riding crop case: CYFS pays boarding school fees of smacked boy

It gets worse.

You may recall I have been blogging about a woman who was acquitted in court for smacking her child with a riding crop.

The boy is in the custody of Child,Youth and Family, and was given Risperdol to control his behaviour, despite many child advocates stating that giving a child Risperdol or any other anti-psychotic drugs can be seen as worse than a light smack.

This boy is living about 200k away from his mum and is attending boarding school. Child, Youth, and Family are paying the boarding school fees of approximately $200 a week. That doesn't include books or school uniforms, either.

CYFS told the boy's mother yesterday that if she was to retain custody of her son, that it would require him to attend boarding school and pay the fees. The boy is allowed to live with his mother in the holidays, so if CYFS considers he is safe at home in the holidays, why not during term time?

This is appalling. First CYFS take a boy away from his parents. The parent has done nothing unlawful. Then it drugs the kid up to control his behaviour, then they pay for his boarding school fees to keep him in custody.

Now CYFS stipulates that if the boy is to be returned back to his parents full time that it still has the authority to dictate to parents where the child is to go to school and how much fees to pay.

CYFS is not just about looking after kids - its all about money. CYFS cannot afford for kids to be sent back to their homes, or work to restore families, as if all families are restored then the social workers will have time on their hands. On the other hand there are some unallocated cases to look at....

Interestingly enough, this woman is the boy's sole legal guardian so she has final say where he can attend school, but again the threat is that if she was to say he wasn't to attend at the stipulated school, that CYFS would go for guardianship again, Meaning no school holiday visits.

This is verging on blackmail. It is certainly abuse of power. If you can't afford to pay the fees, how on earth can you gain custody? And if you are forced to pay for your kid to attend boarding school, while having "custody", you only see him in the holidays anyway.

Which is what is happening now.

As Ron Mark would say, "What the hell's going on?"