In 1999, I had regained custody of my son from a family member. When they had him they took him off ritalin which he had been on for 4 years. WHen I regained custody I took him to a pediatrician in Russellville to request he be put back on Ritalin. That same day, social services showed up at my house. They told me that since I REFUSED to take him to a child psychologist in Fort Smith or Little Rock (both 2 hours away) that it was child neglect. NOBODY even mentioned a child psychologist to me.
I didn't know there was one anywhere even in LR or FS. She took photos, etc. No obvious signs of abuse but I happened to live in low income housing on welfare and she told me that if a parent needs to be on welfare, that makes them a bad mother... She, within, 5 minutes found me guilty of medical child neglect. She did not offer to check his past medical treatment or she would have seen that he had NEVER missed a shot, a therapy session, a speech therapy session, a dental appt. Nothing. But she didn't care.
She just thought that because I wanted my son back on ritalin and because I was on welfare, that made me neglectful. It didn't matter what her opinion was on whether he should be on ritalin or not. His MD put him on it when he was younger and followed him closely for 3 years but she thought that gave her permission to decide that he didn't need to be on it.
I came back to where I was originally from and hired an attorney... On the day we were to go to court, child services dropped the complaint due to "lack of evidence".. Those caseworkers don't care about those kids. She thought she was GOD and could tell me when to medicate my child that I had raised alone for 6 years and that just because I needed food stamps I didn't deserve to be a parent.
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