Mom speaks to Cass County Mi/ corrupt Family court & DHS #1

[laurasmith92007]

I love you Anna, Claude (Not Clay) , Blake, and Rickey (Rick is fine). I love you all very much. Anna you will be 11 in 20 days and please know I love you with all my heart and I pray you have a wonderful birthday. I love you so much. I asked Harry and Nancy if I could send you a graduation invitation because I graduate from my BS in June but they refuse because they think that would make them look like kidnappers and that you would want to spend more time with me. I love you all so much!

[laurasmith92007]

I love you Blake, Anna, Claude, and Rickey. I hope you had a wonderful day at school today. I love you very much.

[laurasmith92007]

I love your Blake, Anna, Claudell, and Rickey! I hope you are having a wonderful fall and exploring great pumkin patches! I love and think and talk about you all the time. God bless you all every second of every day.

[laurasmith92007]

Blake, Anna, Claude, and Rickey, your mom Laura Jane Hiatt Smith loves you very much and think about you every second of everyday. May god bless you and keep you safte every second of every day. May you live in happiness and prosper to the fullest. I love you alway and forever and will always be right here waiting for you!

[laurasmith92007]

I love and miss you very much Sierra, Blake, Anna, Claudell, and Rickey. There was and is still no reason that we are apart except for the vast amount of federal dollars your kidnapping has acquired the local government of Cass County. Good night my previous children, may God watch over you and protect you each and every second. Love Mom!

[MONIQUEIJ]

foster care sucks

[dschafer1]

I am so sorry that you have had to go through this , I am to fighting with cps right now in genesee county, they have accused my 8 year old son of touching his sister inappropriatly. Saying I have provided improper supervision. The hospital here in flint said there was "No Physical PROOF" of any form of touching , however this worker still seems deemed to try to say my son has touched my daughter even though there is no forensic proof

[magpiemuse]

4/14/10 - Dr. Phil aired a show on the broken Family Court system. Make sure to leave your comments on his Message Boards.

[wendybear666]

I bet they did NOTHING to help her, and she Never got justice.

[smmeegal]

In a lot of ways its a system of women-hating, very prevalent in the world. The mom can never 'live up to' the 'golden' standard dictated by society and the law. We are 'bad mothers' if we don't follow the rules and conform, our houses are less than spotless, we have problems or addictions, we are getting battered by abusive partners, we are poor etc etc I noticed CPS have no real care about kids, its about abusing mom then the kids, they are the real abusers. The system will side with them.

[smmeegal]

CPS sociopaths really know how to mess up kids and their families. Its disgusting. I hope with all my heart you get your kids back Laura. I know how they treat domestic violence incidents and blame the mom for everything just yet another way to not make men take responsability for their actions. I went through the 'care' system from birth till 18 yrs old, I met a lot of very disturbed social workers, very power-hungry and they make a lot of stuff up on the spot. Why do they get away with this?

[WestFamily3]

Im in Va. My children were stolen from me last month after having CPS chasing us for three years. Im in a wheelchair so of course that means that I cant take care of my kids.

CPS are evil and have no caring for the pain they cause families because its all a money racket to them.

My heart is aching for my kids. I have NO holidays now. Its painful just going through my house, it brings me memories of the love im missing.. this is evil.

They are given too much power and they abuse it.

I feel 4 U

[laurasmith92007]

Sierra, Blake, Anna, Claudell and Rickey I love you and miss you with all my heart every day. I love you all so much. It was such a beautiful snowy day today. I hope you all saw the snow. God night my precious children, sleep well.

[laurasmith92007]

It Wednesday night and I was just thinking about you Sierra, Blake, Anna, Claudell and Rickey. Claudell is almost ready to start school. One more year. I missed you all so much today. I was looking at some of the toys in your rooms. I miss you all so very much. Sleep well tonight my precious children. You are in my heart every second. I will continue to fight for our right to be together as a family. I will continue to expose the reckless powers of authority whom has seperated us. I love you!!

[laurasmith92007]

in resources and services that have resulted in inadequate physical and mental care and foster children being repeatedly moved between homes."

The State of Michigan's legal bill is going to keep climbing with more and more groups getting fed up with how Michigan treats its children as a commodity instead of human beings that need both parents.

[laurasmith92007]

often under the guise of the the subjective "best interests" standard.

The Associated Press today reported that a Judge will be granting class-action status in a foster care lawsuit on behalf of the state's 19,000 foster children in the next couple of weeks.

According to the article about the suit, "It alleges that the state's foster-care system has for years been plagued by shortcomings /

[laurasmith92007]

The Social Security Act proscribes programs under Title IV for Aid to Needy Families. Unfortunately the programs are often geared towards state revenue generation as opposed to helping families or their children. All too often the programs provide incentive for predetermined outcomes of separating children from parents, whether it be through the foster care system or the creation of an absent parent in a child custody lawsuit,

[laurasmith92007]

It is more profitable to encourage foster placement than direct relative placement because of the incentivization of negative outcomes in our nation's foster care policies and system.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS August 25, 2007

The State of Michigan fails its children whether they are stuck in foster care homes or involved in child-custody disputes between parents. Large federal block grants repeatedly compromise and sway the discretion of family court judges in Michigan.

[laurasmith92007]

But why are removals and placement occurring so quickly? Children have to not only be removed but placed with a foster parent in order to receive valuable federal funds through Title IV-E of the Social Security Act. Due to funding incentives direct relative placement becomes less likely where a jurisdiction suffers budgetary issues and a highly-adoptable (younger and more attractive) child enters the system. .

[laurasmith92007]

The nation's foster care system is flawed. Cases where child protection and adoption agencies rush through "streamlined" administrative processes, stripping children away from parents for federal money, are more frequently appearing on a nationwide scale. Luckily, some of these agencies are being caught in the act of using their powers to generate revenue for the state agencies as opposed to solving actual problems.

[laurasmith92007]

One of the basic truths that we know about our kids that age out of

foster care is most of the time they go back to their birth family,"

"It's family. It's who you know; it's who you're

connected to."

Closing paragraph:

The Bottom line is that Cass County, Mi DHS/FIA and Family Court Judge Dobrich is running a muck and destroying families for her own selfish gain. I'm coming to you asking for your help to save our family.

[laurasmith92007]

During this time Judge Dobrich does not recognize the mother's efforts. Cleary an agenda has already been made. This judge brad about being the "Adoption Judge" but it is seldom is ever heard of reunification.

11. These families next court June 11th 1:30pm June 12th 9:30am, June 13th 9am: please come and support this lady and her children. Her name is Laura Smith, in the Skinner, Smith and Williams's case, this court dater will be held in Cass County Family court in front of Judge Dobrich.

[laurasmith92007]

She is filing a petition to resume visits of course.

9. This family has been tremendously harmed and exploited by Cass County DHS and the Cass County Family Court, sadly this is the supply and demand of families the County is now dependent on for state workers to justify their jobs. The best interest of this family has long faded in the background.

10. Through out this endeavor for this mother to put her family back together. The mother has gone to 11 court dates.

[laurasmith92007]

7. The mother has made all this progress and put forth all this effort and just yesterday was told her visits are stopped because the prosecutors filed a petition to terminate her rights.

8. All state workers involved in this case the therapists (about 10 of them, the children's attorney, and prosecutor, will still be getting paid from taxes payers every day until her case is closed. The mother still must go to all appointment even though she is now not allowed to see her children.

[laurasmith92007]

Indiana DCS love their home and is advocating the children's return, her fiancé comes from a tight nit , loving family whom have excepted this women and her 5 children, The mother has taken 110 drug test even though she has never been in trouble for drugs or alcohol, spent 6 thousand dollars on a attorney, hired her own psychologist in South Bend whom advocates the children return to this mother. The mother refuses to give up on putting her family back together.

[laurasmith92007]

Spent thousand of dollars on gifts, clothing had family pictures put on birthday cakes for her children. Started attending The University of Phoenix on line and has earned 30 credits so far in the psychology program with a 3.79 gpa, kept her own 3 bedroom apartment for 13 months and bought furniture for all of her children, met a wonderful stable man, and together have bought a 5 bedroom home in Mishawaka, have gotten in touch with Indians DCS and had a home study done,

[laurasmith92007]

The mother was taunted and blamed by state paid therapist for the abuse her family suffered. The mother completed parenting class, drove to the children's therapy in Kalamazoo, Paw Paw, Cassopolis, and ST. Joseph, was denied holidays and birthday parties but always brought gifts and acknowledged these special times.

[laurasmith92007]

6. During the entire time this mother's children were ripped away from her. The mother went to hundreds of appointments some times driving 9 hours a day and spending up to $600. A month in gas for the 99 dodge Durango V8 engine that she got and made payments on for all of her children, sadly before her children could be returned the transmission went out, now she has a mini van, , The mother save up money and divorced abuser who is serving 13 years for escape,

[laurasmith92007]

The case coordinator Janine Lee is suspected by the bio parents as giving this child 3rd degree burns; an investigation has been reopened in this matter.

5. 5 week old grew up the last 18 months without his loving mother, the mother repeatedly begged for more time with her infant. The foster parents are discouraged from getting to know bio mother. The county gets an exceptional amount for forced adoptions such as what is trying to be done in this case.

[laurasmith92007]

3. 3 year old became aggressive, depressed and moody had night mares, thousands of dollars of tax payers monies was spent on 'attachment therapy which disturb the child more because is has not been returned to his mother. Julie Reising is the 'parenting therapist that was assigned to this case. Everyone in this county should know her because she has received thousands of dollars to do therapy on this case.

4. The 7- year -old threaten to harm self and others, nightmares.

[laurasmith92007]

The case county foster care agency does have an open investigation of this matter only because of the bio mother's persistence of awareness of this incident. If a regular Joe parent would have sent a child to school in this manner the parent and child could have arrested and the child placed in foster care. (Don't read: This incident was substantiated by the principal and teacher of the school. (Brenda Davidson of DHS is the supervisor of this case and Kim Vincek is the case worker)

[laurasmith92007]

Until this child was emergency removed from this care because the foster mother had a nervous breakdown and placed with a 75-year-old single foster mother whom let this child carry these powerful narcotic medication in a plastic baggy to his new school the bio mother never new he was on all these drugs because she only authorized ADHD medication.

[laurasmith92007]

The younger brother was left in that home by himself and was verbally and physically abused, exposed to uncaring un-nurturing environments. This child was put on 4 different narcotics medications without mother consent, which creates a need for more federal and state money. The medication consists of mood stabilizers, violent behavior medication, adhd medication and schizophrenia medication unauthorized by bio mother.

[laurasmith92007]

The Cass County foster care refused to do a background check on him. Foster mother's daughter fed alcohol to the 14-year-old child. The 14-year-old girl ran away after the foster mother verbally abused her and was place in a 4th county from siblings.

[laurasmith92007]

1. The then 14-year-old girl was placed in the inter city of Kalamazoo. Her education was neglected because the foster mother Deloris Chambers refused to pick her up after school for tutoring, thus she failed the 9th grade which was the first grade this child ever failed. The 14-year-old was poorly supervised, allowed to have boyfriends, allowed to hang out with whom ever she wished, exposed to sex, street drugs. This single foster mother moved her alcoholic, homeless boyfriend in.

[laurasmith92007]

Long story short for today, Mother called the Police when this man showed up bothering her and her children and 2 weeks later the kids where removed kicking and screaming. Placed in 3 different state cars and driven to 3 different counties. The mother was told the call to the police showed Domestic Violence even though she reached out to this county for help. The harm to this family has been tremendous.

[laurasmith92007]

The following is factual information about a mother and her five children whom are currently in the foster care system in Cass County. The mother was caught in a violent and abusive relationship with the father of 3 of her children. The mother did request in a 4 page letter from Cass County for the drug addicted and violent father to not be allowed to come around her and her children's property. A PPO was granted but did not a no contact order as requested.

[laurasmith92007]

The foster care system in Cass County, Mich and through out the Nation is flawed because of an overburdened system that focuses too much on federal funding rather than preventing harm to vulnerable children. Mistakes are frequently made that have long-lasting traumatic effects on children being improperly removed from good parents.

[drew4justice]

The special interest groups of the family court system remove children for money. It's simple. It's greed. KEEP UP THE PRESSURE! WE WILL WIN!

[rkershaw1]

keep it up. the louder we all shout as one voice the more chance we have of being heard and we will be heard or there will be a riot over all this.

[daaronad]

Just a reminder, Never ever stop. You have many friends and will make many more who are after the same goal. CPS will be held accountable and we will force a change, since the system refuses to act on The, True, Best Interest of The Child. I, and many others, have made this our top priority.