Original Post Date
2001-11-13 12:00 AM
Original Body
pstrongHow Do I Help My Daughter?br /br /
Carmen's* Story/strong/p
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pI knew that there was something wrong with my daughter. I knewbr /
that she was sick, had some sort of illness that was making her continue tobr /
gain weight. She just kept gaining and gaining, and I knew that her healthbr /
was at risk. What I didn'tbr /
know was how to help her. All I could do was try to take care of her inbr /
the best way, the only way that I knew how. No parent wants to sit therebr /
and watch their child become sicker and sicker, weaker and weaker. Nobr /
parent wants to believe that they are helpless to aid their child, or evenbr /
worse, that they are making their child even more ill. But then again,br /
there is no parent who could find it easy to deny their child food, tobr /
forcefully stop her from eating when all she can do is plead for more./p
pWe were trying to help our daughter. We took her to doctors, andbr /
all they did was confuse us even more. No one seemed able to give us anybr /
real answers about what was happening to her. So when Child Protectivebr /
Services came to take her away that day, we could say nothing to defendbr /
themselves. Watching my daughter being taken away from us, seeing her inbr /
so much fear, so much misery, it was like my whole world was falling apart.br /
Not only was this poor little child facing this terrible illness, but nowbr /
she was being removed from the only family that she ever knew, the onlybr /
people who had ever nurtured and loved her. Why these people believed thatbr /
foster parents, strangers, in fact, could take better care of our daughterbr /
than we could, I will never know. All I do understand is that instead ofbr /
helping us, instead of keeping us united as a family, and providing us withbr /
the resources and information that we needed to battle my daughtersbr /
condition and the resulting weight problem, these officials ripped mybr /
family apart. The very organization whose job it is to work for andbr /
protect children and families decided instead to subject a defenselessbr /
three- year- old girl to a trauma like none she had ever known before./p
pNow we know that my daughter probably has a disease that preventsbr /
her from ever knowing that she is full. She gets no satisfaction frombr /
eating, and that's why she can't seem to stop. Instead of helping us tobr /
learn about this disease and how to help her, however, C.P.S. and thebr /
courts have kept us and our daughter apart. Not only are we facing abr /
struggle against my daughter's health problems, but now we are alsobr /
dealing with another tragedy: the separation that our family has had tobr /
endure, and the trauma that my daughter experienced because of it./p
pi*names changed to protect identity./i/p
pbCourtWatch Responds***/b
/ppIn the case of Carmen* and her daughter, the staff at CourtWatchbr /
felt immediately obligated to assist and advocate for this family in anybr /
way that we could.br /
We first heard about this injustice on a talk radio show on KGO. Itbr /
captured our attention because Carmen's daughter was removed from herbr /
parents' care with little or no investigation of her health condition, evenbr /
though there was a strong possibility that her weight was a result of abr /
rare disorder and not neglect on the part of her family. Rather thanbr /
offering to help Carmen's family find the resources that they needed tobr /
address their daughter's problem, Child Protective Services criminalizedbr /
the parents and mercilessly ripped their child away from them, placing herbr /
in the care of foster parents who knew even less about her condition thanbr /
Carmen and her husband./p
pBecause the case received a great deal of attention from the media,br /
the judge instituted a gag order, and the staff at Poor Magazine was unablebr /
to receive any further information about the case or to make contact withbr /
the family itself. Since we felt that it was imperative to offer thembr /
whatever help we could, however, we decided to advocate for Carmen and herbr /
husband in the form of a series of communications with the judge who heardbr /
the case and the C.P.S. worker who was handling it. We also attempted tobr /
contact the families' attorney, and made numerous calls to his officebr /
offering our assistance, but as of yet we have not heard from him./p
pAs soon as we hear any news regarding this case and/or others likebr /
it, Poor Magazine will include that timely information in the CourtWatchbr /
column./p
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