My name is Liz Clark, I am a 31yr. old, single, paraplegic mother of 3. I am in a wheelchair. My children, who are my heart and soul, are being threatened by Child Protective Services with removal from my custody, based solely on my disability.
I believe the underlying motive is for the county to place me in a nursing home – but law states the primary caregiver of minor children cannot be placed into a home. Since they have problem staffing my Personal Care Aides, they claim I’d be “safer” in an assisted living facility.
In the meantime they are trying to take my kids.
It all began after I was bedridden for a year from illness, (my mother moved in temporarily to care for the kids) but when I recovered and was cleared to resume my life, the county insisted my mother remain to watch the kids or else they’d call CPS.
The CPS worker walked in the door stating “Disabled people can’t effectively parent their children”
First their allegations were I was “off with the aides, leaving the children running rampant and unsupervised”. I pointed out there was no such occurrence, and my aide of 10 years backed me up.
Then I was informed it took me 15 minutes to get out of bed, and my 6 yr old has to help me. This was so absurd, I arranged for a physical therapist to observe my getting out of bed – he timed my transfer at 17 SECONDS with no one’s assistance.
Not good enough, CPS wants another evaluation.
I then showed him my list of people, friends and family who agreed to be available for help in the middle of the night if needed…ranging from 5-15 minutes away. To that the CPS worker replied “I can drag your children out of here in a body bag in 30 seconds- your “help” isn’t fast enough”
In response to his question of what to do if a fire occurred – I showed him our Fire Plan (illustrated for the 5 and 6 yr olds who can’t read) rehearsed incessantly. He replied “children can’t be trusted not to panic in these type situations”, making me wonder why any parent bothers with a fire plan.
I have gone to extremes to insure their safety and satisfy this CPS worker- I bought monitors/ intercoms for each child’s room, an intercom for the front door and a “Lifeline System (the “I’ve fallen and can’t get up” deal), gotten two physical therapist's evaluations of my transfer times and gotten 3 people on my block to be on my emergency list (impressive since I only moved here 3 months ago).
NONE of which is good enough for this CPS worker. He insists I have someone here 24/7 or simply be happy having the children visit me daily and sleep elsewhere.
I refused, so I’ve been charged with criminal neglect.
My children are my life and I would never keep them here if I feared for their safety. Their father has backed me up in this case (although the !@# doesn’t pay support) even telling the judge he believes they are safe.
The ACLU says this is blatant discrimination, but alas they don’t touch family court matters. They said my best bet is not a pro bono lawyer because they are overwhelmed and not experienced in these matters of discrimination.
My lawyer is bleeding me dry and suddenly deciding perhaps he’s not the man for the job because we’re losing.
I’m broke, exhausted and terrified. I don’t know where to turn. A local disability advocacy place is trying to help, but to little avail.
Aside from a billionaire philanthropist, media attention is the only other thing I can think of for help. Might you have any resources? Contacts? Anything that might be the slightest bit helpful?
I risked my life bringing my children into this world, and could not draw another breath if I lost them. Any help you can think of would be greatly appreciated.
Desperately Yours,
Liz Clark
kayla3_13@yahoo.com