To Whom It May Concern:
My husband James and I are fighting to take back our two daughters who have been taken by the Department of Social Services in Pickens County May 25 2001.
Our daughter Sara was 9 years old and Marissia was 8 years old when taken from us. They had reported to school officials that they were sexually abused by a 21 year old male who was living with us at that time.
DSS supervisor Wanda Debnum decided to take our kids because we didn't protect them. Who wouldn't protect their children if they knew that someone is hurting them in such a sick way?
While the real criminal is free, we are being punished and undergoing the scrutiny and injustice by people who are supposed to protect children. Our family is destroyed by individuals at DSS who expressed from the beginning that our children are perfect for adoption.
Through a lot of research I have done on my own I have found that the agencies receive $4,000-$8.000 for every child found to be adoptable.
So many families like our family are being shoved under the carpet and hid. Pickens County DSS took our daughters and had no intention of reunifying us as a family. They know and have known from the time they took Sara and Marissia, that my husband and I did not and do not have the financial resources to take legal action to fight to get our daughters back.
DSS constructed a "Treatment Plan", a plan that is developed to establish what needs to be done in order for "Reunification"
In October 2001 our daughters were physically abused by a worker at a Children's Home. We learn this from a foster parent who took interest in our daughters. This was investigated by the DSS case worker a week after it was reported and the bruises had disappeared.
In November 2001, we were asked to participate in a program called Attachment and Bonding; this program was designed for families to reunite them. We completed that and we were told that DSS decided to transfer our girls to MTS for therapeutic foster care.
In February 2002 The Department of Social Services transferred our case to Managed Treatment Service. Before this transfer was done there was a staffing held at the Pickens County DSS Office, it was said to be a good "move", that the transfer would not only benefit our daughters but would aid in REUNIFICATION.
We were told that "ALL SERVICES" would stay intact and that we would be able to be more involved with Sara and Marissia if case was transferred to Managed Treatment Services, more so than what was being done at the Pickens County Department of Social Services.
We were told that we would be able to be involved in our daughter's education, this included attending school conferences.
Shortly after they took our children we learned that everything was a lie. Managed Treatment Services has done nothing of the sort, if anything they have taken our daughters and have put them in homes that have caused more harm than good. It became a nightmare for us and our children.
This was suppose to be a smooth transition, however it was not and this in fact caused Sara and Marissia confusion and distress.
We were told that we would be notified in writing before this move was to take place, however this did not happen. The transfer to the new "therapeutic" foster care by MTS was so traumatic that our older daughter started bed wetting.
For over two weeks we did not know what happened to our children and they didn't know what happened since they were also lied to. I couldn't believe that the state employees had to be dishonest just to get their hands on our girls. This seemed to me to be a form of kidnapping by the MTS. These people don't seem to be accountable to anyone. Lying and deceiving is acceptable and supported by their superiors.
We went to court in
April 2002, Judge Johnson ordered that we be allowed to have 3 visits per month
for 2 hours each visit, these visits were changed by Managed Treatment Services
without proper notification or court authorization
and the knowledge of the Judge.
Although MTS had also promised to place our children closer to us, instead they kept moving them further away creating a hardship.
In August 2002, our daughters were moved again to another foster home which is approximately 100 miles from our home. We were told that Marisia was hit by the previous therapeutic foster mother and that's why they were removed. We were not notified of this move, until September 9, 2002.
From the very beginning our daughters were told by the case workers and by foster parents that they will be adopted while we were given impression that we are working toward reunification
In October 2002, we had a meeting in Spartanburg at the office of Sara and Marissia's therapist JoAnn Smith, this was a meeting before court, Managed Treatment Services, and the therapist. Ms. Smith had been discussing Adoption with Sara and Marissia , and had even established a Adoption Services Caseworker to be assigned to Sara and Marissia, and this was done before the October 10, 2002 hearing that was scheduled to determine whether or not a TPR (Termination of Parental Rights) would be approved in court.
In October 2002, our
visits were moved to Spartanburg SC, which is 67 miles from our home in
Townville SC, and were cut back and kept to an hour. This was a severe hardship
to us. Managed Treatment Services did not provide
transportation like they had promised but we made each one of the visits.
This is how our visitation rights were terminated: on December 20th we went to Spartanburg for a scheduled visit, when we arrived there was a note left on the door by Preston Taylor (MTS Supervisor) stating that all visitation had been cancelled.
I called Nikita Harrison (MTS supervisor) who informed me that there had been a hearing regarding our visitation and that our visitation rights had been terminated. I asked Ms. Harrison why we had not been notified and she said they could not reach us, but that our attorney was in court and represented us.
Not even our Attorney was notified of this hearing, he just happened to be at the Pickens County Court House and heard our names being called, and he went into courtroom and informed Judge Johnson that neither he nor we had been notified of the court hearing.
Our visitation rights were terminated, it was said that our visitations were affecting the girls and causing emotional outbursts and mental anguish.
However, none of these people that were accusing us of causing all of these emotional outbursts, and mental anguish had came to our visitations and witnessed how these visits took place or what happened during these visits.
This therapist is hired by Managed Treatment Services to provide therapy to our children. We have asked when we (parents) would be able to have counseling with our children, as promised. Each and every time we asked this, we were told they were not ready.
Through a lot of the research I have done on my own I have found that DSS pays therapists an exorbitant amount of money to counsel these children or any child in the custody of DSS or they charge Medicare for these sessions. Which means the state gets more Medicaid money, and these services are minimal and really are biased. The anguish and trauma is caused by the very people who decided to keep our girls away from us.
My husband and I were given a court appointed attorney who told a mental health counselor in our presence that he couldn't fight against DSS because he eats, sleeps, breathes, lives, and works in Pickens County with DSS.
That statement right there should have told Jim and me that we didn't stand a chance in receiving fairness.
We love our daughters and we want our family back. We want the services that were offered and promised to us; we want DSS and MTS to do everything they said they were going to do in order for "Reunification" to take place.
We have had our civil rights violated, our constitutional rights violated, our children have not had proper attention or services, and we want our family reunified.
This is our story and
I appreciate you taking the time to read this. Please help us bring our children
home where they belong.
Sincerely,
Jeanette
Grove
Pickens County, South Carolina