Oklahoma DHS Removing children from their home for No Cause Oklahoma City Oklahoma
I write this as a last resort. As a grandmother who loves her grandchildren very much. In April 2005 an "anonymous" person told the OKDHS that my son "smoked marijuana and beat his son".
They came to his neighborhood and started looking for the home as they were not given any address with this "anonymous report". My daughter-in-law and a friend were on their way to the store and saw these "suits" walking around looking for something and asked what they were looking for. When she was told, she immediately took the two children back into the home (she was 6 months pregnant at that time) and called my son at work to tell him. They did not know about her and their younger son.
She did not let the "suits" in. When my son came home he asked what they wanted, they told him and left him with some papers. He called me (in another state) and I called the person who was listed on the paperwork and who had been at his home. After answering many questions and a couple of weeks went by, I was called by this woman and she told me that she needed my address to send me papers because they had found nothing to substantiate the "anonymous" report and they were closing the case. I gave her my address, but never received any papers.
They offered services such as a family counselor that came to the house for three weeks to visit with the family and see the children. My son was told by this person that she had found no need for him to keep taking off work for her visits and that she was not seeing much need for visits to continue.
Nothing happened again until June when "suits" again came to the home with ploice officers to take the children this time. Of course, this upset everyone including the children, but they took them and placed them into a foster home in OKC. The foster mother was very nice and gave me her phone number and told me that I could call my grandsons. I called them for three weeks while they were there, but the fourth week when I called she informed me that DHS had taken them from her home and to a place far away. She said that she thought that I had known this and she was upset because they had done this. She also said that she didn't want the children to leave her home.
My daughter-in-law had just had the baby and they had taken him home where he was for three days. At 11:30pm on the third day, officers and DHS came to their home and removed the baby as well. The foster mother that I spoke to had told me that the DHS told her they had taken the baby from the hospital and when I told her that was not true she wondered why they had lied to her. So, I guess OKDHS lies to their foster parents as well as the regular family!
It's now September and my son and daughter-in-law have only gotten to see their children three times since they were moved three hours away! The mother and child bonding has not gotten to take place and my son and daughter-in-law have had to hire an attorney to try and get their children back! This is because several times they showed up at an appointed time for a hearing and there was no one there to stand up for them (no court-appointed attorney) and there wasn't even a docket that the judge had for them on one occasion. On one occasion a lawyer that they had tried to hire previously, but didn't have the money, saw them sitting outside the court holding hands and crying and he took them into the court and told the judge he was representing them that day. There are nice people who see what is going on, but seem to be unable to help without having thousands of dollars given to them first!
My son and daughter-in-law both work all day and have passed numerous urine tests that they have been required to give since all this happened. They do not have enough money to pay for all their bills and the attorney that they have hired to get their children back. They are now behind in their rent and have been told they will be evicted if it's not paid.
We have all tried to help with the attorney but we all work and scrape for a living as well. None of us are wealthy and we all live check-to-check so it has been extremely hard.
The attorney has evidently done a good job so far by ripping into the DHS on several matters and he told them that he wanted the children brought back into OKC so that the visits could be once a week. But, as of Tuesday September 6, when the kids were supposed to have a visit, they are still not in OKC. The visit was cancelled because there was no one (from OKDHS) to go get them and bring them into OKC! So the kids haven't gotten to see them again yet. I haven't gotten to speak to my grandchildren (ages 5 and 2) since they were moved in July.
We grandparents have NEVER been given the opportunity to take them! And we have asked countless times! As a matter of fact, no one from the OKDHS would even acknowledge us until I wrote to the Governor of OK, my Senator John McCain, and the President of the US!
I heard back from the governors liason who forwarded me to the head of OKDHS who then had his aide contact me, but then I was told that this matter was in "litigation" and an attorney was handling it so they will not respond to me any longer either. And, still my grandchildren are kept from their family.
In today's society, isn't it sad that people in government positions like DHS can tear a family apart without any kind of caring? After 9-11 and now the Hurrican Katrina situation, there are all the reports of children and parents who have been seperated. Well, the OKDHS is worse than these disasters! You would think that after the Murrah Building was bombed that there would be more kindness in OKC, but even the Governor of Oklahoma seems to be as uncaring as the rest of his "flock". As far as I am concerned the OK officials can all rot in h___.
We want our children back! There was no reason to take them and certainly there has been no reason shown to keep them from their family! It's been three months that they have had them and I wish to speak to anyone who might be able to help us get our babies back home. The health of this family is at stake and this is a civil liberties issue!
Thank you for letting me give my story.
Roberta
Clarkdale, Arizona
U.S.A.
Click here to read other Rip Off Reports on Child Protective Services
4 Updates & Rebuttals
Kate
Okc,Oklahoma,
U.S.A.
contact info
#5Consumer Suggestion
Mon, January 22, 2007
I found this contact info maybe you could send the director an email or certified lletter again my prayers are with!
here is the information
Howard Hendrick, Director
Department of Human Services
Phone number 405-521-3646
Email HowardHendrick@okdhs.org
If that dosent send try all lowercase letters all one word for his name. Try calling the office for his address too. I hope and pray everyone is reunited soon! ~ Kate
Kate
Okc,Oklahoma,
U.S.A.
praying for you
#5Consumer Suggestion
Mon, January 22, 2007
my prayers are with you and your family!!! Try to copy paste or rerwite your story and send it to all of the news channels here in oklahoma. They should have a five on your side with news channel five.... Maybe search the web for more advocacy people to help. this is heart breaking again my prayers are with you.
Kate
Roberta
Clarkdale,Arizona,
U.S.A.
MY GRANDCHILDREN WILL BE ADOPTED TO THE FOSTER MOTHER!
#5Author of original report
Fri, December 22, 2006
Dear Rip-Off.com:
Below are letters that I wrote after my recent trip to OKDHS hearing. The letters explain it all.
Roberta in Clarkdale, AZ
____________
Hello friends,
>
>I am sending a letter that I just finished to the attorney who sat in with me on my recent trip to Oklahoma and the court hearing for my grandchildren.
>Needless to say, the children are not to be given to the rightful grandparents here in AZ and will most assuredly be adopted out to the foster family in 2007. I cannot begin to tell you all how hurt I am. You all know me and my feelings about this situation so please excuse me if I am not in correct "holiday cheer' this year. I thank all of you for your thoughts and prayers that you have given me over this past year and a half, they have been heartfelt and most appreciated. I know God has his reason for everything I just don't know what or why they are going in this direction.
>
>May God bless you all in this holiday season.
>
>Roberta
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This is the letter I received back from the Director of the business that did the AZ grandparents ICPC studies here:
Dear Roberta,
>I am so saddened by this outcome, which must be terribly heartbreaking for you. I still don't understand what's happened in this case, as it certainly hasn't gone the way most cases do. Generally, maintaining relative contact is a CPS priority even when parental rights are severed. Having children maintain positive connections to their birth families is essential for their well-being. I hope you can find some answers and, as you wrote, "make sense" of these proceedings.
>Be gentle with yourself.
>Warmly,
XXXXX
_______________
Below is my reply to her:
Thank you for your comments. As I said in the letter they took what had been written by Ms. XXX and turned it around to their benefit by saying that I would still allow my son to see his son if I had Kaygen in my home. Which was not what I had said at all. Unfortunately, I was able to see for myself the way OKDHS works. It was as I have been sayng all along, they do not care anything about what might be in the best interest of the children or the family members. It seems that the only thing they care aobut is taking children from their families and adopting them out to people in OK. Pure and simply-they are child-stealers. They are intentionally keeping the childrens blood relatives away from them, including the parents, in order for them to "not remember the family" which was stated in court to the judge by the so-called counselor. The children do not remember these "other people" I am quoting here what was said by the counselor to the judge. Kaygen obviously did remember me. My son and Jennifer have not been allowed to see their children for eight months! They were at court that day and asked to see them when they allowed me to see them and they were told to leave the building! They were not allowed to see them. IS THIS JUSTICE? The OKDHS and the judge and anyone else in this case had/has no intention of allowing these children to maintain any type of family contact and I don't believe they care one ounce about the children's well-being.
So much for the "justice system" in which we live today.
Roberta
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And below is the letter that I sent to the attorney who sat in court with me on that day:
December 19, 2006
Dear Mr. XXX,
I am just now coming out of the state of shock since the court hearing and subsequent meeting on December 7.
First, I want to tell you how much I appreciated having someone stand in with me, and for all of the caring you showed during my experience (which was really a nightmare') with the Oklahoma DHS children's court. Thank you from the bottom of my heart, as I know I could not have done it alone.
I have had the long drive home and the last week out in the field to seriously think about what happened and to try and make some kind of sense of it. I have been unable to do the latter. I did tell my son and duaghter-in-law, before I left them, that it was up to them solely and I hope they take it to heart, however I really believe that they have given up. Without any type of help from counseling or other types of help, that certainly the State of Oklahoma SHOULD HAVE BEEN GIVING, they feel that it is hopeless. Son insists that he has not been arrested for any type of drug (methamphetamine) charge and when I asked Ms. XXX for a copy of the police report and she told me I had no right to see it I myself knew she was lying. In working for attorneys I know that police reports are public knowledge and anyone that wishes can see them. I wonder if you can give me an idea of how to find any and all police reports on son from Oklahoma. I know in Arizona arrest information is on the internet, but don't know if it is the same as Oklahoma. I need to find out who is lying to me.
I will say that Ms. XXX is the most hateful person I have ever met. When she talked about me she didn't have a clue what she was talking about. I never said the things she said I did and she took things that I had said and twisted them to DHS' benefit. And my ICPC report never said what she said it did either, again twisting what I did say to make it more than what it was. It sickens me that the judge takes everything that DHS employees say for face value without even hearing anything else. I will send you a copy of my ICPC report if you'd like. It was a well-done and comprehensive report and I got three different letters written with nothing but praise for me as a mother, grandmother and person. I have never been arrested in my life, but of course, none of that was even brought up. Yet Ms. XXXX has a felony record from the past and who knows what else.
I gave the foster mother my email address as she requested it to send me some pictures of the kids at Halloween. I have yet to hear from her and believe she has probably been advised by DHS to not contact me. I found it unbelievable that they are 1) allowing Ms. XXX to see the kids anytime she wants 2) they are not going to take her daughters rights away until she gets out of prison and then who knows and 3) everyone else is allowed to see these children EXCEPT THEIR PARENTS! Yet, they are requesting that child support be paid. In the real world, if parents are not allowed to see their children then why do they have to pay child support, especially to the agency that removed them from the home in the first place. It still doesn't seem right to me, and if you can explain that scenario I'd appreciate it.
The last item seems to basically tell it the way it is: that the OKDHS will keep the children from their parents so that they don't remember them and then that makes it so much easier for the counselor' to tell the judge that the children don't remember them as that counselor' (I use the term loosely here!) did in court. It all just seems so convenient.
I don't know how I can write to that judge and tell him anything that he WANTS to hear. I think he is as crooked as all the rest of them! Any direction that you could give me in writing this letter would be most appreciated. What do you say to someone who is taking your family members away perhaps NEVER TO BE SEEN AGAIN?
I wish only the best for my grandchildren. If that is to be with the foster family, who seems to be doing a good job, then I would at least like to be granted the continuance as their grandmother. The law and DHS cannot just take away those rights, which are God given rights! I wish to be allowed contact with them, to see them, to write letters to them, have pictures of them and watch them grow up, talk to them on the phone and have them for at least a week out of each year. Isn't that the LEAST these people could do? I never did anything to have MY RIGHTS TAKEN AWAY!
Again, thank you for your help. You are the proof that there are still nice people in the world that care about the true meanings of the LAW and not just using them for your own good and to hell with anyone else's feelings. I am proud to know you, sir!
Please let me know what I need to do next and may God bless you and yours for a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Please give your children and/or any others around you a hug for Christmas, for me, as I will again, not have any around.
Sincerely,
(((ROR REDACTED ADDRESS, PHONE NUMBERS AND E-MAIL ADDRESS FOR SECURITY PURPOSES)))
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I have written to the OKlahoma courts that I believe this is a issue that has gone beyond and is now an issue about HUMAN RIGHTS. They do not listen nor do they care what I think. All they care about is keeping my grandchildren away from any family members and adopting them out to the foster mother. Because my family does not have the money to hire an attorney and sue the hell out of OK and the OKDHS makes it better and easier for them to do this.
IF THERE IS ANY ATTORNEY WHO WILL REPRESENT THE PARENTS AND MYSELF IN GETTING OUR CHILDREN BACK INTO THEIR HOME AND SUING THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA AND OKDHS WE WOULD LET THEM KEEP 50% OF THE PROCEEDS. WE DON'T REALLY CARE ABOUT THE MONEY WE JUST WANT OUR CHILDREN BACK WITH THEIR PARENTS AND FAMILY!
CLICK here to see why Rip-off Report, as a matter of policy, deleted either a phone number, link or e-mail address from this Report.
Paulette
OKLAHOAMA CITY,Oklahoma,
U.S.A.
DHS
#5Consumer Comment
Sun, March 12, 2006
I KNOW TO WELL ABOUT DHS AND HOW THEY WORK.
I AS A MOTHER KNOW WHAT THEY CAN DO.
OUR GRANDAUGHTERS FATHER WAS KILLED ADN NAUTURAL MOTHER WNET TO PRISON. HER RIGHTS WERE TERMANTAED. SO WE ADOPTED HER.
HAVE BEEN FIGHTING THE OTHER GRNADMOTHER FOR VISITATION RIGHTS.
BOTH GRNADMOTEHR AND STEP GRANDFATHER HAE CRIMINAL RECORDS.
EVERYTIME WE GO INTO COURT FOR VISITION RIGHTS THE JUDGES SEEM TO FIND FOR THE GRNADMOTHER AND HER HUSBAND.
WELL THE JUDGE GAVE THEM EVERY OTHER WEEKEND VISITS.
ONE WEEKEND IN DEC. OF 05 THE STEP GRANDFATHER HIT HER WITH A STICK LEAVING BRUSIES ON HER BOTTOM.
WELL WE REPORTED THIS TO DHS AND THE POLICE.(SINCE THE POLICE CHEIF WAS THE UNCLE TO THIS MAN NOTHING WAS DONE AND A FALSE REPORT WAS MADE).
SO IN FEB. THE WORKER TOLD US SHE HAD TO GO BACK FOR ANOTHER VISIST SHE DIDNT WANT TO GO AND THEN EH MOLESTED HER.
WE MADE OUT ANOTHER REPORT TO DHS. BEING LIEK THE FIRST TIME WE DIDNT CALL THE POLICE. SINCE HIS UNCLE WAS CHEIF.
THE WORKER MADE A VISIT TO THEIR HOUSE. AND BEING LIED TO SHE BELEIVED THEM.
IN JUNE SHE CAME AND TOOK OUR CHILD AWAY FROM US. WE HAD 2 SHOW CASUE HEARING.
OUR LAWYER EVEN PROVED SHE LIED TO THE JUDGE TO GET HER TAKEN OUT OF OUR HOME. BUT THIS DIDNT MATTER TO THEM. AFTER SHE WAS IN ELTER FOR 2 WEEKS SHE WAS NOT BEING SUPERVISED AND FELL OFF THE MONKEY BARS AND BROKE HER ELBOW HAD TO HAVE SURGERY ON IT.
THEN AFTER 2 MORE WEEKS FINALLY GOT HER PLACED WITH AUNT. WE WENT TO COURT SEVERAL MORE TIMES. THE CASE WORKER NEVER DID SHOW UP TO ANY OF THESE. OUR DAUGHTER WHILE AT TEH SHLETER TOLD THE THEARAPIST WHAT HAD HAPPENED TO HER AT THE GRANMOTHERS HOUSE AND THEY DIDNT BELEIVE HER. BUT WAS IN THE REPORT WE GOT.
THE REPROT WE GOT FROM THE DA OFFICE MADE US OUT AS HORRIBLE PEOPLE. SHE HAD PUT IN THERE THAT OUR CHILD WAS EXPOSED TO ADULT SEXUALITY. (WHAT?) AND THAT SHE WAS SLEEPING WITH US. AND TAKING A SHOWER WITH MOTHER. AND A LOT MORE OF THESE STUPID THINGS.
WE HAD HER SLEEPING BY HERSELF UNTILL GRANDMOTEHR LET HER WATCH CHUCKY. AND WHEN SHE HAD TO GO OVER THERE SHE HAD TO SLEEP ON COUCH THERE WERE 5 PEOPLE LIVING AT THIS ONE BEDROOM HOME.
THEIR 3 YEAR OLD GRANDAUGHTER WAS SHARING SAME BEDROOM WITH THEM.
AND THEY HAD BUNKBEDS IN DINING ROM FOR 2 BOYS. WELL THEY WANTED US TO PLEAD GUILITY TO THE CHARGES.
WELL WE DIDN NOTHING WRONG JUST MADE A REPORT ABOUT THE STEP GRANDFATHER AND THE WORKER CAME AFTER US.
AFTER GOING TO COURT 6 MONTHS WE FIANLLY HAD TO GO TO 3 MONTHS OF THEARAPHY WHICH OUR THEARAPIST SAID WE WERE A NORMALLY FAMILY ADN NEEDED NO THEARAPY. BUT THEN THEY FIANLLY DROPED THE CHARGED AND DISMISSED IT.
WE NEED DIFFERENT WORKERS FOR DHS NOT ONES THAT CAN DO ANYTHING THEY WNT TO DO.
AND SHE GOT CAUGHT LIEIENG WAS NOTHING WAS EVER DONE TO ER.
NOR WILL BE DONE TO HER.
WHAT AN INJUSTICE THIS SYSTEM HAS. ADN I FEEL FORRY FOR THE POOR LITTLE CHILDREN THAT HAS TO G THROUGH THIS SITUATION.
IT IS THE CHILDREN THAT HAS TO PAY FOR THIS.
THE SYSTEM NEDS TO BE REDONE.
I DONT THINK THEY ARE OVER WORKED.
IF THEY WOULD JUST HANDLE THE CASES THAT REALLY NEED IT NOT THE ONES THAT NOTHING IS WRONG IN GOOD HOMES.
A GOOD MOTHER. NOT A BAD ONE.