Updates
Medically Kidnapped, Forced to Escape
Image from Google Earth of a Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. Here we go again. Just when I started to think nothing would surprise me anymore, the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota held a teenager hostage a la Justina Pelletier, working to cut her parents out of the picture and take control of the girl’s healthcare…
Read MoreThe “Age of Fear” in the “Land of Surveillance”
It’s one of the toughest balancing acts you face as a parent: how to teach your child independence and self-reliance while keeping them safe in a dangerous and interconnected world. I say “interconnected” because, as wonderful as connection is, in some instances it can cause more harm than good. A key example: anonymous reporting. You…
Read MoreNew Guidance Protects Student Privacy, Parents’ Rights
New Guidance from the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) is bolstering protection for student privacy, while sending a warning to organizations who might abuse the ACT and SAT testing systems for your child’s data. Background Traditionally, students registered and paid for the tests on their own with parental consent. The nature of the privacy relationship…
Read MoreTroubling Trends in Foster Care
The Parental Rights Foundation this week reviewed the five latest AFCARS reports and uncovered some disturbing trends. According to the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS) summary of 2016 data released in October of last year and the four previous reports, the number of children in foster care nationwide has been trending…
Read MorePrepare to Be Shocked
Prepare to be shocked, or even angry. Imagine you are driving your young daughter home from preschool. You’ve just endured a child welfare investigation stemming from allegations that someone else physically abused your daughter, allegations which have thankfully been deemed unfounded. The intrusion was mercifully brief compared to many, and the investigator is now out…
Read MoreThe Law Versus Judge Lyris Younge
Photo from Google.Room 5A of the Philadelphia Family Court is one of those places parental rights go to die. Or it would be, if presiding judge Lyris Younge had her way. “She has the capacity to be a good judge,” one lawyer who has served before her told The Legal Intelligencer for a recent article,…
Read MoreDisproportionality of Minority Children in Child Welfare Cases
New Report Highlights Disproportionality in Child Welfare April 25, 2018 The Parental Rights Foundation has released a new report on disproportionality in the child welfare system. The report highlights data from 2016 (the most recent available) showing that nationally the rate of African American children in cases “substantiated” for abuse or neglect is 1.51 times…
Read MoreStrip Searches Harm Children
Three-Year-Old Girl Strip Searched Without Parental Knowledge Parental Rights Foundation & Friends File Vital Court Brief This morning the Parental Rights Foundation filed a friend of the court brief (“amicus brief”) with the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit in the case of Doe v. Woodard. Our brief provides the court scholarship…
Read MoreNinth Circuit Court Gets It Right
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit last week ruled in Demaree v. Pederson that there is no “qualified immunity” for investigators who remove children from a home without a warrant or exigent threat of serious physical harm to the child.This is a welcome decision from a court that had not always been…
Read More"Medical Ethics Concerns" in Review
Writing for the Family Defense Center in Chicago, George J. Barry and Diane L. Redleaf published their criticism of the sub-specialty of child abuse pediatrics. In studying the day-to-day practices of the profession, Barry and Redleaf found that more often than not the “experts” violate several core principles adopted and recognized by the American Medical…
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