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Foster Children or Political Pawns?
A West Virginia couple who had been fostering their 19-month old daughter since she was a few weeks old were recently allowed to keep her and proceed with adopting her, after an attempt to remove her from their home.
The little girl’s birth mother lost her parental rights after failing to improve her situation and the child was released for adoption. In spite of the fact that she had been in her foster home longer than her six foster siblings, and in spite of her foster mother’s expressed interest in permanently adopting her, Baby Girl C. was ordered removed and placed in a new home until she could be adopted by someone other than the parents who had fostered her since birth. The foster parents, supported by the state’s Department of Health and Human Resources won an appeal to the West Virginia supreme court, and retained custody of the girl whom they intend to adopt.
How could the child’s guardian ad litem and the initial ruling judge have come to a conclusion so clearly not in the best interest of a child? The foster parents were a lesbian couple. The child was ordered to be placed in a “traditional home with a mother and father” though state law provided for no such move on the part of a healthy, well cared-for child.
While West Virginia does not allow same-sex couples to adopt children together, the state does allow singles to adopt. One of the foster moms has already adopted a child through the foster system and both women have gone on to foster seven children together with the full endorsement of the state. In its ruling on the case, the West Virginia supreme court blasted the earlier decision:
“Despite the number of times that this court has stated the best interest of the child is the polar star upon which decisions involving children are to be based, DHHR did not even consider whether the individual needs of B.G.C. would be best served by removing her from petitioners’ care…”
And though part of the reasoning for the removal was also supposedly that the home had reached its legal limit of children, many of the children in the home had come more recently than Baby Girl C, and were far less bonded with the foster parents. The supreme court also called this part of the decision a violation of the best interest standard:
“The agency simply turned a blind eye to the fact that B.G.C. had been placed in the foster home a number of months before some of the other children then in the home, and ignored any consideration of the impact relocation would have on B.G.C.‘s emotional, physical and mental development.”
If you have a toddler, you can imagine how tearing that child from your own care and placing her/him in the care of another family might effect “emotional, physical and mental development” I’m sure. Would your toddler happily embrace “new parents” however more socially acceptable than you (perhaps wealthier, living in a nicer house, with a stay-at-home mom or some other “better” social status according to mainstream notions of better)? I thought not. Mine neither.
It’s time for adults to stop using children as hammers to pound their own ideologies and start really basing these kinds of decisions on the best interests of children.
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14 Comments
[...] Foster Kids or Political Pawns? [...]
Do You Have Family Pride? | Strollerderby commented on Jun 24 09 at 10:24 am[...] Foster Children, or Political Pawns? [...]
Single Black Women Step Up and Adopt | Strollerderby commented on Jul 07 09 at 2:00 pmleahsmom commented on Jun 20 09 at 1:57 pmWhy do most postings about babies and parents have a photograph of an actual baby, and a posting about foster children has a headless torso? It makes me feel like those “headless fatty” pictures people put up in articles about OMGFATWILLKILLZYOU (although obesity rates have held steady since 2004 and deaths from so called “obesity-related”) illnesses are on the decline. It dehumanizes the people we’re talking about – and those of us who have been (or who have) foster children know that we’re people too.
Twyla commented on Jun 20 09 at 2:59 pmleahsmom- In our state it is illegal to have pictures of foster children in any sort of media. They can not show the actual baby if the laws are the same in that state. My foster mom friend has to make sure to duck out of television cameras if she takes her foster kids to anything that the local news is covering. She is absolutely not allowed to have her kids printed in newspapers or on the internet either. It is for their safety.
As far as the article- my opinion aside, if the state is not going to allow gay couples to adopt then they should not allow them to foster. If they are good enough to foster, they are good enough to adopt.
Shannon LC Cate commented on Jun 20 09 at 3:24 pmLeah’s mom:
1) What Twyla said is universally true as far as I know.
2) the child in the photo is my (not foster) child and I don’t want her face here.
Portia commented on Jun 21 09 at 6:11 amA lot of people do not realise that this is a human experiment in creating as much trauma for babies, children and adults involved in order to cause soul fragmentation, making these human beings easier to control in the future.
So, now thse trauma clinics are opening up, making more money from the deliberate destruction of human souls.
We are nothing more than sacks of rice to the elite, who legally traffic children worldwide and use needy adults in their chess game.
Adopters are having their egos fed in order to use them to buy the children.
Let us humans face the truth- Georgia Tann- Baby Thief- with the help of a judge and others provided the present day lot of child snatchers with the legal way to do this.
Many children in “foster care” are also being drugged, raped, tortured, prostituted and used in porn and the corporate parent is loving every child destroyed in the process.
We humans need to wake up and learn who these evil people are and how Earth Children are a valuable commodity, easier to traffic than drugs and more lucrative too.
Portia commented on Jun 21 09 at 6:18 amWhy do most postings about babies and parents have a photograph of an actual baby, and a posting about foster children has a headless torso?
Because foster children are the possession of the corporate state, and like in Ireland over 80 years, the state can do as it pleases with these innocent children.
Foster children are frowned upon by those who believe in eugenics- bad genes, scrap heap children, thus giving the corporate state the excuse to dehumanise them as it wishes.
Let us learn from the misery suffered by irish and indigenous children over the years.
We did not stop the state snatching those children, now they come for ours and soon, all children will be removed at birth and given to brainwashed foster people who obey the master- no different to the Hitler era.
We would rather deny all this of course, as it is so hard to comprehend, but it is true and we have to face it.
Twyla commented on Jun 21 09 at 1:17 pmPortia- Seriously? Adoption through foster care is FREE. Yep, that’s right FREE! It is a way for children in bad homes to get loving families. And a way for people who can not/ do not have biological children to be able to raise children of their own in a stable, loving environment. That doesn’t sound like the rich now does it?
As far as not showing the heads of foster children that is a safety concern. These kids are taken from neglectful or abusive homes. These children need to not be found by their abusers. What do you think a biological abusive parent would do when thumbing through the Sunday news to see their bio kid smiling at a carnival or better yet participating in an event the bios would not like? It really is for their safety. Besides, most of these kids have been violated enough in their short little lives, we don’t need the media to get a hold of them also.
Not everything is a conspiracy theory. The foster parents I know are very good people. Some already have biological children and some that I know could not procreate nor did they have thirty thousand dollars to do a domestic adoption so foster care was a route they could afford while helping kids in desperate need.
While we will all admit we have heard of bad foster parents, I hope they are few and far between and that states will crack down on poor foster parenting homes. I would hope that the state could employ enough workers mixed with CASAs to check up on these precious kiddos. I think the amount of good foster homes far exceeds the amount of bad.
Ali commented on Jun 21 09 at 2:59 pmPortia wants abandoned and neglected children to wander the streets, homeless to avoid being owned by the state. I think you need to stop smoking pot.
leahsmom commented on Jun 22 09 at 12:49 pmBut I’m not saying put the actual foster kid in the photo – most of the photos here don’t seem to be photos of the actual content – many are simply stock photos. Why not use a stock photo of a baby with a head? I’ll even pay for the license for you! I understand the need to protect privacy, and support it – I didn’t say, put this kid’s face up. I asked, why use a headless body? Shannon, I like your answer – if it’s your kid, I understand totally your not wanting to post his or her head. But why not use a stock photo with a whole kid in it, instead of part of one? These choices do send a political message – especially when we post about biokids, with photos of whole kids, and nonbio kids, with photos of partial kids. I’m not saying you intended to send this message – I know that you are very aware and conscious. But I do feel that it’s a message some of us receive.
Shannon LC Cate commented on Jun 22 09 at 1:01 pmWe have to do a lot of tip-toeing in posting photos here, Leah’s mom. I was not comfortable posting a picture of some random child to illustrate a foster child, because for all I know, someone who knows that kid will be offended that I implied she had “unfit” parents. I could use some image like a flower–which is far less humanizing, if you ask me. Deciding to post this particular photo was a compromise. In fact, I chose this one because I took it headless originally. it was a picture of baby feet and hands, which people often find more personal than a face.
We obviously can’t please everyone, but this is the best I could come up with in the dance of whom and how I might offend. If it makes any difference, more thought went into this choice of picture than in most of my posts.
Sheri commented on Jun 22 09 at 11:27 pmIf these women are providing this child with a loving and stable home, then they should become her legal parents.
It is really none of the government’s business who people choose to love (unless it is an adult child thing….). It is also none of my business or the government’s what two adults choose to do in their bedroom. Which is really what is the issue is here. Gay people are people first…they have hearts and souls and are no different than anyone who is heterosexual. I don’t get not letting any loving couple or single person adopt or foster a child. And I’m Catholic and Republican….
Sheri commented on Jun 22 09 at 11:30 pmAnd Shannon, your little girl has cute feet!!! Who doesn’t love little baby toes!!!
Jessica Mcqueen commented on Aug 12 10 at 3:03 pmComments I’m glad that careing individuals are willing to step up to the plate to help care for children who are uprooted from their families.
I my self was taken away from my family at the age of 11. I lived with my dad and grandmother on a very large farm along with my brother and sister. At the time I didn’t understand why the police would show up at 3:00 am with guns to pack me and my brother and sister away from the farm which had every thing we needed. Food, water, shelter, and unlimited space to Rome. it’s now 18 years later. I’m adult with children of my own. 5 years ago my grandma died, 1/2 million dollar farm got sold and of course was split between my aunts and father, I was in foster care about 7 years and was emaciated at the age of 18. Now I think about it the state took us over the farm. 7 years in foster care charging my father child support. which he could not afford at the time, add that to the interest over time.
my father 2 years ago finally finished paying the state child support. now as child in states custody your life isn’t yours. Your classified as a case number. going from one home to the other. living with families who had their children. and be legal slave. being treated like your and alien corralled by state cover ups and heavy medications, I was robbed of my own family history. and I don’t get interest or any thing.
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