The Ross County Network For Children wants the system to be held accountable and wants to affect positive change in immunity and accountability laws for officers and quasi officers of the court.

There are TOO many children who are being left in abusive homes! There are TOO many parents who are being told that they will be arrested if they make one MORE report to children's services about the abuse of their child(ren)! Parents continually tell us that CPS intake workers are rude, uncaring and threatening to them when they make referrals. The parents are told that they are just being vindictive to the other parent and the reports are NOT investigated. THIS HAS GOT TO STOP!!! The law is CLEAR, ALL CPS referrals are to be investigated.

YES, there are vindictive reports, and YES it does waste valuable time and resources for CPS who is very burdened with a lack of funds and staff. HOWEVER, why, when there is clear evidence of REAL false reports, does the agency not file charges against those who engage in making those reports?

Although most of our clients seek assistance because their children are suffering from real abuse and the system is not protecting them, there is another VERY serious problem in that many children are being removed from their homes when there is NO abuse.

Many children are being ripped out of their SAFE parents arms by officers of the court. The children are severely terrorized by the separation from their SAFE parents. The children are often being PLACED IN FOSTER CARE WITH TOTAL STRANGERS when IN FACT, the homes the children were torn from are NOT unsafe.

In multitudes of cases where there are relatives or family friends who are willing and able to take the children, these folks are not considered and children are still placed with strangers. The law says that relatives and even close family friends are to be explored PRIOR to any foster care placements. This is true in cases of real abuse and in cases where there are false allegations

In all child abuse cases, there should be due process and the courts should uphold the children's and parents’ civil rights. UNFORTUNELY FOR THE CHILDREN AND SAFE PARENTS, this is not the case in thousands of family and juvenile courts across the nation.

There are so many people in our society that do not have a clue as to what is ACTUALLY happening in our juvenile and family courts. There are far too many citizens that are in COMPLETE DENIAL. It is very difficult to accept the fact that justice is frequently NOT prevailing for our children and their safe parents in our courts. SO many folks, good solid people, have the attitudes that:

Oh, this type of thing doesn’t happen in my town!

The system is fair. This is just a bunch of media hype.

Children are so easily led and coached and some, well they just downright lie.

You know that vindictive parents are behind these children’s "stories" of abuse.

Just another bad feminist mom or bad father’s rights dad.

Parents who lose their children just HAD to do something wrong. They had to be bad parents if the State removed their children from them.

When abuse IS real and when a two or three year old child can clearly describe that oral, vaginal or anal sex has happened to them, many in our society, including jurors, court appointed psychologists and psychiatrists, investigators, GALS and judges will deny it happened! WHY?

There are many reasons for this. Some are because officials are sometimes very lazy and do not do their own investigations when appropriate, they defer to CPS FREQUENTLY; they are just downright ignorant and some are extremely corrupt and accept bribes from perpetrator parents. It is amazing to be in court watch and witness first hand how many court appointed attoneys walk in the court and meet their clients for the FIRST TIME.

Many times the attorneys do not even know the NAMES of their clients until five minutes before court starts! This is an outrage! Citizens should get better and our tax dollars should not be allocated for this type of inadequate legal representation.

Some officials in the system know that there are serious problems but are fearful of losing their jobs if they do not "go along with the program". So because of this fear, they remain silent even when children's safety is at issue.

We have had many CPS workers from many states tell us that their job security was in jeporday if they decided to make waves by telling the truth when they were aware of inappropriate or illegal activities within their organizations that led to children not being protected or when children who should not have been, were removed from their homes. We have had several CPS workers tell us that that they were ordered to lie under oath in court and if they didn't they would be fired.

Many times when children are believed, jurors and judges are forced to find perpetrators not guilty because of the way our current laws are written and/or interpreted. Judges and magistrates have legal authority to utilize their discretion in making orders that insure the best interests of the child(ren. Unfortunately, they are not always doing this.

How can this be happening in today’s society? How can this be happening in the world’s most economically prosperous country? CHILDREN SHOULD BE HEARD AND BELIEVED IN OUR LEGAL SYSTEM.

Currently, because of the veil of immunity enjoyed by officers of the court, very outdated and unfair laws, along with society's ignorance and community collusion, our children do not have a voice in our legal system. The children are being court ordered to live with and to visit unsupervised with parents who beat, starve, rape and emotionally abuse them. Some children are being put in jail by judges when they refuse to go on visits. Some of our children are committing suicide because of it.

Parents/caregiver should have expedient and thorough assistance from the State when their children are being abused.

Safe parents/caregivers should not have their children illegally removed from them.

THIS HAS GOT TO STOP. When judges and magistrates issue court orders that result in our children being unsafe, those judges and magistrates should have to face criminal charges of abuse themselves. The same should be the case if CPS workers neglegently or willfully make choices and decisions that lead to harm for a child.

It is time for our children to have a voice in this country and it is time for all adults to speak out on those children’s behalf to insure that their rights are protected.

Please get involved! Contact us today to offer your help in protecting our children from harm.