Tag: child protective services

Children removed from Australian-British couple living off-grid in Italian forest

The children of an Australian mother living off-grid in an Italian forest have been removed by local authorities, after the family came under scrutiny when they were hospitalised due to eating poisonous mushrooms.

A juvenile court in the Italian city of L’Aquila ruled last week to place the three children of Australian woman Catherine Birmingham and her British husband Nathan Trevallion into protective care.

The court cited poor sanitary conditions at the family’s home in the mountainous Abruzzo region and unauthorised homeschooling of their eight-year-old daughter and six-year-old twin boys, according to AFP.

Ms Birmingham, a life coach and former horse riding teacher from Melbourne, bought the farmhouse in 2021 with Mr Trevallion, a former chef from Bristol.

They were raising the children in the woodlands home without mains electricity, water or gas, relying instead on solar power, well water and homegrown food.

“The members of the Trevallion family have no social interactions, no steady income,” the court said in its written ruling.

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I Lost My Freedom, Money, And Guns Based On No Evidence And With No Chance To Defend Myself

Three weeks. That’s how long I was separated from my daughter. No trial. No crime. No violence. Just a single sheet of paper — a Protection from Abuse Order, or PFA — a civil court order meant to prevent harm, often issued on little more than an accusation. It can strip someone of contact with his or her children, home, and firearms — without a criminal charge. That paper took my daughter away from me.

I was only 23.

My daughter was just a few months old. I was still learning how to be a dad — still learning the rhythms of fatherhood. Then she was gone. A sheriff handed me the order at my front door. I knew I was in for an uphill battle.

Over the next three weeks, I scrambled to find an attorney, build a defense, and dig through evidence to prove my innocence. Those weeks didn’t just take away my daughter. They took away my dignity. My voice. And for a time, my will to speak. 

The State of Exception

Legal theorist Carl Schmitt once wrote: “Sovereign is he who decides the exception.” In other words, the true power of the state lies not in making laws, but in deciding when the law no longer applies. The sovereign is the one who can suspend the rules in the name of security, order, or necessity. Philosopher Giorgio Agamben built on this idea, warning that modern states increasingly rule through exceptions — moments when the law suspends itself in the name of preserving order.

Most people think of these exceptions in cinematic terms, such as Abraham Lincoln suspending habeas corpus during the Civil War, the War on Terror and Guantanamo Bay, lockdowns during the Covid-19 pandemic.

But a quieter kind happens in family court every day. No headlines. No outrage. Just a form, a sheriff, and silence.

That’s what a PFA is. It suspends due process, assumes guilt, and punishes before harm occurs. It creates what Agamben called a “zone of indistinction” — where someone is both inside the law and excluded from its protections. The man served a PFA becomes what Agamben called the Homo Sacer: not just punished without trial, but guilty until proven innocent.

This isn’t tyranny in jackboots. It’s softer. Bureaucratic. A form, not a trial. Control, not compassion. It’s preemptive punishment. 

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Child Protective Services Investigated Her 4 Times Because She Let Her Kids Play Outside

Parenting expectations are often unreasonably high—and so is the number of people who believe that kids can’t handle anything on their own.

Passersby too often see an unsupervised child and assume they are unsafe. So they call the authorities, who also often share those super-sized fears. Then parents get investigated simply for trusting their kids with some age-appropriate, location-appropriate independence.

Because of this frustrating cycle, I frequently get letters like the one below. When people ask why I spend so much time trying to pass Reasonable Childhood Independence laws, it’s for people like Emily Fields and her children. Fields is a mom in small-town Virginia who responded to my nonprofit Let Grow’s call for parents willing to speak to child protective services about why such laws are necessary. (Virginia unanimously passed its Reasonable Childhood Independence law in 2023.)

This letter is presented as a stark example of how little trust our country has in its parents and children anymore—and how misanthropic neighbors can weaponize the state at will.

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Child advocate blames Democrat governor for 6th child death related to family safety dept: ‘There is blood on the governor’

The tragic death of another child in New Mexico has prompted a child advocate to blame the governor and the children’s safety agency that had been warned about the threat.

Vanessa Chavez was charged with child abuse resulting in death after her 18-month-old daughter was found unresponsive and died after 20 minutes of CPR, Albuquerque police said. The girl’s death is the sixth in only four months of incidents that involved the state’s Children, Youth & Families Department, according to KOB-TV.

New Mexico Child First Network founder Maralyn Beck said the death was preventable and places the blame squarely on the governor as well as the child safety agency.

“Every single one of these deaths was preventable,” Beck said to KOB.

She added: “This is on the governor. There is blood on the governor at this point.”

The child had been taken away from Chavez when she was born premature because the girl had been drug-exposed. KOB reports that the girl was returned to the parents for a trial period and died soon afterward.

“One call to child protective services in a functioning system should save the life of a child,” an emotional Beck said. “One single call. That’s a functioning system, and we don’t have that.”

KOB put the criticism to Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, and she said that it would be a priority for her office as she nears the end of her term but admitted that the agency had troubles.

“You’re chasing your tail, and we’ve been chasing our tail for decades,” she said.

When asked if she was going to make progress in the 18 months she has left, she responded, “We’re gonna make some damn important progress, yes sir.”

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HORROR: 3-Year-Old Boy Dies in Hot Car While with Child Services — Government Took Him From Father, Then Left Him to Die

A horrifying failure of state “oversight” led to the death of a 3-year-old boy after he was abandoned for five hours inside a sweltering vehicle by a child welfare contractor hired by the Alabama Department of Human Resources (DHR).

Ke’Torrius “KJ” Starks Jr. was taken from his family and placed into the care of a foster system that was supposed to protect him.

He was picked up from daycare at 9:00 a.m. for a court-ordered supervised visit with his biological father, which ended at 11:30 a.m., according to People.

Instead of returning him to daycare, he was allegedly abandoned in a hot car for five hours while a DHR contract worker ran errands for herself—including picking up food for her family and shopping at a tobacco store, according to the family’s attorney.

The incident took place Tuesday in Birmingham as temperatures soared above 100 degrees.

The heat index reached 108°F, meaning the temperature inside the vehicle likely exceeded a deadly 150°F, according to attorney Courtney French.

More from People:

French says that the worker, who was employed to do transport through Covenant Services Inc., went Tuesday morning to pick KJ up from a child care center to bring him for a supervised visit with his dad.

Afterward, however, the worker did not bring the boy back to his center and instead decided “to run numerous personal errands with KJ still in a car seat in the back,” French claims. The stops including getting food and going to a tobacco shop.

The employee then went home but KJ was left in the car, according to French.

“The safety net that should have been in place to protect KJ and others like him is what caused his death,” French says. “So the very system that is in place for his protection was the system that led to his death — and that’s what’s so tragic about this.”

DHR says, “A child in DHR custody was being transported by a contract provider,” and confirmed the provider has fired the employee—yet refuses to disclose identity, safety protocols, or any meaningful accountability, citing confidentiality laws.

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Hospital Retaliates For Home Birth By Calling CPS & Then Forced HIV Medicine For Newborn!!!

I’m writing to you with a story that has shaken me to the core; not just because of what happened to us, but because I now understand just how vulnerable parents are when we choose a path that challenges institutional norms.

My wife and I chose a homebirth for our son because we believe birth is sacred. We wanted to welcome our child into the world in an environment filled with peace, warmth, and autonomy — not fluorescent lights, hospital monitors, or rushed protocols. Our son was born safely and beautifully at home, surrounded by calm, intention, and love.

It was, in every way, the birth we had hoped for.

About 30 minutes after delivery, we noticed the placenta hadn’t yet detached. We weren’t panicked — we were informed and prepared — but we decided to transfer to the hospital out of an abundance of caution. We drove there ourselves. My wife was treated, blood was drawn, and we were discharged shortly afterward. Everything seemed routine.

That illusion shattered just two hours later, when we received a call from Child Protective Services. Then, we called the hospital to get the test results: my wife had tested HIV Reactive on the rapid HIV test.

We returned voluntarily to the hospital under the guise that we were only coming in seeking clarity and confirmatory testing. Instead of support, we were met with force and coercion. We were told the rapid test had a 99.7% accuracy, this is inaccurate and incomplete information. With extremely low risk groups and immune disorders the likelihood of false positives is up to 60%.

We were told our newborn would be given antiretroviral drugs, “by force or by choice.” When we asked for time, information, or to wait for confirmatory testing, we were denied. When we attempted to leave, armed guards met us from two separate hallways blocking us in the NICU unit.

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Massachusetts Couple Accused of ‘Kidnapping’ Their Own Five Children from State Custody

A Massachusetts couple is facing serious charges after allegedly kidnapping their five children, who had been placed in the custody of the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families (DCF).

Isael Rivera, 31, and Ruth Encarnacion, 30, were located by Fitchburg Police in early March, after a multi-state manhunt.

The couple is accused of taking the children across state lines in an attempt to evade DCF intervention.

Authorities believe the family fled Massachusetts shortly before the state attempted to enforce child protective measures, according to WCVB 5.
Rivera, the biological father of four of the five children, was arraigned last week in Fitchburg District Court. A not-guilty plea was entered on his behalf, and he is currently being held without bail, WHDH reported.

Encarnacion, the mother of all five children, is scheduled to be arraigned this week and faces five counts of kidnapping a minor by a relative. A not-guilty plea has also been entered on her behalf.

According to law enforcement, the family went missing just as DCF prepared to remove the children from Encarnacion’s care on February 27.

Encarnacion’s sister reported her missing days later on March 3, citing a lack of contact since February 26. DCF officially reported the five children missing on March 5, triggering a state and federal search.

Court documents indicate that DCF had opened a case against the couple in February after a pediatrician flagged signs of neglect involving the youngest child, a 9-month-old.

DCF intervened shortly thereafter, but by then, the family had reportedly left Massachusetts.

According to unconfirmed reports, they told their pediatrician they were skipping vaccines for their baby.

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POLICE STATE: Loudoun County Child Protective Services Took a 1-Month-Old Breastfeeding Baby from Her Mother and Navy Veteran Father at Gunpoint — Without Charges, a Crime, or Due Process

A U.S. Navy veteran and his wife were subjected to the full weight of the government’s iron fist as Child Protective Services—backed by armed deputies—stormed their home and seized their one-month-old, breastfeeding infant.

There was no warrant. No due process. No criminal charge.

This happened not in communist China, nor in North Korea. It happened in suburban Virginia. In America. In 2025.

Farzin Yazdani, a Navy veteran, father, and respected engineer, has become the latest victim of a weaponized family court system—a system increasingly aligned with radical bureaucrats and progressive ideologues who seem hellbent on dismantling the American family under the guise of state welfare.

“I’m begging everybody who’s reading this that there’s a crime in progress currently, Loudoun County Government has abducted and falsely imprisoned a one-month-old breastfeeding baby from its innocent mother. Please spread the story far and wide. Interact with it like it Do whatever the algorithm needs to spread this story for the love of God,” Yazdani wrote on X.

Loudoun County Child Protective Services (CPS), flanked by armed deputies from the sheriff’s department, stormed the Yazdani home in what the father describes as a “coordinated ambush” based on a false affidavit from a bitter ex-wife embroiled in a custody battle.

The infant—completely healthy, cared for, and bonded to her mother—was removed with zero regard for constitutional rights, familial bonds, or even basic human decency.

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CPS Is Investigating an Influencer Because Her Son Flinched in a Video

Social media influencers who post their children online often face their share of criticism. But now, if their audience disapproves of their parenting decisions, they could also find themselves being investigated by child protective services (CPS).

The latest parent to face a CPS investigation for showing innocuous footage of her children is Hannah Hiatt, an influencer who has built an audience of half a million followers for videos detailing her life as a nurse with two young children. Last month, Hiatt posted a video in which her toddler-aged son appeared to flinch slightly as his father walked toward him to hand him a box of ice cream mochi. While most wouldn’t think much of the clip, many viewers seized on the moment, arguing that it was proof that Hiatt and her husband were abusing their children.

The now-deleted video went viral, with many users making videos of their own debating the meaning of the clip. Angry internet users also found another video of Hiatt, in which her husband flicked her son’s hand away from some french fries, again claiming that this too was evidence of physical abuse. 

“The flinch breaks my heart,” one TikTok user commented.

“Why are people like this allowed to procreate,” posted another.

An Ogden, Utah Police Department spokesperson told People that an investigation had been opened against Hiatt and her family following “numerous reports through Child Protective Service and police.”

While the investigation is ongoing, and it remains unclear whether Hiatt will be found guilty of any wrongdoing, she is far from the first person to face a CPS investigation after upsetting an internet mob. In April, influencers J.D. and Britney Lott faced a child welfare investigation after Reddit users became convinced that the newborn was being medically neglected—though a medical examination confirmed that the child was healthy. And in 2021, a father who tweeted jokes about his daughter’s struggles to use a can opener ended up getting a visit from CPS after an enraged internet mob reported him for alleged child abuse.

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Hospitals Are Giving Pregnant Women Drugs, Then Reporting Them to CPS When They Test Positive

According to a new investigation from The Marshall Project, hospitals are giving women drugs during labor and then reporting them to child welfare services when they later test positive for those same drugs. These cases are one of the more maddening side effects of an out-of-control drug war combined with strict mandatory reporting laws. 

“Hospital drug testing of pregnant women, which began in the 1980s and spread rapidly during the opioid epidemic, was intended in part to help identify babies who might experience withdrawal symptoms and need extra medical care,” writes The Marshall Project reporter Shoshana Walter. “Federal law requires hospitals to alert child welfare agencies anytime such babies are born.” 

The problem is that these pee-in-a-cup tests are frequently inaccurate and vulnerable to false positives. One 2022 study cited by Walter found that 91 percent of women given fentanyl in their epidurals tested positive for it later. Making matters worse, in several cases reviewed by Walter, a simple lack of due diligence played a major role. In these cases, “doctors and social workers did not review patient medications to find the cause of a positive test. In others, providers suspected a medication they prescribed could be the culprit, but reported patients to authorities anyway,” Walter writes. 

One woman Walter spoke to was reported to child welfare services soon after she gave birth to a stillborn daughter. She had tested positive for benzodiazepine—the same drug she was given before her emergency C-section. Another woman was given morphine to ease her pain during childbirth and was reported to child welfare services after her baby’s first bowel movement tested positive for opiates—even though the morphine was noted in her medical records and a drug test she took shortly before she went into labor showed no drugs in her system. After another woman tested positive for meth, her four children—including a newborn—were taken from her and kept in first care for 11 days. They weren’t returned until another drug test showed that the positive test was triggered by a heartburn medication she had been given at the hospital. 

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