Thread by @designmom

My extended family has been thrown into a hellish nightmare. My nephew and his wife, who live in Boston, just had their two sons taken from them in the middle of the night by CPS. Their sons are 6 months old, and 3 1/2. A baby and a toddler, the baby still nursing.

Very late on Wednesday night, they took the baby into the emergency room because he had a high fever. In a scan, the hospital staff saw signs of a possible injury from 6 weeks ago, the parents weren’t aware of the injury, so the hospital suspected child abuse. CPS was called.

My nephew and his wife were in shock. They immediately complied with all CPS requests. The baby was seen by his usual pediatrician, who vouched for the parents and confirmed the baby was thriving in this family.

The doctor confirmed that she as the family pediatrician, who had seen and examined the kids many times, had seen no signs of child abuse for either the toddler or the baby. (I can vouch for the parents too—though I understand it may not mean as much to you since I’m their Aunt.)

The hospital ran more tests on the baby to check for drugs in his bloodstream or other signs of abuse, and the tests all came up clean. There was a house visit by CPS where it was confirmed there were no red flags and that nothing was out of order.

On Friday, during the day, the CPS agent told the family that he expected there would be no criminal charges and that the family would be able to keep custody during any further investigation. So the family relaxed a bit and hoped the worst of this nightmare was almost over.

And then, on Friday night at 1:00am (that’s very early Saturday morning), with no warning, CPS showed up at the house and took both the baby and the toddler. Just took them. Literally took the nursing baby from his mother’s breast.

CPS had no warrant, they came with no official paperwork—they can just show up and take your children, and give no information about where to find them. And if you resist, or try to fight it, that will be used against you in court as a sign that you are unfit to parent.

When your babies are ripped from your arms, and those babies start screaming as they are carried off in the middle of the night by strangers, you are expected to do the impossible: remain calm and take no action.

This article confirms the same thing:
newyorker.com/magazine/2017/…

CPS could have placed the baby and toddler with their grandparents (who were willing and available) keeping this family together as much as possible, but instead, put them in a foster home with complete strangers.

And now it’s the weekend. And the parents are absolutely devastated. There are no agencies or departments or courts that are open, where they can seek to be reunited with their children. So they’re just stuck, waiting and worrying.

They were told the paperwork won’t be filed until Monday, and the hearing will happen 72 hours after the filing. So that’s 5 or 6 days of family separation at _minimum_.

More on the harm of child removal here: scholarworks.law.ubalt.edu/cgi/viewconten…

The family has gone online to find hopeful stories, and to learn what this process is like and when they might realistically get their children back. But the internet has delivered a steady stream of horror stories about CPS. So many tales of families torn apart without cause.

They’ve learned that they may not be reunited as a family for many _months_ and they have essentially zero recourse. And remember, these are tiny children. This kind of family separation will create lifelong trauma for these kids.

If you have encouragement or advice for my nephew and his wife, please share. If you have experience with CPS and want to share, that would also be helpful. If you know of an excellent lawyer in Boston who is an expert in these types of cases, please let us know.

I'm so angry that there are no intermediary steps taken before a family is torn apart like this.💔

Hey all. Thank you for all the advice, emotional support, and lawyer recommendations. The parents have focused their energy on securing a lawyer. Grandparents are helping. Beyond that I sadly have no updates. We’re hoping there will be progress and news on Monday.

Monday updates (and they're not good):

It's 4:00pm in Boston. CPS/The Court still haven’t granted the mother (my nephew's wife) visitation rights to nurse her baby, even with supervision. The baby and toddler have been gone all of Saturday, Sunday, and now Monday.

CPS filed the papers with the court this morning, and the parents were told the judge would see them today. They would not say what the parents were being charged with, so the parents couldn't prepare a response.

The parents and their lawyer have remained at the court since this morning and just heard (at 4:00pm), that the case will be postponed "until later this week". They have still not been told what the charges are.

They've also been told that if they don't “win” this case when they see the judge this week, that the case will be ongoing for up to a year before the parents can take their kids home.

Here's a photo of my nephew's wife. To pump, she had to sit on the floor in the hallway of the juvenile courthouse, because the courthouse does not have a lactation room or outlets in the bathroom.

The first bit of good news: My nephew's wife is allowed to nurse the baby for 60 minutes once a day. My nephew is allowed to go with her. It's a small thing but has given our family some hope.

Wednesday updates: My nephew and his wife were able to read why CPS felt that the boys were in "imminent danger" (CPS says that has to be believed to do the child extraction). And remember, this is after the pediatrician vouched for them, and the hospital released the baby.

There were 3 reasons listed: 1) "Living in a neighborhood with not enough children." This is straight up punishing parents for not being rich. My nephew and his wife chose a "poor" neighborhood because they are trying to save up for a house, and it was convenient to their work.

CPS did a house visit, and confirmed the house is safe for children, with food in the fridge, and with no red flags. So now they're punishing the parents for not being able to afford a better neighborhood?

2) "The mother rolled her eyes when asked a question." Want to know what the question was? Here you go: "How often does your husband neglect his children?" I mean... I would have 100% rolled my eyes. What a manipulative thing to ask.

3) The last "evidence" was that "the mother cried when they wanted to give the baby another blood test." CPS said, "Her crying indicated that she was guilty." Keep in mind, they had already done 12 tests on the baby! And he was distressed by it!

The mother was crying because her baby was distressed by intrusive, painful medical care, and she couldn't do anything to prevent his further pain.

The idea that these 3 things add up to "imminent danger" is so ridiculous that my brain can't comprehend it.

The parents were also told that there is no way they will get full, unsupervised custody at the hearing. By not getting full custody, the parents will have to wait for A YEAR to have a full trial where there is a better chance of getting full custody.

And yes, the media has reached out to the parents, but their lawyers don't want them to talk to the press until after the hearing. They fear it will make CPS more determined to not look bad.

What a broken system! In order for CPS to justify taking these babies away from their parents, they will do everything they can to _prevent_ family reunification, and try to prove they were "correct."

If you are following this story, I have an update for you. My nephew's wife wrote up the whole awful experience (which is still not resolved). I've shared her report in a new thread. You can find it here:

Here is the latest update on this story:

Finally! A happier update! They just won their hearing! The court awarded custody back to my nephew and niece. More details from the hearing in this short thread: