraud to the Michigan Auditor General

And that ends the tale of the Mandatory Reporter, who hails from land of "The Poors" (always said with clinched teeth) and the search of civil rights for children.

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More Poverty-Shaming: Opioid Moms, Michigan Children's Trust Fund, Medicaid Fraud & Residuals Of The Peculiar Institution

St. Mary's Infant Asylum, an original foundling home

Michigan is so twisted when it comes to priorities in the general welfare of its citizens, or what I like to capture is the perpetuity of our most precious treasures, that the focus is on expansion of privatized programs, and not investing in the individual creators, themselves: The Parents.

This is the result of a carefully executed plan to impoverish the people, then steal the children, the land and the votes.

The Michigan Children's Trust Fund is the priority, not the people, hence the plan.

The plan is asset forfeiture, which used to be called tithing of your first born, if you were too poor to pay, or reimburse the kingdom for protecting you, or what I like to call neofeudalism, or rather life insurance policies to use as collateral for mortgages.

Just as Cinnaire.

Michigan Medicaid Targeted Population Cost Reimbursed Self Sufficiency Workforce Training Revenue Maximization & Asset Forfeiture Model

Michigan Childrens Trust Fund Auditor General Report 2018 by Beverly Tran on Scribd

Gov. Rick Snyder makes appointments to the Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Board (Children's Trust Fund)

LANSING, Mich. - Gov. Rick Snyder today announced the appointments of Kathleen Trott of Birmingham and David Zyble of DeWitt to the Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Board (Children’s Trust Fund).

The 11-person board promotes the health, safety and welfare of Michigan's children and families by funding local programs and services that prevent child abuse and neglect.

“I thank Kathleen and David for serving as a voice for Michigan’s children and families and for their dedication to keeping them safe," said Snyder.

Trott retired as an assistant attorney general from the Michigan Attorney General’s Office in 2013 and previously served as a litigation attorney at Trott & Trott, P.C. She is a board member of the Eckerd College Board of Trustees and served as a member and president of the board of trustees of CARE House of Oakland County. Trott holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan, a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Detroit and a law degree from Wayne State University Law School. She will represent the legal community and replaces Lena Epstein.

Zyble is the assistant vice president of Jackson National Life Insurance Company. He holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Northern Michigan University and a juris doctor from Thomas M. Cooley Law School. He will represent the business community and replaces Karl Leuter.
Trott and Zyble will serve three-year terms expiring Dec. 19, 2020. Their appointments are subject to the advice and consent of the Senate.

The practice of foundling, a residual of the peculiar institution has returned to Michigan.

Michigan may add Safe Haven Baby Boxes for moms to drop off newborns

Typically, these children are immediately removed by Child Protective Services as the medical community is a licensed professional subject to mandatory reporting requirements.

Foster care is in full capacity in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, which is a catalyst behind the mandatory work requirement for Medicaid.

These mothers obviously did not have access to prenatal care, let alone assistance for opioid addiction, which means they were probably one of "The Poors" (always said with clinched teeth), having no place else to turn but to have someone advocate, for the best feasible possibly option to help these parents, with a box to drop off a child, like women of "The Poors"  who were shamed by society used to do.

At least there was one person from the medical community who cared more about humanity than being a mandatory reporter.

So, instead of poverty shaming a targeted population, the Detroit Free Press needs to do an investigative report on how this geographic region of the state has been thrust into the raging arms of poverty, just like the State's major city, Detroit, where its children are being born to opioids, grounds for termination of parental rights for the rights to the trust funds.

The tiniest addicts: How U.P. babies became part of opioid epidemic

Newborns in the Upper Peninsula are hospitalized for drug withdrawal at the highest rate in Michigan.

The moms are ill, addiction is a disease, the nurses know that. And the moms' lives are complicated, full of dysfunction that led them to seek solace in drugs.  But none of that makes their situations any less maddening or upsetting. "I have tended to stay away from some of the drug babies because I don’t want that attachment," Cathy Hebert, a NICU nurse, confided through tears. "You don't know what's going to happen to that baby when it goes home. If that mom can't take care of herself, how can she care for another life?"

The nurses still cry when they talk about the baby who died last year, a couple of days after being discharged from the hospital. He'd been with them long enough to be aware of his surroundings and to coo and smile at the nurses, which made them love him all the more. They knew he wasn't going home to a good family situation, which worried them. His mother, they recalled, was so medicated, on something, that she had difficulty forming coherent sentences; she even had difficulty staying awake during meetings at the hospital. They didn't have much faith in the baby's father, either.

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Child Abuse Mandatory Reporter Law Expands Data Banking Of Michigan Children's Insititue

Expert: Abuse reporter law created troubles in Pa.

Lansing — A bill that would increase the penalty for those in Michigan who failed to report child abuse or neglect could have unintended consequences, a University of Michigan law professor said Tuesday.

As a mandated reporter, you already are under threat of losing your professional licensing, $500 fine, or a few months in jail for not reporting, so the only way to make sure this does not happen, mandated professionals report everything, to save their livelihoods under the Janet Reno doctrine of "better to err on the side of the child".
 

  

The testimony before the House Law and Justice Committee concerned legislation, inspired by the Larry Nassar abuse scandal, that would increase the penalty for mandatory reporters who fail to report child abuse or neglect from a misdemeanor to a two-year felony.

Two years in prison is a doozie, so get ready for the Great Foster Care Bank.

Yes, the Great Foster Care Bank is a bank of tiny humans for the purposes maximizing revenues in the industry of trafficking humans called foster care and adoption, or you can call it the Bank of the  Michigan Children's Institute.

That is correct, this is what is about to happen if this Baby P reactionary legislation goes through. 

The Baby P Effect was first identified by Legally Kidnapped. Basically, there was a little boy, Baby P, that ended up being murdered by the parents when U.K. CPS did nothing to prevent it. Then, there was a mass hysteria of people calling the U.K. CPS and massive removing of children from homes to foster care and adoption.  This way, by referencing the work of Legally Kidnapped, Michigan will not have to spend a penny on research.
 

Lawyer Frank Vandervort told legislators that after similar legislation was enacted after the Penn State University sex abuse scandal, the number of reports increased in Pennsylvania, but the number of substantiated reports decreased and child deaths increased.

 It seems the Frank Vandervort does not fully grasp the entirety of the Penn State University Sandusky scandal.  It was about trafficking tiny humans through foster care, using lots of different funding streams of child welfare federal grant funding, and money laundering, just like the Michigan State University case.

“You had your CPS (Child Protective Services) folks investigating a lot of low-quality reports,” said Vandervort, an academic researcher and clinical professor of law at UM. “And then the really serious cases you just get a system that’s overwhelmed and you’re going to the wrong cases.”

 Oh my dear!  Do you not understand what a fraud scheme does?  It does more than maximize revenues through child welfare service programs, it also funds political campaigns, and other business ventures.  That is why the reporting system was designed to do.  By taking in low-quality reports, where the majority come from mandatory reporters, and not the families who could actually call for request of assistance, you have a penal system that becomes reminiscent to stories in threats of the gulag.  This allows the promulgation of lots of propaganda to change the narrative away from fraud and trafficking of tiny humans.  That is how a state run tiny human trafficking network operates.

Vandervort cautioned legislators to treat the Nassar case as an “outlier,” rather than overwhelm the state system with laws that threaten a host of unintended consequences.

No, the Nassar case is not an outlier, it is a network, a homogeneous system of international fraud and those unintended consequences are going to be more federal probes, considering the Ringler, Michigan Auditor General has already gone to the Court of Claims to demand DHHS turn over its child abuse documents, but administrators are not mandatory reporters and Vandervort should stay in his lane of juvenile justice, another mess of systemic fraud.
 

The testimony came about a week after a Department of Health and Human Services official testified the expected increase in reports could trigger a $54 million increase in staffing at the agency.

That $54 million is in staffing, alone.  That has nothing to do with operations or fixed costs.  Then, you have to consider the Baby P effect, and the entire child welfare system will collapse, and it is not that difficult to do considering no one know what the hell they are doing.  You can tell they are clueless just by looking the Kevin Ryan's reports to the Court.
 

Concerns about the bill and others will be considered, Rep. Klint Kesto said Tuesday. He expects the committee on Wednesday will consider “a ton” of amendments and substitutes to the House bills.

Kesto, R-Commerce Township, has urged deliberate and focused consideration of the bills introduced to address gaps in the system that allowed Nassar to persist for years.

“Let’s not have a knee-jerk reaction that’s inappropriate,” Kesto told reporters. “

That’s a lot of times what happens in the Legislature, and then we come back to amend laws.”

Nassar, a former sports medicine doctor at Michigan State University, will spend the rest of his life in prison after pleading guilty to child pornography and sexual assault charges. He’s been accused of sexually abusing more than 250 women and girls under the guise of medical treatment, some of whom say their complaints to university officials went unheeded.

No one cares about complaints to State Officials like the Office of Children's Ombudsman, CPS, police departments, when it comes to abuses in child welfare.
 

Lawmakers introduced an additional four bills Tuesday that would create a state office to serve as a resource and advocate for college Title IX offices and students going through the Title IX process.

More Public Private Partnership$$$ through more layers, and layers of administration contracts for friends and family members of those who can push through legislation like this.

They also would encourage higher education institutions to develop five-year campus sexual assault response improvement plans; instill protections that would shield student sexual assault victims from suspension or expulsion; and exempt from disclosure identifying information regarding sexual abuse victims filing anonymous civil suits.

Oh, so victims are treated even worse than mandatory reporters.
 

Rep. Jon Hoadley, D-Kalamazoo, said the bill that would improve campus sexual assault response would include a matching grant to help institutions fund the improvements, an allowance that Kesto found problematic.

Look!  There is that grant shot.
 

“These universities and institutions should have been doing this, period,” Kesto said. “It’s like, hey, here’s a carrot for you to do the right thing.”
 

Three representatives from the Michigan Catholic Conference also testified at the hearings, sharing with legislators procedures put in place in Michigan dioceses following the clergy sex abuse scandal in 2002. The measures include background checks for all employees and volunteers, annual audits to ensure compliance from parishes and schools, the requirement that all allegations of sexual abuse be reported to authorities, and a three-hour training on recognizing and reporting sexual abuse.

What about those Catholic Charities?  What about the fact that you can not run a background check on someone if they have never been convicted of pedophilia?
 

While dioceses perform state background searches, churches and schools are barred from tapping into the FBI fingerprint database because it requires legal language in state law that permits private nonprofits access to those records, said Candace Neff, director of communications for the Diocese of Gaylord.

The majority of pedophiles in the FBI database have been through the legal process of conviction.  The majority of pedophiles in the world have never been caught when becoming a foster or adoptive parent.  Something to think about.
 

Neff said the FBI database is considered the “most reliable,” and while it’s available to schools, state law has no allowances for access by churches or youth organizations, even if they’re willing to pay.

So, there is table talk that Michigan may allow churches and schools access to federal identity databases?  My issue with this is that privatization thing and what they will be doing with the data, or rather if they will be selling that data.  I predict they will.
 

“To do the best we can to protect children, we need you to introduce and pass legislation that will allow us access to those records,” she said.

Yes, allow public access to all the records, even the financial ones.  Child welfare operates under an iron cover of secrecy so now is the best time for illumination of Michigan's dark history in child welfare.  Either that or I will just sit back and eat my popcorn, waiting....

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LK Report for 8/16/17 - Suing CPS and More...

Here are today's headlines.  

Check back later.  You never know when I might update this post.

http://www.LegallyKidnapped.com

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LINCOLN, Neb. - Four reports from Omaha and one from Holdrege have been received regarding a woman posing as a child protective services employee seeking admission into homes, the Department of Health and Human Services said. More >> Woman posing as Child Protective Services worker tries to enter homes -------------------- While she sought custody of her newborn son during her treatment for methamphetamine addiction and mental health counseling, she got to raise him herself. More >> Can giving babies back sooner to parents in drug treatment be best? A court is trying it. ---------------------- As the nation's opioid crisis has deepened, the number of drug treatment centers for pregnant women has grown. But experts and advocates say there aren't enough services for pregnant women to meet the demand, and many don't offer the drugs doctors would normally use to treat addiction because they are concerned about the effects they might have on a fetus. And some laws requiring that babies going through withdrawal be removed from their mother's care can be a deterrent to seeking help, they said. More >> Pregnant women addicted to opioids face tough choices -------------------- A SOCIAL worker has been struck off after he allegedly told a highly vulnerable child to self harm. David Steare was alleged to have told the youngster to ‘only cut’ herself on alternate days at set times, with her mother there to treat her wounds. More >> Social worker struck off after allegedly telling vulnerable child to self-harm --------------------- South Africa’s child protection system is failing its children‚ says World Vision South Africa. “Despite comprehensive law and policy regulations‚ the lack of inter-sectoral collaboration has led to very low cross-referrals between social services and the SAPS‚” the humanitarian and child advocacy organisation said on Wednesday. More >> SA child protection system failing its children – World Vision SA ---------------------- Raising the minimum wage by $1 per hour would result in a substantial decrease in the number of reported cases of child neglect, according to a new study co-authored by an Indiana University researcher. More >> Raising the minimum wage would reduce child neglect cases ----------------------- DES MOINES, IOWA  --  Iowa jurors awarded Heidi and Rachel McFarland $3.25 million, saying they believe Des Moines adoption attorney Jason Reiper failed to file crucial adoption paperwork in a timely fashion, which ultimately led to the loss of their child. More >> Ankeny Couple Awarded Millions in Adoption Malpractice Lawsuit ------------------------ ASHLEY — A local mother filed a federal lawsuit Monday alleging Luzerne County Children and Youth Services put her two children into a home where they were physically and sexually abused by an adopted child. More >> Woman says CYS put her children in abusive home

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A 19-year-old who says she suffered years of abuse at the hands of her adoptive mother filed a lawsuit Tuesday alleging assault, battery, false imprisonment, intentional infliction of emotional distress and outrageous conduct.

More >> Iowa teen files civil suit against mother convicted of abuse
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TOPEKA (TNS) — Kansas is asking that reports of child abuse and neglect be made by phone for now because of computer problems.

More >> DCF taking reports by phone due to computer issues
-----------------------

The Connecticut Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that the state's child welfare agency cannot vaccinate children placed temporarily in its custody when the parents object.

More >> Court: State can't vaccinate kids in temporary custody

• Conn. Supreme Court: DCF Can't Mandate Vaccinations Over Parental Rights

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The British Columbia Court of Appeal has determined that a child’s Indigenous heritage does not attract a “super-weight” over other factors in adoption in a decision the birth mother plans to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada.

More >> B.C. court rules Indigenous heritage doesn’t override child’s best interest in adoption
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Red Hot Chili Peppers' Flea holds a very strong opinion in regards to removing music education from schools. The bassist sat down with Rolling Stone to give his thoughts on politicians looking to cut funding for such programs, stating: "It's child abuse. It's just plain wrong."

More >> RHCP’s Flea says removing music education from schools is “child abuse”

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A SENIOR Catholic priest has argued lifting the seal of confession and forcing clergy to report admissions of child sex abuse would make children more vulnerable.

More >> Senior priest claims breaking confessional seal could make children more vulnerable

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Pediatricians Launch Medicaid Fraud In Child Welfare

This is one of the most poorly penned articles I have read in quite some time regarding policies of

Families who do not get asked if they are poor by their pediatricians.

poverty.

You mean to actually have me to believe that an impoverished family who takes a child to the doctor, whereby the pediatrician, who has access to the billing information to find out if the child's health insurance is covered by a Medicaid program, is now, encouraged to "ask" by a professional medical society, if the family is poor?

I smell the stench of a Medicaid fraud scheme in child welfare brewing for the benefit of this American Academy of Pediatrics because there is big money in new databases for predictive models and training for mandatory reporters.

This is the same mentality which generated the research of the 1970s to launch CAPTA, the monetization of poor children.

Pediatricians urged to screen for poverty

CLEVELAND, Ohio — In the fall, the nation's largest pediatricians' group urged its members to ask their patients if they regularly had enough to eat or ever went hungry.

Now, the same group, the American Academy of Pediatrics, is asking its 64,000 members to pose another question during doctor visits: "Do you have difficulty making ends meet at the end of the month?"

It's a simple way doctors can screen for poverty, the group says, and there are many reasons why pediatricians should care if their patients are poor.

"Poverty shortens life and it makes people ill," as children and later as adults, said Dr. James Duffee, a pediatrician with 30 years of experience who practices in Springfield, Ohio. "It influences how a child grows, even how the actual architecture of the brain develops."

Poverty's effects can be measured at birth. Kids born into poverty are more likely to be underweight and are less likely to survive the first year of life. Children living in poverty are also more likely to suffer from a number of chronic health and developmental conditions, including ear infections, obesity, diabetes, asthma, anemia, and pneumonia, inability to concentrate, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and conduct disorder.

Yale Child Welfare Research 1979

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Keep Calm Michigan And Do Your Homework

Michigan

Where's the fiscal impact, Michigan?

Why does it seem that every time Michigan puts out a child welfare bill there is no fiscal impact?

Seriously.

I always thought that a fiscal analysis was the most import component of a feasibility study of policy.

I guess that does not hold true for Michigan and this is why I do what I do.

MY POLICY IMPACT ASSESSMENT 

(written in the spirit of a high school homework assignment)

Michigan Department of Technology, Management and Budget is lumped together in a goo gob of legal scrutiny of its operations. Specifically, the State's Department of Health and Human Services is under a federal consent agreement in its child welfare services.

In addition, the State's DHHS is also under the federal and state purview of intense investigation.

The likelihood of any fiscal transparency would not be in the best interest of the administration as it would not maximize revenue of the State to shift into privatized contracted service providers of child welfare who will proceed to make charitable contributions to the child propaganda of Moving Michigan Forward.

This would generate and increase in child abuse reports, create a need to hire more child welfare workers, more contracts, more investigations, more litigation, and the list of wraparound services.

As the State is moving to a more in home, community based service model, education can also be captured into this reporting system to initiate services funded through Medicaid.

Medicaid in child welfare has no oversight, so there must be calculated a risk factor of fraudulent billing.

If the State is going to implement a system of this magnitude, it will need to review and revise its entire Child Welfare Law and policy accoutrements.

Senate OKs $2.6 million online child abuse reporting system

LANSING (AP) — A Michigan department will soon likely have to put together a new $2.6 million online reporting system for child abuse and neglect cases after the state Senate approved legislation that's headed for Gov. Rick Snyder.

The Senate passed the bill 37-1 Tuesday. The bill's Republican sponsor Sen. Judy Emmons of Sheridan says she's hopeful it will end up costing less, but says it's necessary to reduce a backlog of abuse or neglect reports.

A fiscal analysis of the bill says people who come into contact with kids like medical professionals, social workers, counselors and teachers would have to make an immediate phone call to a central state office or create an online report upon hearing of child abuse or neglect.  

(See below)

Currently, an oral report is mandated that Emmons calls "archaic."

Michigan Online Child Abuse Reporting Bill

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Should Police Be Exempt From Child Protection Laws?

Now, word has it he was 'roiding.

So much for background checks in child welfare.

States Child Protection Laws make the rules in safety checks for children which includes drug tests, psychological evaluations, criminal background checks for parents involved in the system.

These safety check rules requirements do not apply to teachers, child protection workers, GALs, judges, prosecutors or police.

Hell, police, judges and attorneys are not even mandatory reporters.

South Carolina Foster Child Attacked By Deputy In School

Welcome to the world of foster care.

Is This What Happens ‘When Steroids, Racism and a Badge Mix’?

By now you’ve probably heard the theory that Deputy Ben Fields was on steroids – “roid raging” – when he attacked a teenage girl in her math class. Far from a polemic attack, Fields is well known for his heavy lifting at his local South Carolina gym. While no one is going to be able to confirm his steroid use, we did speak with some people who have given us insight into the deputy’s probable abuse of regulate hormones.


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Ahmed, Clocks and CPS

Actually, the incident of a teen bringing a clock to school has nothing to do with religion.

It has to do with Child Protective Services.

This is a reflection of child welfare laws in the U.S.

Teachers are, by and through child protection law, mandated reporters who are subject to loosing their teaching license, fines and even imprisonment if they do not report "suspicious" activity of children of color, or more intuitively recognized as "targeted populations".

Basically, this is just another way of expanding the net for child abuse and neglect.

If there are going to be national criminal justice reform discussions, child welfare must be included.

Mayor defends police handling of Muslim teen with homemade clock

Family photo

The mayor of Irving, Texas is defending the police and school administrators after they suspended a Muslim ninth-grader who brought a homemade clock to school.

Mayor Beth Van Duyne said the authorities had "followed protocol" during the investigation into Ahmed Mohamed, 14.

“I do not fault the school or police for looking into what they saw as a potential threat,” she wrote on her Facebook page.

“They have procedures to run when a possible threat or criminal act is discovered,” she continued. “They follow these procedures in the sole interest of protecting our children and school personnel.

“To the best of my knowledge, they followed protocol for investigating whether this was an attempt to bring a hoax bomb to a school campus,” Van Duyne added. “As a parent, I agree that if this happened to my child I would be very upset.”

Mohamed took his homemade clock to MacArthur High School earlier this week. After the clock's alarm went off in class, a teacher confiscated the device and questioned whether it was an explosive, according to reports.

The police handcuffed the student and took him to the station for further questioning.

Mohamed was suspended for three days by Irving Independent School District (ISD) administrators.

Irving’s Police Department announced on Wednesday that no charges are being filed against Mohamed in the event’s aftermath.

“I hope this incident does not serve as a deterrent against our police and school personnel from maintaining the safety and security of our schools,” Van Duyne wrote on Wednesday afternoon.

“It is my sincere desire that Irving ISD students are encouraged to use their creativity, develop innovations and explore their interests in a manner that fosters higher learning,” she added.

“Hopefully, we can all learn from this week’s events and the student, who has obvious gifts, will not feel at all discouraged from pursuing his talent in electronics and engineering."

Mohamed’s suspension inspired widespread outrage on social media amid concerns he was racially profiled during the initial incident on Monday.

President Obama weighed in on the issue on Wednesday by encouraging the boy’s creativity and tinkering, and inviting him to the White House.

“Cool clock, Ahmed,” he tweeted. “Want to bring it to the White House?

“We should inspire more kids like you to like science,” Obama added. “It’s what makes America great.”

Mohamed’s family has since blamed anti-Muslim sentiment in Irving. The Council on American-Islamic Relations is also investigating the situation for possible discrimination.

The Sudanese-American teenager has vowed to not build any more mechanical devices again.

Ahmed has a clock!
Ahmed has a clock! #IStandWithAhmed
Posted by Peace House on Wednesday, September 16, 2015

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Are Teachers Police?

If teachers are to be seen to possess the same law enforcement duties of police, does that mean that teachers must now take an oath of office to uphold the constitution?

Does this mean teachers will be granted immunity in the event of improper reporting?

Can a teacher testify against an alleged perpetrator of child abuse when the child who allegedly accused an individual is too young to testify in court?

Is that third party heresay or does the teacher possess powers of omnipotence?

Is there an evidentary standard for third party heresay or is it one of those "best to err on the side of the child" thing?

Yes, on the word of a 3 year old, one can be arrested.

Yes, it is assumed the teacher has the innate ability to interpret and understand the words of a child, without any investigation or evidence.

The burden upon teachers as a mandated reporter of child abuse and neglect is punishable by fine and/or imprisonment, based on the words of a 3 year old.

The worst part is the individual who the teach now accuses of child abuse is placed on a central registry for life.

In Michigan people are placed on the central registry without notification, charges, trial, etc.

There is no parallel jurisprudence in child welfare because it is a multi-billion dollar industry.

U.S. Supreme Court Weighs Role of Teachers in Reporting Child Abuse

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday waded with trepidation into the subject of educators' interactions with students about possible abuse at home, and whether a child's statement to a teacher may be used in a criminal case without the accused having a chance to cross-examine the child.

"Ohio's teachers, I think, are horrified to learn that the Supreme Court of Ohio [views] them no [differently] than cops when they're talking to the children in their classrooms," Matthew E. Meyer, an assistant prosecuting attorney in Cleveland, told the justices in a case in which Ohio is appealing a ruling by its highest court that the state's mandatory-reporting duty for teachers to report child abuse turns them into agents of law enforcement.

But Jeffrey L. Fisher, a Stanford University law professor who is representing a man convicted of child-abuse charges based largely on a 3-year-old victim's statements to two of his day-care teachers, said he was not asking for a rule that would bar prosecutors from using the testimony of young victims of abuse.

"All we are asking for is that a state not to be allowed to have it both ways, introducing such evidence while at the same time prohibiting the defense from any form of confrontation whatsoever," Fisher said during the March 2 arguments in Ohio v. Clark (Case No. 13-1352).

Fisher argues that the state's use of statements to the teachers by the 3-year-old child identified as L.P. violated the Sixth Amendment right of the defendant, Darius Clark, to confront the witnesses against him. 

L.P. arrived at his Head Start center one day in 2010 with a bloodstained eye. Two teachers at the center questioned the boy about "who did this to you?" and whether it was "someone big or little" before L.P. identified "Dee," in reference to Clark, who was his mother's boyfriend.

The teachers, Ramona Whitley and Debra Jones, contacted Ohio's child-welfare agency, which began an investigation that led to charges against Clark of felony assault and endangering children.

At Clark's trial, L.P. was held to be too unreliable a witness, based on his testimony at a pretrial hearing and the state's high bar for allowing children to testify at all. So prosecutors relied on the boy's identification of Clark in the statements to his teachers.

The Ohio Supreme Court last year affirmed a midlevel appeals court's decision to throw out the conviction because Clark's confrontation-clause rights were violated since his lawyers could not cross-examine the child. The state high court went on to hold that the mandatory duty on teacher to report child abuse effectively made them agents of law enforcement because the state expected them to help identify the perpetrators of abuse.

The state high court ruling was alarming to education groups, and the National Education Association, the American Federation of Teachers and the National School Boards Association (and its Ohio affiliate) filed a friend-of-the-court brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to reject that intepretation. (See my Education Week story previewing the case.)

The 'Routine Role' of Teachers

Meyer, arguing on behalf of Ohio, told the justices that "Ohio law does not impose upon any mandatory reporter a duty to investigate" suspected abuse.

The state had an ally in President Barack Obama's administration, with the U.S. solicitor general's office also arguing that the Ohio supreme court erred in finding that a mandatory-reporting duty turned teachers into the equivalent of the police.

"Teachers aren't in the business of prosecution," Ilana Eisenstein, an assistant to the U.S. solicitor general, told the justices in court. "They're not in the business of collecting evidence, and as such, this court can generally presume that when they inquire of their students as to how they got hurt, they are asking out of a concern for welfare, safety, and out of their normal, routine role, not as a means of collecting evidence."

Justice Elena Kagan asked her whether the context might be different if the student was a 13-year-old instead of a preschooler and the teacher informed the student of her mandatory-reporting duty to the point where "it's pretty clear to both the teacher and the student that at the back of that conversation, is the presence of police."

Eisenstein said that could be different under the Supreme Court's confrontation-clause jurisprudence, which involves whether an out-of-court statement sought to be used by prosecutors is "testimonial" in nature.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. suggested that when a teacher goes from asking, "Who did this to you?" and determining that person is not an immediate threat, to "Has he done this before?", that a line has been crossed.

"It's not related to the immediate concerns or immediate safety but seems to be designed to compile a case," he told Eisenstein.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, stressed to Fisher, the defendant's lawyer, that the first reaction of a teacher to signs of abuse is to "get that child out of harm's way."

"So the teacher, I would think, is not thinking about prosecution down the road," Ginsburg said, but rather, "'What can I do to assure the safety of this child right now?'"

Fisher pointed to advice the state of Ohio gives to teachers in a guide on the mandatory duty to report, which includes "information which might be helpful establishing the cause of the abuse" and "the identity of the perpetrator," as the guide puts it. 

"So [the teacher] is gathering evidence," Fisher said. "That's what she's told to do."

"We don't dispute that a teacher has a protective purpose, partly, in mind," Fisher added. "And I think it's absolutely natural that the teacher would. But the problem is, and our position is, that is inextricably intertwined with criminal prosecution as well."

Fisher told the justices that the state of Texas has the rule that Ohio is effectively seeking in this case, which is a special child hearsay statute that allows only the first person to whom a child discloses abuse to repeat that extrajudicial accusation in court. The Texas attorney general's office has advised teachers that they "may have an especially important role to play in subsequent legal proceedings," as a 2005 document from the office puts it. The document also advises teachers that "important testimony could be lost" if they pass the child off to another person, because of the "first person" hearsay rule, Fisher's merits brief pointed out.

"So you have already a system set up for prosecution by out-of-court ... accusation," Fisher told the justices in court. "And that is exactly what the confrontation clause is designed to prohibit."

A decision in the case is expected by late June.

Ohio Supreme Court Brief on Teachers as Child Abuse Reporters

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