Found Deceased TX - Sherin Mathews, 3, Richardson, 7 Oct 2017 #6 *Arrest*

Momma2cam said:

I've experienced the same- including here on WS. It is frightening and raises red flags of some folks own emotional and mental stability to get so involved in cases of strangers that anyone who presents a differing viewpoint is labeled the enemy and harassed.

In regards to the local community's reaction, I do think as a past poster said, most comes from good intentions and the uneasiness of not wanting to give sympathy to a potentially responsible person. Of course, also the horrific nature of crimes against children and not being able to make sense of how it could happen at all, let alone happen in one's home without knowledge. But, I've spoken with countless parents who have cried, been suicidal, been diagnosed with PTSD, and questioned what is wrong with them that they missed the "signs" of their spouse sexually abusing their child. Or the guilt they feel in not leaving an abusive marriage before the abuse expanded to be directed also at the children. I choose empathy and withhold judging how I believe someone is supposed to respond to tragedy as my lens and experiences are likely not the same. I am not convinced she knew about what happened and until evidence surfaces saying otherwise, she'll continue to get my empathy. JMO.

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Grouchymom said:

Actually the initial emergency removal is at the discretion of the on call social worker that catches the complaint. The first court hearing is in reality the first time a judge begins control. That being said I want to recount the best I can without breaching confidentiality the first case I had as a Guardian ad Litem volunteer (CASA, held advocate). It was a sibling group of 4 children. The gende was split.

They had been removed under an emergency order when a parent locked the. In the house packed the fireplace and chimney with paper, chopped up furniture adding to wood to a fireplace stopped up with paper, set the fire and left. This family had a long history with DSS/CPS/DFACS/DCF and everytime they had a good enough case to remove the children they move across jurisdictional lines. There were a ton of suspicions but the original removal order was only for endangerment due to the fire.

When I first interviewed the children they told me a bevy of horror stories confirming all of the suspicions and more. The problem was without the new allegations could not be presented in the court hearing because they were not in the original removal order. I paced and researched trying to find a way to get the info in front of the Judge so he wouldn’t return the children until we could get the new charges added. We knew they were experts at “looking good” in court and then they would be gone again.

I knew I couldn’t use trigger words like sexual abuse in my report to the court but I finally thought I had a way to get the Judge to see what I had heard. I very carefully included a quote from one of the children about a foreign object he had been penetrated with in the child’s on words. I was so confident that any reasonable person would understand what the child said. Then the case was called and without even looking at the report the Judge ordered them returned. I was devastated. I cried all of the way home and for a good while after arriving. Unfortunately for the Judge we were both scheduled to attend the same dinner a few days later. I walked up to him and asked to see him in less crowded area. We walked away from the crows and I began with, “WHAT IN THE HE11 IS WRONG WITH YOU? I began to cry all over and I broke the law by discussing the case and telling him the entire story. Of course I had gotten the call that the social worked made a surprise visit earlier in the day and SURPRISE they were gone. When I finally took a breath between sobs and rants the Judge looked at and said he was sorry his elderly parents were not doing well and he had been preoccupied. I hope you can imagine my response to that. You see we were in a state that Judges were elected not appointed and I was extremely active politically at that time. I told him to enjoy the rest of his term. Sure enough I invested a lot of time and energy but that was his last term. I was never able to track the children down again and after a few years stopped trying. It was before the internet and I had talked repeatedly with social services in every county in my state and surrounding states. I never did see anything about them in the news and that was all of the solace I could get. I know if any of the 4 survived they had a miserable life and odds are they grew up to continue the cycle. I can still feel the arms of the youngest around my neck refusing to let go.

My my point is that it really isn’t as black and white as it appears when it comes to social services intervention with children. There are so many technicalities that make it nearly impossible to truly do what is in the best interest of the child. Many of us have tried, many that came behind us tried and there will be more to come. The case of sweet little Adrian Jones brought all of my old emotions from this case back to the surface for me as his father and step-mother were so adept at crossing jurisdictional lines to avoid help for Adrian.

I am often hyper-critical of social workers because I have experienced my share and a few more that just barely go through the motions for a paycheck either they are burned out, disillusioned or got into the wrong line of work. It is so much easier to attack those that don’t fit the mold than it is to go after the ones who need to be stopped because they already know how to play the system and their children almost always lose. I didn’t. Ran to write a novella but unfortunately this is not a subject that allows for few words.

I speak often of my sweet Katie (below) but she was lucky and had a wonderful social worker when she was first taken in DSS custody. She was a 24 week preemie with no pre-natal care and bio was arrested drunk and disorderly during the pregnancy. Bio (I can’t add Mom it turns my stomach) was not young she had several children 3 - 18. After 6 and 1/2 months in the NICU and lost of problems she left the hospital with bio. The first neglect report came into DSS in less than 30 days. They tried working with her to no avail and 4 months after leaving the NICU police broke down the door, retrieved Katie from a pile of trash and feces while it was passed out on the sofa. She was handed off to presumptive dad who was living with his mother and the 3 yr old. Katie never cried to be fed so she often wasn’t when she was it was often soft drinks. In less than 30 days she was well below the weight she left the hospital at and in failure to thrive. She was airlifted to the hospital and while there the dna paternity tests came back and presumptive dad was off the hook.

She went to a foster home that was trying to adopt 2 young boys after about 30 days that said that she was too much for them due to her medical issues and havi g to deal with Bio. She went to another foster it didn’t last much longer and disrupted for different reasons. She was sent to another home and was there a week when we got the call. We were in the process of getting g ready to get a 4 sibling group to adopt but still said yes. (the sibling group fell through later) She was so ill when we picked her up that we went to the ER and she was airlifted to Duke and our first 3 days with her was I the PICU the next 3 in the peds unit. I ran across the obituary for Bio and found that she died of a fentanyl overdose about a year and a half after Katie’s adoption.(I try to do an offender search every month or so just to know where the bios are) The rest is history.

For a year and a half we drove to Boston, Mass from NC once a month for a clinical trial that improved her ability to communicate tremendously. It took me over a year of begging and pleading to get her considered for the trial. When we first thought of adopting again so many people said it would keep us young. Please don’t believe that bunk. I have aged 40 years in the last 10. But I would do it all over again knowing what I know now. Now you know the beginning and the end (current) story of my Katie perhaps the next time I can’t stop my fingers I will finish up with the middle.

I am sure there are tons of typos and bizarre spellcheck substitutions but it I proof read this I will never hit the post button.

If any of you have the IPad Pro 12.9 inch I need to ask, since IOS 11 launched are you having difficulty with the screen sensitivity when using the keyboard?

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Momma2cam said:

Your passion is evident and I thank you for the work you've done!

I've worked with this system for over a decade in both residential treatment and currently at a Children's Advocacy Center. I've worked with workers who I felt were not doing their job. I've called supervisors and section managers, requested new workers, conducted trainings on trauma to CPS and judges to explain recantation is normal, and I've testified in numerous cases on behalf of the victim, prosecution, and AG (termination hearings).

I've seen cases that judges removed children with little apparent justification and I've left wondering what did I miss?! I've worked with cases that there was so much evidence it didn't make sense that the children continued to be reunified. The system is faulty but the overwhelming majority of workers are doing the best they can within that system. There is a more recent trend toward vilifying CPS workers for intervening in typical parenting (free range parenting) while at the same time holding them accountable for not doing more in cases that ultimately ends in child death or severe abuse. At the onset, sometimes these cases don't look much different. Again, hindsight is 20/20.

I often get lumped in to "the system" because our agency assists in interviewing children for the CPS and LE investigations yet we have no independent investigation or impact on the petition or decision to remove. Still, I have received threats from angry parents. CPS workers get threats daily. It is a role that you couldn't pay me enough to do but such a vital and important role. I'm just very careful not to generalize the entire group over a few that got into the wrong profession. The majority get into this field due to passion- the amount of education required for the mediocre pay at best certainly does not draw a large amount of "doing it for the paycheck" folks. JMO.

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Grouchymom said:

I admire anyone who speaks out when necessary to benefit children. Thank you for your career choice.

I hope I didn’t sound like I was criticizing all social workers. What I was trying to say is that I am guilty of being hyper-critical at times due to my decades of experience with the system. There are many that should in all honesty find a new jobs but those that are good at what they do and a credit to the department exist and need to be used as a model for others. Unfortunately many of those burn out because they do care. One can only have their heart ripped out so many times before giving up or going numb. The best social worker I ever had the pleasure to work with is now an office manager in a business totally unrelated. I have often thought that child protection workers should rotate job positions with other depts like adult protection services in order to give them decompress time and help avoid burn out.

It it is a system that desperately needs help but you can’t just close for reorganization.

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Momma2cam said:

Oh, I understand your perspective and agree with you. It is hard work. Therapists working with this population have similar burnout rates- usually about 2 years. It takes a lot of good supervision, self care, passion, and drive/Advocacy to last longer. The system is flawed but there is no easy fix.

I think it is important to evaluate cases that do end poorly with prior CPS contact and assess what, if anything, could have been done differently. I'm not sure we will ever know the details regarding the prior CPS involvement with Sherin's family but do hope that there is an internal thorough case review.

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Grouchymom said:

Actually the initial emergency removal is at the discretion of the on call social worker that catches the complaint. The first court hearing is in reality the first time a judge begins control. That being said I want to recount the best I can without breaching confidentiality the first case I had as a Guardian ad Litem volunteer (CASA, held advocate). It was a sibling group of 4 children. The gende was split.

They had been removed under an emergency order when a parent locked the. In the house packed the fireplace and chimney with paper, chopped up furniture adding to wood to a fireplace stopped up with paper, set the fire and left. This family had a long history with DSS/CPS/DFACS/DCF and everytime they had a good enough case to remove the children they move across jurisdictional lines. There were a ton of suspicions but the original removal order was only for endangerment due to the fire.

When I first interviewed the children they told me a bevy of horror stories confirming all of the suspicions and more. The problem was without the new allegations could not be presented in the court hearing because they were not in the original removal order. I paced and researched trying to find a way to get the info in front of the Judge so he wouldn’t return the children until we could get the new charges added. We knew they were experts at “looking good” in court and then they would be gone again.

I knew I couldn’t use trigger words like sexual abuse in my report to the court but I finally thought I had a way to get the Judge to see what I had heard. I very carefully included a quote from one of the children about a foreign object he had been penetrated with in the child’s on words. I was so confident that any reasonable person would understand what the child said. Then the case was called and without even looking at the report the Judge ordered them returned. I was devastated. I cried all of the way home and for a good while after arriving. Unfortunately for the Judge we were both scheduled to attend the same dinner a few days later. I walked up to him and asked to see him in less crowded area. We walked away from the crows and I began with, “WHAT IN THE HE11 IS WRONG WITH YOU? I began to cry all over and I broke the law by discussing the case and telling him the entire story. Of course I had gotten the call that the social worked made a surprise visit earlier in the day and SURPRISE they were gone. When I finally took a breath between sobs and rants the Judge looked at and said he was sorry his elderly parents were not doing well and he had been preoccupied. I hope you can imagine my response to that. You see we were in a state that Judges were elected not appointed and I was extremely active politically at that time. I told him to enjoy the rest of his term. Sure enough I invested a lot of time and energy but that was his last term. I was never able to track the children down again and after a few years stopped trying. It was before the internet and I had talked repeatedly with social services in every county in my state and surrounding states. I never did see anything about them in the news and that was all of the solace I could get. I know if any of the 4 survived they had a miserable life and odds are they grew up to continue the cycle. I can still feel the arms of the youngest around my neck refusing to let go.

My my point is that it really isn’t as black and white as it appears when it comes to social services intervention with children. There are so many technicalities that make it nearly impossible to truly do what is in the best interest of the child. Many of us have tried, many that came behind us tried and there will be more to come. The case of sweet little Adrian Jones brought all of my old emotions from this case back to the surface for me as his father and step-mother were so adept at crossing jurisdictional lines to avoid help for Adrian.

I am often hyper-critical of social workers because I have experienced my share and a few more that just barely go through the motions for a paycheck either they are burned out, disillusioned or got into the wrong line of work. It is so much easier to attack those that don’t fit the mold than it is to go after the ones who need to be stopped because they already know how to play the system and their children almost always lose. I didn’t. Ran to write a novella but unfortunately this is not a subject that allows for few words.

I speak often of my sweet Katie (below) but she was lucky and had a wonderful social worker when she was first taken in DSS custody. She was a 24 week preemie with no pre-natal care and bio was arrested drunk and disorderly during the pregnancy. Bio (I can’t add Mom it turns my stomach) was not young she had several children 3 - 18. After 6 and 1/2 months in the NICU and lost of problems she left the hospital with bio. The first neglect report came into DSS in less than 30 days. They tried working with her to no avail and 4 months after leaving the NICU police broke down the door, retrieved Katie from a pile of trash and feces while it was passed out on the sofa. She was handed off to presumptive dad who was living with his mother and the 3 yr old. Katie never cried to be fed so she often wasn’t when she was it was often soft drinks. In less than 30 days she was well below the weight she left the hospital at and in failure to thrive. She was airlifted to the hospital and while there the dna paternity tests came back and presumptive dad was off the hook.

She went to a foster home that was trying to adopt 2 young boys after about 30 days that said that she was too much for them due to her medical issues and havi g to deal with Bio. She went to another foster it didn’t last much longer and disrupted for different reasons. She was sent to another home and was there a week when we got the call. We were in the process of getting g ready to get a 4 sibling group to adopt but still said yes. (the sibling group fell through later) She was so ill when we picked her up that we went to the ER and she was airlifted to Duke and our first 3 days with her was I the PICU the next 3 in the peds unit. I ran across the obituary for Bio and found that she died of a fentanyl overdose about a year and a half after Katie’s adoption.(I try to do an offender search every month or so just to know where the bios are) The rest is history.

For a year and a half we drove to Boston, Mass from NC once a month for a clinical trial that improved her ability to communicate tremendously. It took me over a year of begging and pleading to get her considered for the trial. When we first thought of adopting again so many people said it would keep us young. Please don’t believe that bunk. I have aged 40 years in the last 10. But I would do it all over again knowing what I know now. Now you know the beginning and the end (current) story of my Katie perhaps the next time I can’t stop my fingers I will finish up with the middle.

I am sure there are tons of typos and bizarre spellcheck substitutions but it I proof read this I will never hit the post button.

If any of you have the IPad Pro 12.9 inch I need to ask, since IOS 11 launched are you having difficulty with the screen sensitivity when using the keyboard?

Click to expand...

Karinna said:

I would think prior CPS involvement with Sherin's family was because of the reporting feedback required in regard to her OS adoption by a social worker. I think the reports were x4 times in the first year of her adoption and then x2 in the second year from my recollection of reading about it.

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Rocco said:

Maybe. But if that was the case, wouldn't you think her attorneys would be more than happy to get that information out to the public, rather than let them speculate (which many have) that the involvement of CPS was in relation to something much more nefarious.

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Rocco said:

Maybe. But if that was the case, wouldn't you think her attorneys would be more than happy to get that information out to the public, rather than let them speculate (which many have) that the involvement of CPS was in relation to something much more nefarious.

Click to expand...

Grouchymom said:

Actually the initial emergency removal is at the discretion of the on call social worker that catches the complaint. The first court hearing is in reality the first time a judge begins control. That being said I want to recount the best I can without breaching confidentiality the first case I had as a Guardian ad Litem volunteer (CASA, held advocate). It was a sibling group of 4 children. The gende was split.

They had been removed under an emergency order when a parent locked the. In the house packed the fireplace and chimney with paper, chopped up furniture adding to wood to a fireplace stopped up with paper, set the fire and left. This family had a long history with DSS/CPS/DFACS/DCF and everytime they had a good enough case to remove the children they move across jurisdictional lines. There were a ton of suspicions but the original removal order was only for endangerment due to the fire.

When I first interviewed the children they told me a bevy of horror stories confirming all of the suspicions and more. The problem was without the new allegations could not be presented in the court hearing because they were not in the original removal order. I paced and researched trying to find a way to get the info in front of the Judge so he wouldn’t return the children until we could get the new charges added. We knew they were experts at “looking good” in court and then they would be gone again.

I knew I couldn’t use trigger words like sexual abuse in my report to the court but I finally thought I had a way to get the Judge to see what I had heard. I very carefully included a quote from one of the children about a foreign object he had been penetrated with in the child’s on words. I was so confident that any reasonable person would understand what the child said. Then the case was called and without even looking at the report the Judge ordered them returned. I was devastated. I cried all of the way home and for a good while after arriving. Unfortunately for the Judge we were both scheduled to attend the same dinner a few days later. I walked up to him and asked to see him in less crowded area. We walked away from the crows and I began with, “WHAT IN THE HE11 IS WRONG WITH YOU? I began to cry all over and I broke the law by discussing the case and telling him the entire story. Of course I had gotten the call that the social worked made a surprise visit earlier in the day and SURPRISE they were gone. When I finally took a breath between sobs and rants the Judge looked at and said he was sorry his elderly parents were not doing well and he had been preoccupied. I hope you can imagine my response to that. You see we were in a state that Judges were elected not appointed and I was extremely active politically at that time. I told him to enjoy the rest of his term. Sure enough I invested a lot of time and energy but that was his last term. I was never able to track the children down again and after a few years stopped trying. It was before the internet and I had talked repeatedly with social services in every county in my state and surrounding states. I never did see anything about them in the news and that was all of the solace I could get. I know if any of the 4 survived they had a miserable life and odds are they grew up to continue the cycle. I can still feel the arms of the youngest around my neck refusing to let go.

My my point is that it really isn’t as black and white as it appears when it comes to social services intervention with children. There are so many technicalities that make it nearly impossible to truly do what is in the best interest of the child. Many of us have tried, many that came behind us tried and there will be more to come. The case of sweet little Adrian Jones brought all of my old emotions from this case back to the surface for me as his father and step-mother were so adept at crossing jurisdictional lines to avoid help for Adrian.

I am often hyper-critical of social workers because I have experienced my share and a few more that just barely go through the motions for a paycheck either they are burned out, disillusioned or got into the wrong line of work. It is so much easier to attack those that don’t fit the mold than it is to go after the ones who need to be stopped because they already know how to play the system and their children almost always lose. I didn’t. Ran to write a novella but unfortunately this is not a subject that allows for few words.

I speak often of my sweet Katie (below) but she was lucky and had a wonderful social worker when she was first taken in DSS custody. She was a 24 week preemie with no pre-natal care and bio was arrested drunk and disorderly during the pregnancy. Bio (I can’t add Mom it turns my stomach) was not young she had several children 3 - 18. After 6 and 1/2 months in the NICU and lost of problems she left the hospital with bio. The first neglect report came into DSS in less than 30 days. They tried working with her to no avail and 4 months after leaving the NICU police broke down the door, retrieved Katie from a pile of trash and feces while it was passed out on the sofa. She was handed off to presumptive dad who was living with his mother and the 3 yr old. Katie never cried to be fed so she often wasn’t when she was it was often soft drinks. In less than 30 days she was well below the weight she left the hospital at and in failure to thrive. She was airlifted to the hospital and while there the dna paternity tests came back and presumptive dad was off the hook.

She went to a foster home that was trying to adopt 2 young boys after about 30 days that said that she was too much for them due to her medical issues and havi g to deal with Bio. She went to another foster it didn’t last much longer and disrupted for different reasons. She was sent to another home and was there a week when we got the call. We were in the process of getting g ready to get a 4 sibling group to adopt but still said yes. (the sibling group fell through later) She was so ill when we picked her up that we went to the ER and she was airlifted to Duke and our first 3 days with her was I the PICU the next 3 in the peds unit. I ran across the obituary for Bio and found that she died of a fentanyl overdose about a year and a half after Katie’s adoption.(I try to do an offender search every month or so just to know where the bios are) The rest is history.

For a year and a half we drove to Boston, Mass from NC once a month for a clinical trial that improved her ability to communicate tremendously. It took me over a year of begging and pleading to get her considered for the trial. When we first thought of adopting again so many people said it would keep us young. Please don’t believe that bunk. I have aged 40 years in the last 10. But I would do it all over again knowing what I know now. Now you know the beginning and the end (current) story of my Katie perhaps the next time I can’t stop my fingers I will finish up with the middle.

I am sure there are tons of typos and bizarre spellcheck substitutions but it I proof read this I will never hit the post button.

If any of you have the IPad Pro 12.9 inch I need to ask, since IOS 11 launched are you having difficulty with the screen sensitivity when using the keyboard?

Click to expand...

Karinna said:

Perhaps, but i don't think SM's attorney really gives a toss what the general public wishes to speculate about, IMO.
Also i think CPS involvement with any adoption or foster care situations is very confidential and protected information as well.

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Grouchymom said:

Studies have prove that children who are taken into social services custody regress developmentally 6 months to a year and every time they are moved from foster home to another home, group care or adoptive home they regress 6 to a year. Even if Sherin was on task developmentally when she was adopted she would have regressed form the move. That alone could account for her “special needs” and being minimally verbal. Couple that with the language barrier and it would be shocking if her speech were not delayed. We have sen and heard a lot of gossip regarding her closeness to WM but since he was the only one to speak Hindi (the only language she knew pre-adoption it is reasonable that she would bond with him first and strongest.

JMHO

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Doghairrules said:

And even more horrifying that he did something to cause her death. [emoji22]


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CTHR said:

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Karinna said:

BBM, wouldn't that come under the U.S. laws of committing a cyber crime?

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CTHR said:

CoydidtidtiwjgxgnZvjehXkhzhrxkyzeyUraizeuRars zodiac djditstufksitxitsitaztisoydepdigkxizkaursuraeusiyclcfjzfj kgzkt mvruzkyrkztixitxgl

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Wyle_E_Coyote said:

I disagree.

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flute4peace said:

Kinda on the fence, myself.

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