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What Child Protective Services has often failed to confront is that sometimes children endanger their parents. This is particularly, although not exclusively, true of women who feel or who are threatened by overgrown teen sons.
New York City's Administration for Children Services filed a petition of neglect against Tanyan Mc. for hitting her son in the face with the heel of her shoe, giving him a bloody nose. They also removed him from her custody. Due to this incident, ACS said that she had also derivatively neglected her other child.
Queens Family Court Judge, Edwina G. Richardson-Mendelson, agreed with ACS. Tanya however believed that what she did was not neglectful, so she appealed to the Supreme Court of the State of New York Appellate Division: Second Judicial Department.
The court described the incident between Tanya and her son in the following words:
"The finding of neglect in this case is based on a single physical confrontation between the mother and her adolescent son, Corey Mc. (hereinafter the son), who at that time was 15 years old and 5 feet 10 inches tall. The evidence in the record established that the mother and the son had a troubled relationship. In this particular incident, the mother confronted the son over what she believed to be a specific instance of inconsiderate behavior, after which she left his room and closed the door. The son came out of his room and directed a stream of profanity-laced invective at the mother, who attempted several times to withdraw from the confrontation. When the son continued his verbal abuse, the mother either punched or slapped him in the face. The incident escalated further, and the son knocked his mother down and continued to curse at her; she got up and hit him on the face with the heel of her shoe, bloodying his nose. The mother then immediately called the police to seek medical attention for the son."
The Supreme Court sided with Tanya on November 24, 2009, declaring that the neglect finding was not supported by the preponderance of the evidence.
The court stated, "Given the age and size of the son, the provocation, and the dynamics of the incident, the mother's acts, which, as she readily acknowledged, were not an appropriate response to her son's conduct, did not constitute neglect."
For more info: Read the entire decision by the Supreme Court of New York State.
Comments
It's an indictment of this family court system and Judge Richardson-Mendelson's decision that seems to hand stamp ACS's preposterous definitions of "neglect." This family needed counseling, not this irrational intervention by ACS. Another abuse of power and distortion of the system. Thank goodness brighter minds decided otherwise, at the cost of much money and legal fees to the mother, which she could probably ill afford, and costs to the tax payers of NY to take this further to the Supreme court.
Part of the reason that teen perps are SO BOLD is that ACS stands ready to defend the *helpless child * against the irrational parent.
Never mind that the child outweighs and towers over the often intimidated Mom who is trying to give the teen's life some structure.
People wonder why teens seem so incorrigible today. Just take a look at the enablers---ACS---who can't even ensure that their own wards are SAFE from Abuse and neglect.
Caseworkers admit to forging authenticity of visits. And ACS NY has had to strip local foster agencies from their mission of protecting the children in their care and making sure that kids are housed in their own neighborhoods.
Too bad that the management and supervision of these agencies has been so abysmal that ACS has had to strip the agencies from working with these teens.
This is certainly not exclusively a New York problem. It's PANDEMIC.
I have been there myself with a DANGEROUS CRIMINAL THUG teen, which is why I helped start American Family Rights Association.
To understand what has really happened, I highly recommend-
How Dr. Spock destroyed America
By Reb Bradley © 2009
www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=87179
Leonard Henderson, co-founder
American Family Rights Association
"Until Every Child Comes Home" ©
"The Voice of America's Families" ©
Well i hope some other states take notice. And its not just overgrown teen sons, its rebellious teen daughters, also. Teens are hard enough to raise, without the state empowering them.
Sonya,you have that right.My daughter was very abusive and confrontational with me and showed me an enormous amount of disrespect and aggression.You know who got labeled the bad person in this?Of course me.Why some of this happened is because my daughter's school record where she assaulted another student was expunged courtesy of the good old state of Pennsylvania who feels these out of control teens deserve to have their past hidden.Sad thing of that is,some of these angry out of control teens are another Columbine waiting to happen and the schools are caught off guard in an attempt to protect past incidents by our state laws.
The teenagers of today are disrespectful and sometimes scary. I believe this has been brought on by things such as Child Protective Services. As a grandmother dealing with them in Clackamas County Oregon I am very unhappy at the disrespect they have shown me. This country is set on separating families. Here in Portland Oregon many citizens are angry about Officer Humphrey's being put on "paid administrative leave" after shooting a 12 year old girl in the leg with a bean bag rifle. She is a big girl but can you imagine what would happen if a parent did that. In my humble opinion any officer let alone 3 who cannot handle a GIRL without that kind of force should find a different line of work.
Things will continue to get worse for families unless there is a major uprising by the people to FORCE change and stop the funding behind this organization.
It does seem ridiculous when the state does not take into consideration when adolescents are bigger and stronger than their parents.
By the same token, there is in fact something deeply ineffective and inappropriate with some parent's parenting. Size, force, control, power contests, and authoritarian orders are not what engender respect or obedience! Even mafia hoods can love, respect and obey their own parents.
This mother, and parents like her are in need of some substantial parenting and communications lessons.
It is one thing to defend people from inappropriate state meddling and intervention. It is quite another, and counterproductive, to not also recognize that in conflicts between immature brains and their parents, it is the parents' fault, not the children's.
Has nothing whatsoever to do with Dr. Spock or so-called liberal or permissive parenting, which is also inappropriate.
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