In her latest book, Out of Control, Who's Watching Our Child Protection Agencies? author Brenda Scott reveals the chilling truth about a system gone haywire. Drawing from court records, case files, media reports, and personal interviews, the author discloses how the child protection system is, in far too many instances, overstepping its function. Vague definitions of child abuse allow maverick social workers to pull children from safe environments and put them in foster care, where they are often emotionally, physically, and even sexually abused. Other children have been knowingly returned to unrehabilitated parents to be brutalized again.

With insufficient checks and balances, the system that was designed to protect children has become the greatest perpetrator of harm. Social workers are poorly trained and, for the most part, unsupervised. Foster homes are sometimes far more abusive than the child's original environment. Most disturbing of all, however, is the current trend to confer even more authority on government agencies to enable them to "protect" our children.

There are ways to protect your family from deleterious and unconsti- tutional government intervention, however. In Out of Control, the author explains:

• What parents' rights really are
• How to demand and protect those rights
• Exactly what to do if a child protection worker shows up at your door
• Which agencies to contact for help when under investigation by a child protection agency.

It is vitally important that the child protection system be over- hauled before even more harm is done. The author calls on parents to wake up and move to stop this trend before it's too late.

This book of horror stories is true. The deplorable and unauthorized might of Child Protection Services is capable of destroying any home in America. No matter how innocent and happy your family may be, you are one accusation away from disaster.

• Social workers are allowed to violate constitutional rights.
• Innocent parents may appear on computer registers and be branded "child abusers" for life.
• Child Protection Services kidnapped a six-year-old girl from her kindergarten class because she rubbed herself between her legs. The child was forced to strip, pose for photographs and submit to a vaginal exam. The diagnosis: a yeast infection. Without a trial, Child Protection Services demanded that the father leave home, until he admits his guilt.
• One father is charged with abuse, molestation, and having a dirty house. All charges are dropped except for messy house- keeping. The sentence: 60 days in jail and both parents lose all parental rights.

These are not isolated incidents. Every year, it is estimated that over 1 million people are falsely accused of child abuse in this country. You could be next, says author and speaker Brenda Scott.