RobtShepherd, the web wonk, recommends the following commentary by distinguished conservative journalist Paul Craig Roberts. While he seems to be factually on the mark, the spin he puts on the events betrays his intense passion and his partisan bias. His overall evaluation is surely right, but I cannot endorse putting 100 per cent of the blame for Wenatchee on "hysterical liberals."
Washington Times (DC)
Two decades ago hysterical liberals created a monster ---- an unaccountable Gestapo known today as Child Protective Services. Crazed therapists testified before Congress that 75 percent of parents were child abusers and that a new national bureaucracy was necessary to protect children. Congress obliged the therapists' request and unleashed a Frankenstein.05 05 99 Paul Craig Roberts
Several years ago the local CPS in Wenatchee, Washington, got the word from the state office to find some cases to justify its budget. Thus began a modern day Salem Witch Hunt that resulted in the arrest of 43 adults on 30,000 counts of sex abuse against 60 children.
It was all a fabrication to justify a budget.
Many of the accused were poor and uneducated. When a local pastor, Robert Roberson, came to their aid, he and his wife were arrested on child sex abuse charges and held on million dollar bonds. Part of Pastor Roberson's lesson from the corrupt police was jail beatings.
When Roberson's case went to trial, the falsity of the charges against him were obvious. The Witch Hunt had overreached. Roberson was acquitted, and this was a turning point.
Another turning point was Juana Vasquez, the director of Child Welfare Services in Wenatchee who challenged the charges brought against Robert Devereaux, a kindly man who operated a foster home for children. Her integrity got her fired.
This was another mistake by the witch hunters drunk with their power. Mrs. Vasquez was a woman of steel. The daughter of migrant farm workers who worked her way through college and became dean of admissions at Gonzaga University, she could not be intimidated.
She took a stand against the injustice and beat the authorities in a law suit that awarded her $1.57 million.
One outcome is that the City of Wenatchee has paid Mr. Devereaux $209,000 to drop his suit for malicious prosecution and wrongful arrest.
Pastor Roberson, Mrs. Vasquez and a few others had the courage to stand up to evil and expose the witch hunt. The state Court of Appeals has overturned six cases, handing down rulings highly critical of the police, trial judges, prosecutors and public defenders.
Eleven people remain wrongfully imprisoned awaiting their appeals.
Mrs. Vasquez died on April 29 of brain cancer. She was 48 years old and is survived by eight children and her husband. Mrs. Vasquez and one county commissioner were the only public officials with the courage to challenge the witch hunt. The local newspaper and radio station and the local elites all went along with the false charges.
"I wish I had more time to see this through, to see those from Wenatchee, the innocent people wrongly imprisoned, freed from their cells," were among Mrs. Vasquez's last words. "There are others who have a responsibility to do something, but who stand silent. Our governor still turns his head.
"Janet Reno looks the other way. The legislature does a little, but not enough. Wenatchee can happen again in this state unless the citizens and the government voice their outrage."
Pastor Roberson, Mrs. Vasquez and a brave few helped to end the deafening silence. A Spokane TV station took up the investigation and helped to expose the witch hunt. Then the Seattle Post-Intelligencer turned loose two investigative reporters.
The facts are now in. Public authorities in the state of Washington framed numerous people on false charges and put their children out for adoption. Prosecutors brought the false cases to trial or to plea bargains. Trial judges looked the other way, playing see no evil, hear no evil.
When the sordid witch hunt was exposed, the state responded by appointing commissions. All of the public authorities who framed innocent people remain at large. No indictments have been brought against those responsible for one of the greatest abuses of public power in our history.
And we are supposed to trust government?
Ms. Lyon is a lawyer and served as public defender in the beginning of the Wenatchee cases. An ethical person, she eventually was instrumental in shining the spotlight of public attention on this miscarriage of justice. This report relates the details of the background, arrest, and trials for the accused persons in the Wenatchee cases. For her persistence and courage, she was persecuted, hounded, her files subpoenaed, herself threatened with prison --- all in an effort to silence her. Review Ordering Info -Witch Hunt: A True Story of Social Hysteria and Abused Justice
This child advocate and cultural critic takes a radical stance on the reasons behind the problems facing children. Topics include adoption reform, children's rights, teen pregnancy, media bias, family violence, corporate exploitation. Has reported on children's issues for eight years. Publisher's blurb(Graywolf Press). Ordering Info -Raised in Captivity: Why Does America Fail It's Children?
This is the book called the most important response to the modernist attack on the family. Modernists have long argued that the repressive family stands in the way of personal liberation, but Lasch shows that, in our time, the real threat to freedom comes from therapeutic organizations that are taking the place of the family. Ordering Info -Haven in a Heartless World: The Family Besieged
explains how so many innocent parents are convicted on false sex abuse charges. Discusses how children are led to believe in abuse that never happened. A critic, Judith Simon calls Dr. Gardner "one of the most popular child psychiatrists in the country." She observes that he has written scores of books, lectured internationally, served as an expert witness in numerous child custody disputes, and is regularly quoted in the press. But Ms. Simon exprsses considerable skepticism about Gardner's "self-publishing" and his overall "credentials." His entity is titled Creative Therapeutics, Cresskill, NJ Ordering info -Sex Abuse Hysteria: Salem Witch Trials Revisited
Has case studies showing how social workers systematically destroy families to drag children into "care." Shows how social service industries seek to grow in power and budget by bringing all families under their control. If you don't believe this, it is only because you have not yet been subject to a false abuse charge.
"Last year over one million North American families were falsely accused of child abuse. Some of the definitions of child abuse make everyone who spanks guilty of child abuse! You better read this book and then write your government representatives fast." -- GCB
Every year hundreds of children die, thousands more are forced to live with strangers, and countless American families are torn apart. This is called a "child protection system." While the problem of child abuse is serious and real, journalist Richard Wexler charges that our solutions to the problem have actually made it worse - in fact, they hurt the very children they were intended to help. Ordering info -0879759364:Product Link on Barnes & Noble.com.
John W. Whitehead, is an author and attorney associated with the Rutherford Institute who has written, debated and practiced widely in the area of constitutional law and human rights. Whitehead's aggressive, pioneering approach to civil liberties issues has earned him numerous accolades and accomplishments. Parents' Rights details many Supreme Court decisions which define parental rights and shows how to fight back. See the Rutherford Foundation.
by a mother of four children, one a Presidential Scholar Finalist, tells how their All-American family learned to cope & survive a nine-year custody battle involving the youngest child. Legal documentation & guides are included. "I am impressed with the author's ability to put on paper such almost incredible circumstances. This book can be a catalyst for parents coping with custody battles." Judy Kasten Bell, Single Parent Advocate. Fifteen attorneys, seven Child Protection caseworkers, twenty-two counselors, six courts, five judges, four Children's Homes & zero support groups were involved in the trampling of a child's rights by our justice system.
Witness for the Defense:The Accused, the Eyewitness and the Expert Who Puts Memory on Trial, by Elizabeth Loftus and Katherine Ketcham. (NY: St. Martin's Press, 1991).
The Myth of Repressed
Memory : False Memories and Allegations of Sexual Abuse by Elizabeth
Loftus. (NY: St. Martin's Press, 1994).
As a cognitive psychologist, Loftus has acquired extensive insight into the malleability of memory. For example, her research has shown that false traumatic childhood "memories" can be readily induced in adults, who then enrich the implanted memory with detail and emotion. The results of such studies and a total lack of evidence of memory repression lead Loftus and other eminent psychologists to attribute the wide prevalence of recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse and satanic ritual abuse to therapist bias. Coauthor Ketcham and Loftus describe the anguish of the accused and of the families shattered by disastrous combinations of ill-trained, overzealous therapists, suggestibility of vulnerable patients, and group-therapy pressure to exhume and share monstrous memories. They neither dispute the reality of childhood sexual abuse nor the existence of traumatic memories, but they reject the true believers' assertions that "incest is epidemic, repression is rampant" and that "skeptics" are "in denial." Highly recommended. Brenda Grazis
This book of horror stories is true. The deplorable and unauthorized might of Child Protection Services is capable of reaching into and destroying any home in America. No matter how innocent and happy your family may be, you are one accusation away from disaster. Every year, it is estimated that over 1 million people are falsely accused of child abuse in this country. You could be next, says Brenda Scott. See copcrimes' review. For ordering info -Out of Control : Who's Watching Our Child Protection Agencies
The child welfare system is broken, and no one seems to know how to fix it. Except for the increasing number of scandals in the news, the public knows little about the system, which is hidden from public scrutiny, allegedly to protect children. Meanwhile, the number of children being propelled into the welfare system is increasing at an alarming rate, and more than 25 state child welfare systems are being sued in federal court for abusive and neglectful practices. A careful examination of the child welfare system is long overdue. This book explores the sources of the problems in the system, places those problems in their historical, legal, and policy perspectives, and explores the implications of policies for state and national levels. Ordering info -Kids Raised by the Government
The War Against Parents: What We Can Do For America's Beleaguered Moms and Dads, by Cornel West and Sylvia Ann Hewlett. (New York: Houghton Mifflin
Company, 1998).
This pair of contemporary intellectual giants sees three major threats to the family: (1) workplace insensitivity and complacency in the corporate world. (2) a government 'bitterly hostile' to parents (an entire chapter devoted to CPS). And (3) 'a poisonous popular culture,' sending forth what he sees as a flood of entertainment programs that frequently cast parents as 'ineffectual fools.'" It is time, they say, for parents to join together and fight back. Ordering info -The War Against Parents
This volume is the first comprehensive study of parental rights and will be invaluable not only to parents, but to educators, scholars, and pro-family activists. The contributors treat the philosophical, legal, and psychological aspects of parental rights issues
The Best Interests of the Child: The Least Detrimental Alternative
by
Joseph Goldstein, Albert Solnit, Anna Freud
What should justify state intrusion on the privacy of family relationships? How should professionals - judges, lawyers, social workers, psychiatrists, and psychologists - conduct themselves in pursuing "the best interests" of children who have been abandoned, neglected, or abused? The agonizing dilemmas posed by these three questions were the subject of one of the seminal publishing events in the history of The Free press. The result has been a set of historic guidelines which forms the basis of their landmark trilogy Beyond the Best Interests of the Child, Before the Best Interests of the Child, and In the Best Interests of the Child, published between 1973 and 1986. The authors speak in one voice in concluding that the continuity of care - continuity of a child's relationship with his or her adult caregiver - is a universal essential to the child's well-being. To this end, they stress that minimizing intrusions by the law is paramount to safeguarding the child's growth and development. For ordering info -The Best Interests of the Child
Satan's Silence : Ritual Abuse and the Making of a Modern American Witch Hunt by Debbie Nathan and Michael Snedeker
documents the trumped up charges against daycare workers,"sex rings" of parents and grandparents -- accused of the most elaborate and unlikely--even impossible-- crimes against children. None of the charges came spontaneously from children, who in fact insisted nothing had happened. Rather, children were subjected to highly coercive and manipulative interviews by true-believer therapists, repeated over weeks and weeks. the therapists fed the kids the stories they wanted to hear -- and eventually got what they wanted. What was presented as physical evidence of abuse --microscopic bumps and skin tags on genitals -- have turned out to be as common in nonabused kids as abused ones. Over a hundred people went to jail, and around a dozen are still there --even though the justice system has tacitly admitted the flaws in the original prosecutions. The book should be especially appealing to moderates, women, minorities, since --unlike some of the other books debunking ritual abuse, repressed memory and the like-- it's written from a feminist perspective. Review.
Pity the Little Children: The Politics of Child Abuse
, by Paul Eberle and Shirley Eberle. Hardcover, 319pp. Carol Publishing Group
(1986)
Reports of child abuse are on the rise across the United States. Several currently headlined cases are explored by the Eberles, Los Angeles freelance journalists, in their effort to bring the criminal justice system under scrutiny. Beginning with the notorious case of the McMartin preschool in Southern California, they inspect other trials that hinge on the testimony of children. Serious questions are raised about children under pressure: Are they coached and manipulated? The Eberles level charges at so-called political careerists who conduct what the authors describe as a "child abuse witch hunt.'' This is reporting designed to shock and effect action, focusing on abused adults who have been deprived of rights, victims as well as the children. Review.
The Abuse of Innocence: The McMartin Preschool Trial
, by Paul Eberle with Shirley Eberle contributor. (Amherst NY: Prometheus Books, 1993).
The case of the teachers and administrator accused of child abuse at the McMartin Preschool is horrifying--whether the allegations were true or false, some people (children or adults) were terribly wronged. Reporters Eberle and Eberle were at the trial, and they see the accused as the victims. Quoting heavily from the transcripts (with substantial interjection of their own interpretation), they depict gross mishandling of the children's testimony by people trying to build a case where there was none.
Profane Justice : A comprehensive guide to asserting your parental rights
, by Suzanne Shell. (Sage Wisdom Press, 1997).
Shell writes from first-hand experience, her son was removed from her home for a spanking in 1992. She provides detailed advice for parents to how to protect themselves and their families from the traumatic intrusions of CPS workers and their allies. Far too many parents start out naively trusting the socalled experts, only to discover, too late, that the those in power have their own agenda --- and it is not yours. Review. Ordering info -Profane Justice
Assuming that "marginal" citizens cannot govern their own lives, proponents of the therapeutic state urge casework intervention to reshape the attitudes and behaviors of those who live outside the social mainstream. Thus the victims of poverty, delinquency, family violence, and other problems are to be "normalized." But "normalize," to Andrew Polsky, is a term that "jars the ear, as well it should when we consider what this effort is all about." Here he investigates the broad network of public agencies that adopt the casework approach.
contains the most recent data to date on vulnerable children and families in the child welfare system, including extensive details on needy children that have been unknown previously. This broad reference covers child abuse and neglect, child fatalities, children living in -out-of-home care, adoption, the financing of child welfare services, and risk factors for abuse. It has even more specifies than in the past on race and ethnicity, gender, and ages of abused and neglected children- compelling data unavailable anywhere else. For purchase info -Child Abuse and Neglect: A Look at the States CWLA's 1999 STAT Book
Whose Child? : Children's Rights, Parental Authority, and State Power .
by William Aiken, Hugh Lafollette eds. Totowa, N.J. : Littlefield Adams, 1980.
Collection of essays, varying views.
The Hostage Child: sex abuse allegations in custody disputes. by Leonora Rosen, Michelle Etlin. Indiana: 1996.
This book exposes systems that have failed, and worse - that the situation has generated a dangerous atmosphere of denial and cover-up. Focusing on five case studies, Rosen and Etlin expose a systemic breakdown so fundamental, so irrational, and so shocking that the necessity of radical reform becomes patent. While explaining the historical, social, and psychological backdrop for this state of affairs, the authors refuse to minimize the problem. They demonstrate that most of the solutions being proposed by professionals in the field are doomed to frustration and failure. In their final chapter, Rosen and Etlin present a proposal for relief. While it is too late to undo the damage already done by the combined forces of child sexual abuse and institutional denial, this book can at least serve the children now trapped - like hostages - in this social war.
Guilty Until Proven Innocent: A Manual for Surviving False Allegations of Child Abuse,
by Rev. Keith Barnhart, with Lila Wald Shelburne
(Hannibal MO: Hannibal Books, 1990).
now published directly by the National Child Abuse Defense and Resource Center (NCAD&RC). Ordering info - Guilty Until Proven Innocent.
NCAD&RC's address is:
National Child Abuse Defense and Resource CenterThe Kid Business -- how it exploits the children it should help, by Ronald B. Taylor.
P.O. Box 638
Holland, OH 43528
The Heart Knows Something Different: Teenage Voices from the Foster Care System
. by Al
Desetta, editor.
New York: Persea Books, 1996
takes you inside the world of foster care, a place that, you find out quickly isn't somewhere you want to be. The voices of the children themselves tell the stories in this collection of essays. We see things as they actually are: siblings are split up and sometimes never reunited, children's loyalties between abusive or neglectful parents and the "system" are questioned, kids age out of the system and are left to a world they know nothing about without a family to guide them. It is all here. It is all true. I challenge you to read it and not have it make you think long and hard about the way "the system" works and how it affects the kids.
Poetry 4 YA Mind!: A Collection of Poetry and Artworkby Lee H. White, ed.
published by Northwest Media, 2000.
What are the fears, hopes and dreams of at-risk kids? In this poignant collection of poetry and artwork, teenagers share their deepest feelings, and tell their appreciation for foster parents and other youth workers whose caring, and even tough love, made a profound difference in their young lives. This book is a testimony to today's youth who continue to work hard to understand who they are and overcome the adversity they have experienced in their life. Thanks to Chuck for sharing this book with us [July 15, 2001].
No Law Against Mercy: Jailed for Sheltering a Child From the State by Barbara and Rachel Lapp.
Hand of Hope Press, 1996.
Two Amish sisters give themselves to the work of rescuing at-risk youth. They are helping the helpless, and loving the unlovely. But CPS, it seems, wants part of the action. Undercutting these women and their labor of love, the social workers meddle without offering something better. The women fight back, and for their troubles are sentenced to spend time behind bars. They tell their story, and in doing so, indict a system for doing more harm than good. A powerful witness for our time.
Illusion of Caring Children in Foster Care by Robert L. Geiser, Beacon Press, 1973
Thrown together in a desperate attempt to keep a bad situation from getting worse, the foster care "system" is plagued by all the problems one might expect from such a creature. But alas, instances seem to keep cropping up where more harm is done than good. Motives are called into question, there is greed, there is callousedness, there is overwork, there is simple human error, and occasionally, clearcut cases that deserve to be labelled as horrible abuses of basic human rights.
Stop Ignoring CPS Corruption and abuse, by Neal Feldman, Salem OR.
A System Out of Control :
The Epidemic of False Allegations of Child Abuse, by Armin Brott, (Penthouse).
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