My Story
 
2 yrs ago I had a seizure due to a Doctor's error.  Before that my kids had been honor students and active in church.  I also had been employed with the Oregon Dept of Fish and Wildlife for 7 yrs and before that a school bus driver, I had hundreds of volunteer hours with Churches, Neighborhood Watch. Schools, Head Start. and ODFW.  The seizure scared my kids pretty bad and the ambulance took my kids and I to the hospital and while I was there I had my kids call someone to watch them that I thought was a friend.
 
I had no Idea what had happened to cause the seizure at that time, but my Doctor had taken me off a medication suddenly and I couldn't sleep for a week and had gone to the clinic earlier in the day and a Doctor there gave me some different medications.  When my Doctor talked to me at the Hospital, he never did tell me why I had the seizure and wouldn't tell me what was wrong. The next day I had two police officers come to the hospital and handcuff me.  They took me to another hospital where another Doctor (working with the first) locked me in a room and still wouldn't answer as to why I was having my freedom being taken away.  He sent four guards in to give me a shot and they beat me up  bad.enough that I had bruises all over my body. (I already had dislocated my shoulder in the seizure).
 
Then they sent me to another hospital out of town. The Doctor there did not agree with the assessment I needed to be locked up and sent me back after a few days. But the first hospital insisted that I needed to be hospitalized and said I had Illegal drugs in my system.  I am extremely anti drug and have been involved in the war on drugs, but they told me the tests had come back positive, so my only thoughts at the time was who could have slipped me something. which subsequentially was used against me.
 
They gave all this information to children's services who passed it along in reports and told everyone these things were true.  while I was at the hospital children's services (after two weeks of a dog being locked in the house) went and searched my home without a warrant. There was a short hearing and I was released from the Hospital after being there two weeks. After I got out I did some checking and the hospital I had been sent to out of town said those tests were only preliminary and the tests had come back negative from the final testing. I also went for a full psychological evaluation and a second psychiatric evaluation ( independent of the hospital that charged my insurance and I nearly 20K) of which tests I passed without any problems.  I also changed Doctors and found out it was the sudden stoppage of the medication that caused the seizure and it was the drugs administered to me at the hospital that showed a false positive on the preliminary tests.
 
Children's service still would not release my kids and took all my child support causing me to get behind on my house payments and then insisted I had a drinking problem. I went in for testing on that and the place determined I did not, but then the person doing the evaluation called the children's service worker and did what she was instructed by them.
 
They kept this game up for six months and disseminated false information to friends as well as my former husband, whom a judge had already put an order keeping my information confidential because of his history of abuse. I went to court and I listened to social workers lie and exaggerate as well as telling each other 5 pts and slapping hands after testimony like this was a game. Well the Judge did not agree with them and gave me the kids back so under advisement of an attorney I filed a torte claim against the state. And even though I had to maintain a home for the kids the state would not give back the money they had taken during the 6 months.
 
It was not easy dealing with the kids once I got them back, The foster parents had taken them to another church that had confused my kids by telling them their church wouldn't get them to heaven. As well as the foster parents did not check out who they let my kids run around town with. When the kids came back they were used to running free and associating with people they shouldn't have. As well as thinking the people that had been their friends at their old church really weren't. 
 
It was really difficult dealing with the teenage girls and whenever they didn't get their way they would just say they could go live in a foster home and they didn't have to listen to me. . Also since I couldn't make the house payments when my child support money had been taken by children's services was the last straw driving me into bankruptcy. I had been working a part time job, so I could spend time with my kids and be there for them. We did allot of camping, fishing, swimming and outdoor activities before that as well as school sports. But my first job was to be there for my kids and make sure they were safe and growing up right.
 
We were trying to pack and get things in storage as I don't know how long the appeal will take on my home. Because of this the bank wants the house and all my 50k equity which will leave us homeless. So we have all been upset and the kids were not doing what they were supposed to do. I asked my daughter to do her chores since she wanted to go out. She didn't do it so I sent her to her room and she got in my face and told me she didn't have to listen to me. She wanted to go live in a foster home because she didn't want to move away. As well as all that day she was trying to boss me around and tell me what to do. I finally smacked her in the arm once and told her not to back talk me.
 
So she snuck out to the neighbors and called to report abuse (no marks or bruises) I would never smack them in a way or place that would harm them. And very rarely use corporal punishment and if I do it is a choice they have, listen, go to their room or........
 
Well a Sheriffs Deputy came by that day and talked to  the kids and I and she lied to him and told him how she had done the dishes, The deputy was not blind and could see she didn't do them as well as the house being a total mess. So he left and I thought it was resolved. Until 8/28/02. I had just got up and was in my nightgown working on a art consignment when I got a knock at the door. There was a deputy and he asked me to step outside I told him to hold on so I could put some clothes on. He did not want that and insisted I step outside so I did.
 
He then told me that children's services wanted to come in my home. And I told him after what they had pulled last time and the fact I had a torte claim filed against them they were not welcome in my home unless they first went to a judge and got a warrant. I was then told by the deputy they don't need a warrant. I came back in my house and started shutting my door and he pushed it open and came in my home and handcuffed me. He said at that time he was doing it for safety and he knew I had guns in the house. He then placed me in his car and allowed 5 deputies and two social workers to enter and search my home without a warrant. I had my oldest daughter call Roger Fredenburg while this was going on. Roger spoke with the Social Worker on the phone and she told him "I am a Social worker and I don't need a warrant!" and then hung the phone up on him.
 
Well then the deputy came out to his car and told me he was taking me to jail for interfering with a police officer and having guns. I was there for a couple of days until friends came up with bail. My kids have always had good food, a warm place to live, but no we have never had allot of money. my first husband refused to pay child support for 8 years and when the court finally made him it was very little. And my sons Father owes over 25K in back support that he wont pay.
 
These tactics they are using are more like the Gestapo or USSR used at the beginning of their tyrannies. Not only have my rights to parent my kids been interfered with, but also all my Constitutionally protected rights. They do all this under the guise of "Protecting the Children" But who is going to protect the children and families from a tyrannical agency that destroys families and peoples lives that has no accountability?
 
It doesn't matter to them what the truth is or what a judge orders or determines. They throw those things away and write whatever they want in its place.  This ever growing beast sucks the taxpayers money like crazy.  The Foster Parents get 5x the amount I get from child support, not to mention the other benefits. The Social Workers, Psychologists, Attorneys and Bureaucrats all make allot of money at the expense of taxpayers, families and children. And their guidelines are as vast as liberal politics can make them. Unless there is criminal neglect or abuse these agencies should not be involved in anyone's life.
 
Here in Oregon our Governor wants to keep these programs and let the prisoners out of jail instead. Now what a sharp Idea!  take the guns from the law abiding parents as well as taking their kids and let the criminals out to commit more crimes against them. I cant fight them on my own. I am tired broke and have been so badly slandered it makes even getting a job difficult. I had to resign my job at ODFW. They had been making me work in a very dangerous situation and would not correct it and after many complaints to management I had to file an OSHA complaint. After that I got harassed and my hours cut back to where I was only bringing home about $600 month. So I took my Retirement money out so as not to burden others until I found another job.  I have always been the person that helped others so I find it very hard to now be in a position were I need to ask for help.  Thanks;
 
Marla
PO Box 805
Gold Hill, OR 97525
 
Update 10/10/02
I received the social worker reports and according to them someone called in and told them that I would harm my kids if they were not taken. And how dangerous it would be for the social workers to come to my home. As well as my mental health was deteriorating because I thought people on the Radio were talking about my personal life.  Well any of you that listen to Roger Fredenburg know that he has talked about my situation in an attempt to help.  But here contrary to law I am guilty not of things I have done, but of things someone thinks I might do.  Whatever happened to "Innocent till proven guilty"?  Also this person told them I had guns in the home.  So the social workers put in their report that my kids want to live in a home free of weapons.  So if you have kids watch out.  It would appear that the Constitution has no validity if you happen to have kids. Now I know my kids don't have a problem with guns and they have all been taught gun safety and like to target shoot.  I wonder if the kids know that even there BB Rifles were confiscated?  Your rights to Freedom of speech, Freedom of Religion, Right to Bear Arms as well as your right to raise your kids can all be taken from any one of you just as quickly as it has been done to me.  Don't think this will end until we as a people stand up and tell our elected Officials NO More and to start following the Constitution they swore to uphold.
 
Statistics for Oregon
I am still trying to get the statistics on how many of these cases were criminally charged with a crime and how many of those ended in convictions. But you can see where our tax dollars are going, And also you will notice the doubling of the budget is directly linked to the half of children taken away because someone previewed a threat might exist not because there was neglect or abuse. And knowing the way Social Workers lie, my guess is alot of Abuse/Neglect Charges were not true.
 
Services to Children (SCF) Statistics for the State of Oregon 2001
 
In 1997 the budget for SCF was 373.9 million (202.1 million Federal Funds)
In 2001 the budget for SCF was 597.6 million
(340 million Federal Funds)
 
In Four years the budget has almost doubled and is roughly half the Adult and Family Services Budget of 792.9 million (Fed Funds 449 Mill.) in 1997 and 1.295.9 million (Fed.Funds 979.8 Mill.) in 2001
 
The number of Infants under one year of age are taken from their Parents at a rate twice as high as any other age group.  The rate drops substantially as the children get older and less adoptable.
 
45.8% of the children taken were for "Threat of Harm"  in other words no harm had come to the child, but someone perceived they might be harmed.
 
Another 4.4 percent were taken for what SCF considers Mental Harm which could be just about anything.
 
26.7% were taken for neglect
 
Which leaves  13.5% taken for physical abuse
and 9.5% for sexual abuse for a total of 25% of the children taken.
 
In 2001 5 children died from abuse and three for neglect for a total of 8 deaths out of the estimated population of children of 859,208
 
There were 36,303 reports of suspected abuse/neglect in 2001 which has shown a steady increase over the years.
This out of a estimated population of 859,208
(just under 5% of the children living in the State)
 
Mothers were resposible for 44.4% of abuse/neglect
 
Fathers were responsible for 28.5% of abuse/neglect
 
And Step Fathers/Live ins were responsible for a combined 10.9%
 
Sources of Statistics can be found at;
http://www.hr.state.or.us/pubs/legislature/01-sessionwrapup/overviews.html
and:
http://www.scf.hr.state.or.us/