Edwardsville man sues county Children and Youth, claims gender discrimination (Scranton: renting, lawyer)

[Magritte25]

Edwardsville man sues county Children and Youth, alleging gender discrimination | The Times Leader, Wilkes-Barre & Scranton PA (http://www.timesleader.com/news/Edwardsville_man_sues_county_Children_and_Youth__a lleging_gender_discrimination_03-09-2011.html - broken link)

I feel so bad for this guy. I'm glad that C&Y is finally being investigated for their fouled up policies and lack of ethics.

[Mr Yuk]

There is definitely major discrimination against men when it comes to custody of children....especially in this case where they were going to put the kid in foster care rather than with the father. But why do they almost always assume that the chlildren are better off with the mother?

[Lehigh Valley Native]

Although it does sound like this Dad was treated poorly, and perhaps discriminated against, he should take a look in the mirror. Maybe if he hadn't picked a piece of trash to procreate with, he wouldn't of been in this situation.

Yes, I have heard the horror stories about C&Y here, and in Lehigh County, they are almost the same everywhere. But, the fact of the matter remains, that most people are dealing with C&Y because they made poor life choices.

At the very least, after hearing these C&Y horror stories, it will encourage people to stop smoking pot with the kids in the room, or picking up the local bar wh*re, knocking her up and dealing with the ramifications. If you don't, you get what you deserve.

[sheena12]

I was no great fan of "CPS" ( Child Protective Services) in NY Stat,e and it sounds as though I will not be a fan of it's counterpart Children and Youth, in PA
It also seems, at least from the information gleaned from this one article, that my lack of respect for the state agency that is imbued with the power to care for and protect the children in it's jurisdiction, will be for opposite reasons !
In my former state, the analogous agency was interested only in "preserving the biological family family at all costs" This was not their slogan or anything, but it was my observation that this was their intention. Despite all evidence to the contrary that biological parents were completely unsuitable to be parents, they would do virtually ANYTHING in their power to reunite children with their birth parents, and were extremely slow to terminate parental rights even under the most dubious of circumstances. They permitted children to languish in foster care for years, in the faint hope that a clearly negligent and unsuitable parent would get her act together.

In PA, at least from this one article, it seems to be almost the opposite.BUT they still (and again I must qualify this statement because I have only seen this one article about one case) seem just an inept in PA.
Where as in NY they would attempt to find any relative, even a third cousin twice removed who was a blood relation to the child, it seems that their was gender bias in this case.
There is gender bias that favors the mother almost all of these Child and Family agencies. I have both read about this and observed this first hand. After returning to college to complete my BA, and my subsequent graduation , against my better judgment, as well as cautionary tales from others who worked in Public Policy, I took the civil service exam (which was a joke) needed to become an investigator. I really did want to help children who were being abused, which I naively thought would be my job. I was trained and learned the inner workings of my countie's Child Protective Agency.
And I was appalled!

There was a great deal of bias, and most of it would fall under the category of "economic and social class" bias. "Address Bias" if you will When responding to reports made on the state hotline, an ES worker, was immediately sent in to investigate. If she (and Emergency Service Workers were almost exclusively women) did not find any imminent danger, the file was then passed down to some one like myself, usually a recent college graduate.

IF the report was generated from a wealthy, upscale area we were told to call first in order to set up an appointment ! At this point the family in question, would already have an attorney!
If the report involved middle class families we also had to call first to notify them that we would be visiting and to find a time that worked for both parties, but the appointment had to be within 5 business days
In economically disadvantaged areas, we were supposed to drop by unannounced.

Is the goal of PA Children and youth generally to remove the child and to ask questions later?
Does any one think that people in Luzerne and Lackawana Counties are being unfairly targeted by this agency?

Does anyone know any thing else, any mitigating circumstance, about this man that would be a cause for concern other than what the child's mother said?
One factor that might contribute to gender bias, is the biological fact of motherhood vs. fatherhood.
That is, there is never any question as to the biological mother, where as paternal lineage is more difficult to prove.

Also, last summer while still house hunting, I noticed a newspaper article about a protest against Children and Youth. The people were alleging that the agency had unfairly terminated their parental rights. What was this in response to- an ongoing policy of swift termination?
Does any one remember this?

It occurs to me that if every parent suffering from "anxiety and depression" had there parental rights revoked, we would be in a sad state of affairs!

[sheena12]

Just a brief aside. I am both a biological parent and an adoptive parent. Our biological son entered our family "the easy way"

We needed to jump though" hoops of fire" to adopt our daughter! We had to under go a home study, provide letters of recommendation, Child Abuse and Criminal Back back ground checks, and financial information. We also had to take a parenting class!

What a big difference?

[Magritte25]

Originally Posted by Lehigh Valley Native

Although it does sound like this Dad was treated poorly, and perhaps discriminated against, he should take a look in the mirror. Maybe if he hadn't picked a piece of trash to procreate with, he wouldn't of been in this situation.

Yes, I have heard the horror stories about C&Y here, and in Lehigh County, they are almost the same everywhere. But, the fact of the matter remains, that most people are dealing with C&Y because they made poor life choices.

At the very least, after hearing these C&Y horror stories, it will encourage people to stop smoking pot with the kids in the room, or picking up the local bar wh*re, knocking her up and dealing with the ramifications. If you don't, you get what you deserve.

Why should he take a look in the mirror because the other person was trying to deceive him?

He didn't deserve the runaround he got and his daughter certainly didn't deserve the major upheaval she experienced. Sorry, C&Y was completely in the wrong here.

[sheena12]

OK I will ask again - is the agenda of Children and Youth in PA to reunite families at all costs, or to remove the child/children first and ask questions later?
Or do they have another agenda?
Thank you!

[thecoalman]

and perhaps discriminated against,

Perhaps? Just because the Mother decided to turn the child over doesn't take his rights away, if this was about child support he'd be in a hearing for about 10 minutes and get handed a bill with threat of going to jail. He's responsible for that and rightly so but he has no rights where custody is concerned?

Mens rights where children are concerned have been trampled on for far too long. 4 years to get the kid back? Gimme a break, just another example of overreaching government agency and probably someone on a power trip.

[DE_NePA]

Originally Posted by Magritte25

Why should he take a look in the mirror because the other person was trying to deceive him?

He didn't deserve the runaround he got and his daughter certainly didn't deserve the major upheaval she experienced. Sorry, C&Y was completely in the wrong here.

Magritte, - Where in the article does it say the other person (the mother) tried to deceive the father? It says she did not tell him she was pregnant, nor that she had contacted C&Y. Deceiving is lying, not withholding information. And it seems that maybe she withheld that info because...he's not fit parent material, either. Or she may just be a lying, evil and/or mentally ill person herself.

To Lehigh Valley Native's point, if you don't want the state or county involved in your family planning and management, then don't make stupid choices. This guy knocked up a woman who was incapable of being a parent. If he knew that, or wasn't capable of determing that, what does it say about him?
Say what you will, had he not mated with her, he would not have a problem. "The rubber broke", "she told me she was on the pill", "she told me she couldn't bear children", none of those are valid excuses for someone who is fit parent material to be screwing around with someone who is not, especially given the guy's age.
Now put yourself in the state's position. The mother says the father is unfit, so they start placement procedure. Then the father shows up, they stop placement procedures, and give the kid to the father. Now something bad goes on with the kid, and in charges a greedy lawyer leading the unfit mom or some other relative, to sue the state for negligence, yelling "The state was told that he was unfit".
Should the process have taken as long as it did? I don't know, but the guy admits he's in therapy for depression and anxiety. Common, yes, but not to the degree that therapy is sought. A single father with mental issues is not an ideal parent, so the state is damned if they do, and damned if they don't.
The short story here is that if you don't want the state making very important family decisions for you, make better personal choices yourself. More simply stated "If you willingly, unneccesarily stick your hand in fire, then claim "I didn't think it would burn that bad", you're apt to be surprised by the lack of sympathy and understanding you get.
I think in the long run, this kid would probably have been better off with the couple that jumped through hoops to get her, as opposed to this guy who made her by accident.