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From hotshots@tca.net Tue Jun 1 15:20 EDT 1999 John, We took Laney to her mother on Satuday. It was very hard for us all. But first, let me tell you what happened on Thursday and Friday. Thursday, Laura (my fiance) and I went to the therapist office to meet with her and to get her diagnosis and evaluation. She had a lot of fears about Laney going back. She said that Laney actually asked her to go to the judge and ask him not to make her go. Anyway, the most alarming thing was that she believes that Laney is suffering from depression and desperately needs to stay in therapy and counseling to help her out of it. So, we called Child Protective Services back with this information and talked to a wonderful lady named Sylvia. Sylvia took a new report, and after speaking with her supervisors, made our case a priority 1, and said that we would be hearing from a case worker before we left on Saturday. At 3 pm that same afternoon, we were sitting in the case workers office. She interviewed Laney and said that she was very concerned because after talking with Laney, she felt that she had been sexually abused. The case worker said that she wanted to interview Laney two or three more times and that she would do what she could to stop the move. On Friday, the caseworker called back. She said that she had taken the case to her supervisor, who had taken it to the judge (we feel it was the same judge that ruled Laned had to go back), and that the judge said that he was worried that if he stopped the move, he would catch a lot of flak, and that he just didn't want that. He also said that he questioned Dave's motives for reporting Angela. So, he said that she still had to go. The Department of Human Services in Oklahoma still refused to cooperate. Around 430 on Friday afternoon, a caseworker from OK called and talked to me. We talked and she said that she was going to take it to her supervisor and call me back. I asked her if they could at least have a representative there when I turned Laney over. When she called back, she said that her supervisor said that there was nothing that they could do right now, but that they would have a caseworker out at Angela's house within ten calendar days to do an evaluation. Her supervisor also said that they didn't think there was a need to have a caseworker there when we turned her over. So, on Saturday, we took her up there. Laney refused to take much on anything. We videoed the event. In the video, you can see Laney's reluctance to stay there. She wouldn't let Laura put her down. She reverted to the equevelant of a two year old, sucking her thumb and talking like a baby. The house was very unsatisfactory. There was a large pile of trash and wires in the middle of the yard, that appeared to have been there for some time, there was a pool that was full of algea and tadpoles and frogs that they were wanted Laney to play in. The deck around the pool was rickety and unsafe. They had a tree house built that looked as if it would fall at any moment. There were two other kids there, throwing rocks at people, chasing each other with sticks and fighting with num-chucks. This is not the environment that I want my child in. We are planning on writing another article for you soon. We are also going to scan a picture of Laney and the doctors diagnosis. We are not giving up, this thing is far from being over. Talk to you soon, David May |
