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Again, what justifies the government taking a child from their parents? Could it be as simple as not knowing what “Hard Lemonade” is?
The way police and child protection workers figure it, Ratte should have known that what a Comerica Park vendor handed over when Ratte ordered a lemonade for his boy three Saturdays ago contained alcohol, and Ratte’s ignorance justified placing young Leo in foster care until his dad got up to speed on the commercial beverage industry.
The 7-year-old who showed no signs of inebriation was removed from his home and forced into foster care. And they wouldn’t let him be with his two aunts, one of which was a social worker and the other a licensed foster parent. Finally, the child was able to return in the custody of his mom, if his dad got a hotel room. And then it was dismissed.
So, you go to the ball game, get a lemonade for your child, and find yourself without you child for days, in court because of that ignorance, and you tell me that the government has the best interests of the child at heart?!
Part of the problem is the accountability, and the fact that CPS makes money off of how many children then have in protective care. This is just an incentive for overreach.
Maybe the law has changed, but can’t a child have alchohol as long as their parent gives them permission too?
@Loc: You would think so. What I found interesting in the article was that all these people kept saying “this is idiotic” and yet they “still had to obey orders”– except for the whole aunt thing.
In my opinion, the whole CPS system needs to be dismantled and reconstructed from the ground up with Parental rights in mind and presumption of innocence in anonymous phone calls and some method of appeal before the child is placed in foster care.
I support an appeal before allowing the child to be put in a foster home and priority for these cases, so misunderstandings won’t cause the child to be gone from his home for more than a week, but I’m not so sure about the presumption of innocence when you get the phone call.
My step-mother used to be a cps agent and the horror stories she has told me about the conditions some of these children live in (ten year olds that look like their six because of the malnutrition, untreated broken bones, and the like), have more than convinced me that a phone call should be enough to investigate. Otherwise, all an abusive parent would have to do is keep their child indoors at all times, and no one would be able to prove the abuse.
That is horrible. I’ve never heard of the stuff. The dad had to get a hotel room in order for his son to be returned? Crazy. Something definitely wrong with the system.
If they can take away a child for what should have seemed like a legitimate mistake, then watch out. It’s way too easy to fabricate reasons based on alleged abuse, especially in a culture bent on punishing Christians.
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Wow, I feel like a heathen. Not only do I know what a Mike’s Hard Lemonade is – I’ve had a few. The cranberry ones are yummy.
Yep. I’m a heathen.
But if the dad really didn’t know what it was, there should be no reason for an investigation. If I, on the other hand, gave one to a minor, y’all should investigate me.
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@AG: Just the name “Hard” would tip me off that something was up. But I’m a little more “in-the-know” than a college professor that’s more into ancient history than the current fads. For all I know he could have thought it was some kind of marketing. I’m sure he’ll be reading the packaging from now on.
And I’m one of those no-alcohol Christians, so I wouldn’t know what they taste like.