Parents are planning a Child Protective Services (CPS) protest in Sacramento, California for injustices made against families across the US. The rally is a joint effort between more than 30 groups and takes places October 4 at noon.
The reason? To call attention to CPS’s faults. Protestors see the system as a profit-driven rather than one in place to genuinely look out for the children’s welfare.
One protester, Toni Triano, told The Epoch Times, “There’s so much corruption and people are tired of it. I think CPS needs to be shut down.”
Protesters are focusing on The Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA). The law mandates that states terminate the majority of parents’ rights after their child spends 15 months in foster care. ASFA was passed back in 1997 and continues to be a problem for foster parents.
For parents who have their children wrongfully taken away by CPS because of something like a false report, their kid could be taken away after a long investigation. Something that could be a temporary situation during an investigation can become a permanent change to a family through ASFA.
Worries about their kids’ treatment in foster care also fuel parents’ desire for change. In its 2019 report on human trafficking, the US Department of State stated that reports “consistently indicated that a large number of victims of child sex trafficking were at one time in the foster care system.”
When kids with behavioral issues are placed into the foster care system, their access to health care varies. Breeauna Sagdal, of global advocacy networking group Punished 4 Protecting, stated, “Children are put on multiple psychotropic anti-psychotic drugs … they are pumped full of meds.”
This isn’t the first time people have protested CPS. Back in 2015, parents protested CPS in Sacramento. They wanted more surveillance on CPS activity. Specifically, requiring parent interactions with CPS social workers to be recorded.
Before that, anti-CPS groups organized nationwide protests in 2011. Their efforts focused on highlighting how foster care can place children directly into abuse.
Child Protect Services Protest — Sources
The Epoch Times: Parents to Protest Alleged Injustices of Child Protective Services
The Epoch Times: California Parents Find No Help From Lawmakers in Dealing With Child Protective Services
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The Atlantic