I recently wrote a couple of pieces about the history of the "best interests of the child" standard.  The book, "Beyond the Best Interests of the Child" was published in 1973 and was immediately misinterpreted by courts as encouraging family dissolution and removal of children from their parents by state authorities.  The authors became so alarmed at the misreading of their work that they published another book, "Before the Best Interests of the Child," six years later.  In it they clearly, even bluntly, stated that biological families should be preserved except in certain narrowly-defined cases.  In short, the "best interests of the child" was never to be used to separate children from their parents except in cases of imminent danger or gross neglect.  Except in those cases, the standard was to be utilized only after family breakup to determine custody or child placement.

As I said in my first two pieces, courts have all but ignored the second book, preferring greater, not less, intervention into family life.

This case might as well serve as the poster child for exactly that concept (Orange County Register, 12/4/09).  It's as clear a case as anyone needs of precisely what the authors were trying to put a stop to by writing their second book.

As nearly as I can make out, here's what happened:  Tina Turrieta and Stephen Casino had a son, Ras, who was almost one year old.  Tina and Stephen had split up for a while, but Tina wanted Ras to have a father in his life, so Stephen had moved back in to Tina's house in Orange County, California.  Tina had Ras in daycare, and, since he was teething, she instructed the staff to give him Tylenol a little more often than once every three hours.  The bottle said it should be given once every four to six hours, so the staff told Tina they needed a directive from a doctor authorizing the higher dosage.  (Although rare, high dosages of Tylenol over long periods of time have been known to contribute to liver damage and, on average, the death of about one child per year.)

All of that seems perfectly reasonable.  Mom says to give the toddler Tylenol more often than the label prescribes; the daycare center plays it safe and wants a doctor's OK.

What's seems entirely unreasonable is what followed.  A social worker decided that Tina was overdosing Ras on Tylenol and that that made her a danger to him.  She, along with the police (the police!) showed up at her house and convinced her to let them in.  There they found about a dozen pot plants of various sizes.  Apparently Stephen had a doctor's order allowing him to have them for medicinal use.  (Hey, it's California.)

So the "authorities" took the child, put him in temporary care and arrested Tina and Stephen, not for possession of marijuana, which it was legal for Stephen to have, but for "suspicion of child endangerment."  They spent four days in jail and were released with no charges being filed.  However, the police are apparently testing Ras to see if he's got THC in his bloodstream.  Meanwhile,

Although Turrieta hasn't been charged with any crime, the county is keeping Ras. Child Protective Services took him on his first birthday, Nov. 19, and is keeping him at Orangewood Children's Home.

In fact, Orange County is going to keep little one-year-old Ras from November 19th until at least January 6th when the custody hearing is supposed to take place.  You see, that's what the state has determined to be in his best interests.

Terry Lynn Fisher, a spokeswoman for the county Social Services Agency, said that Child Protective Services had to take the child into custody because both parents were arrested.

Once a child is in custody, both judges and social workers are hesitant to rush him back home unless they're sure he'll be safe, Fisher said.

"We're taught that if you're going to err, err on the side of the child, because children don't die that way," Fisher said.

That's how it goes when states decide they know better than parents about what is in the best interests of a child.  Notice what happened.  First, daycare staff are "mandated reporters" of anything they think might constitute child abuse.  So when "a teacher named Ligia Ahmed said she'd (Tina) seen her give him Tylenol once that week and twice the week before," a social worker got involved.  She called the police.  Although no crime had been committed, Tina and Stephen were arrested on "suspicion."  With the parents safely in jail, the county had no choice but to put Ras in care.  And that's where he'll remain for the next month at least.  This is a kid who's one year old.

Tylenol "once that week and twice the week before" leads inexorably to jail and loss of custody.  That's what the Orange County Social Services Agency calls erring "on the side of the child."  It's what I call depriving a small boy of perfectly good parents.  I guess he's not old enough to understand that it's all in his best interests.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 9th, 2009 at 2:01 pm and is filed under Child Protective Services/Child Welfare System.