I am writing this to all that will take the time to read my story.
It’s long but very detailed with facts..the outline I choose was based on the laws I’ve researched on my own ( forgive me if I list them incorrectly) and comparison to my families experience with Fort Bragg, CA.
I also note my most heartfelt truths comparison to my upbringing in all facts and no opinion. I have had decades to come to terms with my childhood and now years to succumb and overcome to CWS.
PLEASE READ FOR CHANGE
Sincerely
Lauren Schmidt
1045 s state st
Ukiah ca 95482
707 5106901
To whom it may concern:
According to the mental health service act of Mendocino county annual report update for 2019,that was established in 1990, Health and human services has the procedural guide to what services are available to mental health clients in this county. Medi-CAL insurance sends out updates when things are added to it. Every agency that offers these services legally is bound to this report.
The health and human services agency is an umbrella of many agencies specifically now focusing on Child welfare service CPS or CWS. Branches of HHS are bound by even more rules Called the Welfare and institutions code aka WIC. Child welfare services branch of HHS is bound by WIC codes and has its own Adoption Assistance and child welfare Safe family act of 1997 namely ASFA.
According to the California constitution codes article xx sec 3: for every public employee of state county, city, and county district and authority including any department, division, bureau, board commission and agency is bound by an “oath of affirmation”; wherein they ‘solemnly swear to support and defend the constitution’.
Most importantly under title 2 of the Americans with disabilities act section 504; “child welfare agencies and courts must make changes in policies, practices and ways to accommodate needs for disability.
In the mental health services act parts 5000-5952; part 5510 note(2) “ persons with mental illness are vulnerable to abuse, neglect and unreasonable and unlawful deprivation of rights.
Posted in the CWS (child welfare services) office lobby in Ukiah are copies of CWS “communication policy” and “vision statement” which state ideas so radical and ethical pragmatic And all-inclusive that it paints the intentions of the agency as actually wanting to help families, it’s almost believable.
In the Welfare and institutions code it states “it is the intent of the legislature that this section NOT disrupt the family unnecessarily or intrude inappropriately into family life, prohibit the use of reasonable methods of parental discipline, or prescribe a particular method of parenting. The legislature further declares that a physical disability such as blindness or deafness, is no bar to the raising of happy and well-adjusted children.” (Amended by stats. 2015 ch.303, sec 566.)
The Welfare And institution code article 6 -dependent children jurisdiction [300-304.7] part. 300: a child not to be found detained solely due to lack of a emergency shelter for family.
ASFA states their must be reasonable efforts for reunification on the part of CWS and notes Discriminatory separation of parents from children can result in long-term negative results to parent and child and any case of discrimination against parents/caregivers due to disability isn’t acceptable.
In WIC dependent children jurisdiction part (c): emotional damage,
CWS is bound to prove it ..”as evidence by severe anxiety, depression withdrawal, or untoward aggressive behavior towards self or others.” And in part 361.5 and 366.26 (c);1 it details all the grounds for loss of parental rights.
There is a constitutional right to discuss case before court with attorneys and attest testimony and the WIC right for parent to get all possible accommodations for reunification.
…………………
The facts of what has happened to my family have violated all the above national rights, state laws, local policies And insurance procedures. The fact of this case is their Is none of the previous mentioned ‘rules of conduct and behavior’ for Fort Bragg ca, the social worker acts on their accord without knowledge of laws or care of consequences.
Discrimination and aptly “audism” ( the discrimination of Deaf people) in Fort Bragg is unregulated uneducated and very ignorant of any diplomatic accommodating ways of dealing and assessing people with circumstantial individual needs.
Ignoring and disregarding laws and rights with a very ‘brush under the rug’ attitude gives Fort Bragg Agencies and services a taint of ignorance that paints over not addressing accommodations and a ‘ignore it till it goes away’ outlook when addressing cases that our too severe of needs that they don’t figure out how to refer out.
The complete lawlessness and ‘grapevine network’ of word of mouth quick unjustified judgements creates a community that stigmatizes and outcasts anything they don’t understand.
By only giving referrals to places CWS has alliances with and have contracts with they always get paid.
Having ‘Severity ‘ of mental health services needs means that your a patient with more traumatic experience that has caused ptsd in more then a few occasions and your not a bad person or bad parent for the experiences, and finally knowing that your assessed in this manner and finding services that meet your needs should not be like pulling teeth.
CWS refusal of access to better services and or withholding of vital information for low income housing and mental health referrals in the county including out of town resources; created a snowball of tragic events that almost lead to me loosing my life to depression suicide.
It did result in us finding (word of mouth)the only housing possible after the critical start of community wide breakdown of our family stability in July 2018 we persevered and became ‘poster child’ homeless shelter couple and finally on our 90 day mark found a for rent trailer moving in Nov 2018, yet it wasn’t sufficient enough for the electrical box went out in May 2019 and burned the whole trailer down to the ground. And now after 28 months of hardship and struggling residentally I’ve come to find CWS has a special CDC housing voucher specifically for Family Reunification that my husband qualified for the entire time in Family maintenance.
Having this case throughout our residential challenges has tested our resilience to the point of unnecessary self motivation and drive for a better future, after 28 months or more of CPS, I’ve learned to NOT ever ask for help, to not ever rely or trust anyone and that no one is going to bend over backwards to take care of me, so I have to take care of myself.
This case has to win the circumstances legal delay award. Illegally detained from home in July 2017 and delay of court calendar is frantic chaotic and months apart at a time. We have had our first judge go on vacation , a steadfast lawyer that won our son back to dad twice go on maternity leave I had three lawyers so far, we retired our initial social worker and got a new one and even have had several social worker assistants bounced in and out of our case. Practically NO ONE IN OUR CASE is on the same page and communication with ANYONE INCLUDING LAWYERS has been so spotty indirect and not caring how long it takes to not communicate. All while my family is separated and suffering apart.
Our son although being given back to care of dad twice already has spent 1 1/2 years in foster care towns apart from us, and now is spending his most critical time of social development aka 4th grade with my mom. I moved away from her abuse, county’s away for justified reasonings. I’ve gone blue in the face complaining about her relentless interference and my child and teen abuse and now cps is supporting and encouraging her to adopt him and pay her 1000$ a month to have through foster agency.
………
Medically and subconsciously my mother isn’t a good person. She raised me with no work drive from her never working,no motivation to ever be a functional adult in society and most importantly has had every ailment I wouldnt ever want my son to witness.
As a young child the instilled ptsd of her scarring my subconscious with abuses she endured as a very young child changed me forever in a traumatic way.I had horrible coping skills that were taught by her from me to always cover the hard feelings with drugs or dissociation wether self medicating or not and her passed down goal of life is being able to have a man to pay bills and pay her salon visits. And of course having the red carpet pulled out for her at any emergency room she can.
Selfish Morals and priority’s so far from the reality of the hardness of life that her dis-eases have become a career for her. Medication, sympathy, empathy, fantasy bubble.
It was exactly that age from 8-12 yrs old that as a child I was subjected to more abuse then any other time in my life, neglect and suppression and sheltered isolation and no social interaction and already adopting labels of diagnosis’s that I was too young to consider in the first place, yet I still have these disabilities since that age.
My son is in that stage of development now.
…………
Our son is so traumatized from this affair with lawless CPS that he doesn’t understand the discrimination and ruthlessness of The malicious attack on our family. He did really good and was nurtured from his foster family before And when CPS took him illegally again this last time he begged with his last breath to please not go to grandmas.
He saw so many cops waiting for him this last detention; he asked dad “if I run away (to not Be taken away) will they taser me dad?“ He fears authorities like police and all social workers from displacement and abuse of power from them.
He hates this separation from dad so much he acted bad to grandma so he could get to leave once he got their this last summer and now is getting the first hand suppression treatment from my mom I know oh so well.
The stomping of my sons voice and ability to have confidence and function as a well rounded human is devastating heartbreaking and downright the most evil thing I’ve ever come across. He is confined to his room at grandmas house and doesn’t leave. His zest for life is dwindling as is my husbands, they have beaten us all to the core.
Our family has been broken down and separated, by CPS physiological warfare and breakdown to try to build us up and label us into a catagory of unstable uneducated unreformed weak people. By forcing us all individually to have physch evaluations with the CPS contracted physch dr, whom is trained to evaluate negatively and without findings to give CPS any fuel they need for a falsified court fire.
Our family is emotional and sensitive, all of us wear our feelings on our sleeves and are never afraid to tell the truth to someone. Deaf culture raised my son with a more open outlook on communication and his early social development has been pillared in deaf culture practices as well. Deaf community inclusion and implementation of deaf culture morals has been a blessing for our family. It’s helped us all ‘belong’ in a socially acceptable culture to be “hyper sensitive” and more “aware” and open and expressive.
Our son Elijah; loves everything yet lately whilst in the abusive environment, he’s changed. He is clamming up and regressing in confidence and recently told us he is confined inside aka locked up in his room alone all day,now transplanted again in Santa Rosa. A whole county away from us.
Our family had over ambition and zealousness and excitement for living on the coast, and although beautiful Fort Bragg has ripped us apart. Chewed up and Spit out we never had a chance.
Furthermore, what the hell are we still doing fighting this never ending battle for the detention of my son to be lifted? The policies and procedures of the laws were broken and lack of any preparation with no sufficient evidence to justify years in detention, then why is the case being postponed again. And again and again. Frankly I am scared for any other family that has interaction with this lawless agency in Fort Bragg and the social workers that run it. We will never be the same again. Ramafacations
This is the most depressing place we have ever had as a family, always having each other before this case and now courts being postpone again in 2019. My son will still be waiting a county away from his dad, unknown to any progress in the case getting stomped to the earth by not having genuine good people to show him love. He’s never understood why this case has happened in the first place and to this day still doesn’t comprehend why it’s continued.
My son was taken at 7 years old half the size he is today, they are not expediting this process so he’s forced to develop alike to the people around him, Subconsciously picking up habits both strange to his upbringing and not healthy as well as never accessing any truthful to facts from voices of reason.
My mother isn’t capable of critical thinking at all, when I presented her with a life threatening situation I was in from her husband; she decided to defend him over her own daughters safety. And dealt with me by dropping me off at age 17, bags of belongings,homeless in front of my high school. Thank god I met my husband soon after and have had 14 years of a struggling resilent life together since and made a miricle our son Elijah Vier.
These characteristics of abuse don’t die, it’s force of habit and all my mom knows, now my son is being abused like I was and I’ll have to take a really really really long time to reverse this physiological damage to my son. We all have traumatic PTSD and our son has been genetically modified since as well with vaccinations in the start of case without our consent. And changed his diet from non gmo to having his first happy meal in foster care. Changing us completely yet we still are an amazing family when we are allowed to be.
We’re all scarred, scared and totally beat up from trying to advocate for ourselves. After my sons second return to Dad, my saying was “We’ve been through a five round fight, and Won, but lost several limbs in the process.” Now that the fight has started over at square one; new judge, new D.A, new CPS Referral, new social worker on a rampage since last dec; it’s become an uphill battle.The violations of laws are so extensive and specific targeted for us that It’s extremely hard not to take personal.
We are finally out of Fort Bragg and getting access to services we never knew existed from self referrals after I took the time to study the Mhsa annual report update and find the services we needed.
In conclusion writing this letter is intended to inform the powers that be of the violations and lawlessness of the city of Fort Bragg
If no one is informed of their disregard for the law then it will never be addressed. Whomever is reading this now hopefully has the authority and title enough to report the city of Fort Bragg’s insane rule breaking or at least can publicize our story and help the truth be brought to light that discrimination of disability is prevailing in the coast and unregulated to the point of almost killing people and sucking souls up in the process.
Thanks for reading.
From the parent whom already lost parental right to only son by not having medication in time; now heartbroken and devastated completely.
Lauren
Moms Organic Bohemian Foodie Fun 