Cosmic Cowboy Oct 27, 2010





WNxOddJob posted: So 10 am this morning me and my wife are woken up by knocking on our door. It turns out our 5 year old daughter woke up early this morning, put on her coat and shoes, filled her own backpack with her school stuff, and proceeded to walk to school.



A family saw her walking, and commented that she did very well for her age (looked both ways before crossing, pushed traffic light buttons, waited for cars, ect.) and seemed to be well taking care of herself. They played with her for a while at the school playground before calling the police because they didn't know where she lived. The police officer showed up, was very polite, but had to call in a second officer. They investigated our house, which turned into a 2 hour bullying session by the second officer.



He continually said our house was a pit (we have laundry on the floor, and probably a few days of dishes on our table, I hadn't done them in a while), and a soft spot in the bedroom (the floor was giving out due to water damage in the bathroom. I've been fixing the holes as we find them. There's several obvious spots where I've fixed the damage.)



He however, proceeds to look at me and comment "Look at this, this...you're pathetic." and calls child protective services (CPS). The woman arrives, and pretty much agrees with the officer. The first officer was nice, and fairly understanding. In front of all three of them I informed them that once before CPS had been here, gave them the previous CPS agent's name and card (this was a year and a half ago) however this apparently meant nothing (the previous visit they said nothing was wrong with our home).



No warnings, nothing, she says she's taking our kids and putting them in foster care, and that tomorrow or tuesday we will have to go to court over custody of our children (a 5 year old girl and 9 month old boy).



I ask, if the house was "very clean" by the time they came tomorrow, if this would be over fast, and the second officer proceeded to laugh and said "that'd mean you worked all through the night. You won't have this clean within two weeks even.".



The woman also repeatedly told us we might lose our kids for good.



Tomorrow I will be speaking to an attorney. Do you think I have a leg to stand on in court? My wife is missing a lot of work due to the fact that she's out of her mind crying because they took her children. I called my professors in college and said I probably couldn't make it to class (near finals even) at least for mon/tue. so I'm around to deal with this because my wife obviously can't with how freaked out she is.



I've been told by several non-legal friends to see if I can sue for grievances/damages or whatever. I know little about this so I'm curious: did they do wrong? I've also been told by several others that you're supposed to usually get some warnings before they take the kids due to a messy home.



I don't know that this is relevant, but why were you getting up so late? Wouldn't your daughter's school start before ten?