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Is this where we are in 2025? I have friends who are elementary school teachers, and two of them are principals. I was shocked at my own initial reaction, thinking the school at least had a point.
Here is someone in my town explaining her experience. In this case, she absolutely needs to be anonymous, but the point is taken here in the hopes that someone cares enough to see this and blow it up to the level it deserves. (I am re-typing because it may be hard to read.)
Hello everyone! Just wondering if anyone has had issues with East Brookfield (MA) elementary? Issues like making claims to dcf? (Department of Child and Families). My daughter told a teacher she fell off her bike…. They called dcf and alleged abuse! I tried to speak with the school and asked why they would not reach out to me first? What do they say??? For the safety of the child they are not required to report to the parents… she is 7. She’s learning to ride a bike with no training wheels. And now I am scared to let her leave my sight. I have to record every interaction and take pictures of every mark she gets on her body, because the school has now put in 2 calls against me after I stood up for myself and tried to schedule a meeting!! They then allowed DCF ro(sic) come into the school and interrogate my 6 and 7 year old without any parent present?! What is going on!!! I’d homeschool but I’m sure the school would file a 51a for neglect- this is unreal!!
I asked a teacher about this. She said there are many parents that abuse their kids. They can’t tell the parents in case it blows back on the kids.
I agree, there are those kinds of parents. (Man, the COC makes it hard to express yourself.)
I started siding with the school, then... "Wait," I said to myself. There is no circumstance whatsoever where the parent shouldn’t be informed. In the worst case, if it actually was abuse, the parent would know the DCF was coming at them. This poor mom should not be terrified that the town was taking her child after riding her bike, falling off, and getting scrapes! This is absolutely outrageous.
Severing the mother/child bond and replacing it with the state/subject bond seems like an elusive, communistic utopian dream that has never worked.
The claim is that a teacher and administrator aren’t medically qualified to say what abuse is and what isn’t abuse. I somewhat agree with that, but common sense can go a long way. Under no circumstances, whether it be an abusive parent or not, should they not be notified. That is as anti-American as it gets.
My girls are out of this school system, but my granddaughter will be entering in a few years. So I have a new mission.
On the whole, I am happy the Department of Education is getting dismantled to leave it up to the states, but God help us in these crazy blue states. It will be the wild blue yonder out here.
You can find this post under the East Brookfield Residents page. I only have my baby toe in on Facebook, so I don't even want to associate a link.
I feel so bad for this mom. It shouldn't be like this.
Discussion (28)
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No, it should not.
Romney had an excellent idea when he was governor, but I don't know what became of it. He wanted there to be citizen committees in every town that would have to approve of any Department of Child Services (DCS) action to remove a child from his or her parents.
It would be a small brake in the system, true, but I believe it would do a lot of good. As one teacher said to me, social workers often confuse poverty with neglect. I don't know what became of it. It would be a little like our school committee. I really liked the idea. These would be people from walks of life other than social work and education.
I wouldn't mind so much that the state is so quick to remove children if they did a better job as substitute parents. But they are awful substitute parents. Hundreds of children go missing from foster care every year. (See this story that you have to disable your ad blocker to read.) Good parents love their kids and don't lose them. And if the kids ran away, good parents would at least try to find them. The state doesn't even try to find them. Shouldn't the state, if they are to stand in judgment of all parents, be good parents? They are not. Who are they to criticize other parents when they themselves do such a poor job?
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Especially when they and their associates profit from it. Susan Bassi on YouTube covers a lot of that stuff, especially in California.
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"All within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state." - Benito Mussolini
You didn't really think that your children belonged to you and not the state?
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It’s every school district. This child is not the only or first. NH came this close this week to sending a bill (HB553) up to the Gov that changed the definition of reportable offenses such that looking cross eyed at a child constitutes abuse. Go to school board meetings and take some other parents with you. Don’t wait for the Feds to change anything. Work to change your local school board. Help your children protect their children by going on offense. Or - help them homeschool their children.
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Vouchers. For. Every. Child.
Its the only way we are going to break the stranglehold of the government schools, bureaucrats and teachers unions..
They produce an equine excrement of "education" ( indoctrination) while costing extravagant amounts.
Illinois had 30 schools where not a single student was proficient at reading or math.
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