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posted by janrinok on Tuesday March 10 2015, @03:32AM   Printer-friendly
from the protection-or-interference? dept.

We previously reported on the parents in Maryland who were being investigated for neglect after letting their 10-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter make a one-mile walk home from a Silver Spring park on Georgia Avenue on a Saturday afternoon. Now the Washington Post that after a two-month investigation the Montgomery County Child Protective Services has found the parents responsible for “unsubstantiated” child neglect in a decision that has not fully resolved their clash with authorities over questions of parenting and children’s safety. "I think what CPS considered neglect, we felt was an essential part of growing up and maturing," said Alexander Meitiv. "We feel we're being bullied into a point of view about child-rearing that we strongly disagree with."

The finding of unsubstantiated child neglect means CPS will keep a file on the family for at least five years and leaves open the question of what would happen if the Meitiv children get reported again for walking without adult supervision. The parents say they will continue to allow their son, Rafi, 10, and daughter Dvora, 6, to play or walk together, and won’t be swayed by the CPS finding. “We don’t feel it was appropriate for an investigation to start, much less conclude that we are responsible for some form of child neglect,” says Danielle Meitiv, who said she and her husband plan to appeal and worry about being investigated again by CPS. “What will happen next time? We don’t know if we will get caught in this Kafkaesque loop again.” Asked how authorities would respond if the children were reported again for walking unsupervised, Paula Tolson, spokeswoman for the Maryland Department of Human Resources, said CPS would become involved if a complaint was made about the safety of the children. In such cases, “if we get a call from law enforcement or from a citizen, we are required to investigate. Our goal is the safety of children, always.”

 
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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 10 2015, @03:24PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 10 2015, @03:24PM (#155451)

    I disagree. About 15 years ago, I was a young attorney working for as Assistant Attorney General in my state. One of my jobs was representing DSHS in review hearings that would happen periodically for parents who had had their kids taken away. It was a low level thing and pretty low stress in the sense that the judge basically never deviated from what the Guardian Ad Litem (a type of attorney/social worker who represented the child) suggested. It was a once per week, effortless half day cruise basically.

    The people who had lost their kids were by and large meth addicts, petty criminals, violent, etc. etc. Not all, but such a large percentage of them were that it was easy to become jaded very quickly. Today, I would be much less blase about the whole thing than I was back then because I've learned that people who deal with the same topic over and over, tend to become totally cynical. I think there is a very good chance that rather than trying to save face, the CPS people involved in this case here are just exercising that cynicism without even thinking about the ramifications. They're bitter, suspicious, and have had their decisions rubber stamped by the judiciary so many times, that they feel totally self-righteous in all that they do.

    Secondly, I would imagine that some of my experience in the AG's office would echo through many agencies. We would go to meetings and people would always hear speakers talk about how we were held to a higher standard, how so much was against us, how hard we worked for low pay, etc. etc. It was all horseshit -- some of the worst players I've met worked as state attorneys -- as in bald faced lie to the judge players. It's an absolute fact that judges look to the state's attorneys for answers, hold them to lower ethical and evidentiary standards, and to a large extent, try to pave the way to victory for the state. It's the little guy that must jump the highest bars. Obviously, it would have a different flavor in a CPS office, but I would be shocked if there was not a culture such as this: pat yourself on the back and say woe woe woe, hard work, low pay, no respect, higher standards, etc. etc. -- of course it's all BS. The work is easy, the pay with benefits is excellent, and all the rails are greased in favor of the agency.

    So, this is all to say that I suspect that CPS did what it wanted, and views the outcry as just more proof at how hard and thankless it is being them.

    ps: eventually I quit. It was the meetings mostly. I'm just not a good team player in the sense that I hate sitting around in endless meetings doing nothing but babbling and whining and call it work, but then, I grew up extremely free range.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 10 2015, @03:32PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 10 2015, @03:32PM (#155458)

    grr -- proofreading.
    p1s1: s/for\ as/as\ an/
    p3s3: s/people//