Demand Congress Enact Law to Abolish Non-Emergency Child Removals
- by: Susan V
- recipient: US Congress and Ohio’s Office of Disciplinary Council
Over objections of her attorney, attorneys for Cuyhoga County and even County Child Protective Services, a mother's newborn was seized under an "emergency order" by Juvenile Court Magistrate Eleanore Hilow. - just because the mother drank marijuana tea to lesson pain and nausea during her pregnancy.
According to AlterNet, the mother, Hollie Sanford, delivered a healthy baby girl at a Cleveland, Ohio hospital last September. However without the parents’ consent, the baby was drug-tested and found to be positive for a non-THC marijuana byproduct.
What Magistrate Hilow failed to understand is that the substance found via the drug test was a non-psychoactive metabolite of the plant, Attorney Joseph Jacobs told Cleveland.com. Jacobs insists Hilow’s action has “no basis in law or science,” adding the most relevant point that “There was no harm done to this child other than the removal from her mom and dad."
According to Ohio state law, said Jacobs, “the decision to remove a child on an emergency basis requires proof of “immediate or threatened physical or emotional harm,’ which clearly did not exist in this case. Jacobs added that Hilow had a history of making “punitive decisions” and “wreaking havoc” for parents across the county!
Tragically this Ohio case is only one of a rash of non-emergency child removals being reported across the US, many documented by Medical Kidnap and NCCPR. Not only should this Ohio magistrate be disciplined, it is time for Congress to step in and put an end, nationwide, to these unjustified child removals that are undisputedly traumatizing some children for the rest of their lives.
Sign this petition to ask Ohio's ODC to discipline Magistrate Hilow and demand that Congress enact a special law to protect families from these non-emergency and harmful child seizures.
To Ohio's Office of Disciplinary Council and Members of Congress:
We are concerned not only about the harm done to this child in the Ohio case, but the rash of cases being documented across the country regarding non-emergency removals of children from their biological families.
This case in Ohio is actually rare in that the parents victimized by Magistrate Hilow apparently had the means to hire a competent attorney who knew the law and was willing to stand up to the law-breaking magistate. It is also rare in regard to how the Cuyahoga County Child Protective agency actually honored its state recommendations on protecting children from unnecessary and harmful separations from their primary caregivers. As report after report shows, often CPS agents are the instigators of these outrageous and unjustified child seizures.
As Medical Kidnap, National Coalition for Child Protection Reform, A Miracle for US and parents across the country have documented, in case after case, it is more common that the entire juvenile court system works in unison against the parents violating laws and their right to due process.
Consequently, thousands of children in the US are now suffereing from the harmful effects of unjustified separation from their parents or primary caregivers, and often are never reunited with them, over issues that have nothing to do with either neglect or abuse, much less an emergency.
We, the undersigned, insist that the state of Ohio has an obligation to discipline magistrates that fail to uphold the law. In this case in particular, where all agencies agreed the child belonged at home, but Hilow defiantly ignored the law and did so in a way that caused unnecessary harm to a newborn and her parents, disciplinary action is warranted.
We also insist that Congress take immediate and decisive action to prevent this kind of cruel and harmful act from happening in any state in America or to any child or parent again. We demand Congress pass a law abolishing non-emergency child removal, nationwide!
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