Ok, new post. I didn't want to conversate about the crap that hit the fan, but now I really don't care. North Dakota can't really do much worse to us than they already have.

Firstly, SIL (call her M) had a bad divorce. She was living in a trailer without running water, switching schools, so she had her kids taken away for dirty, not in school, blah, blah, blah. There were reasons, but nothing worse than usual and the kids were "not in immenate danger" (That's spelled wrong, but blogger isn't helping.) So, MN would only help her do better, and ND actually took them away.

Ok, nephew (the one on the main website's banner on the far left) was in foster care with the other SIL (call her K). Ok, fine. Well, the poor child reported a bomb threat and was dragged to juvie. (Being BLACK in North Dakota?) He has a major speech issue, so that was probably enough of it. But, he was evaluated when he first went into care as not depressed, not bi-polar, not ADHD - no need of meds. I have the paper.

So, tell me why ND still has this child in juvie? He wasn't permitted to visit his mother or FAMILY at all until his great-grandmother's funeral. He finally got a visit after about 13 months. It's now at 20 months, and all the social worker does is spout crap about parenting classes, how to speak proper English classes and the like. SIL has done them and still isn't "fit." I've finally realized that she is just refusing to give this child back to his family no matter what happens. She says that he could come with us (Hello, I'm licensed to work with disabled people and help 30,000 people a month!), but no paperwork has ever been filed - NOTHING has been done. Even worse, I've been told that this social worker is one of the better ones in the system.

Does it get worse? Oh ya. The lawyer who canceled court so that the social worker could go on vacation and never told the family. (Take a 3 hour car ride to go to court - and how po'd would you be?) Tried to fire him, and apparently, he can't be fired and there is no way we can even make a complaint against his performance. (He also called SIL the wrong name in court - IN COURT! On the record!! DUH)

3 hours one way to try to help with the IDIOTIC Cass county, North Dakota court system isn't bad enough of a trip - the state wants to hold him in Bismark (5 hours) and threatened to move him to Minot. I wrote an injunction so these papers could get juggled for him to come with us, with uncle J, with auntie M, with any of the hundreds of clan around Dakota and MN. Nope - it was totally ignored by the lawyers, and he got moved to MINOT. The place for children with "serious problems" (see paper that I have above - not bi-polar, not ADHD - no need of meds.)

So, I've had to give up before I got postal. The scary part is that people have told me where this woman lives, where she trolls for men and gets plastered (no, not kidding), and then they laugh at my good impulse control. So, now the world knows why I've been quiet - why I'm mad, and the reasons that I'd rather hide in a corner and mumble to myself then do the stuff that I want to accomplish.

Does this get worse YES! I've been asking for the papers - with several privacy releases, and have *NOTHING*. The social worker actually lied to her boss, Chip - I'd watched M sign a release at a BS meeting, she said she didn't have it. So, we got another, "No, I can't send that to any of the agencies, you need a release for each agency, no copies." Nothing that I asked for from the officials. I dug thru the "files" of both SILs, and they don't have a treatment plan, they don't have a plan of what M needs to do to get her kids back (NOTHING!), there isn't even the federally required education plan. Nephew says that Dakota Boys and Girl's Ranch (DBGR) has bounced him ahead two grades, but the few papers say how disabled he is, how he needs strong meds, how horrible he is. By law, the parent is supposed to have all of these things. There was a meeting with the parents, aunts, grandparents where the family is supposed to say what all is supposed to happen - ya, none of that has been done.

Meanwhile - he is drugged to the freakin' gills. He's had two psychotic episodes from *DRUGS* that they've handed him. He's said that they tell him all the time how much he deserves to be there, and how his mother doesn't want him. DBGR has told his mother that she's not allowed to talk to him without speaker phone, and that she cannot discuss court with him. He's dragged to their church and pressured to "get baptized", and not allowed to do his reservation type stuff (tobacco offerings, blessings, sweats, songs).

So, now it's public that my SIL isn't Suzy perfect and had a rough patch. It's not a secret that my nephew has been locked up for 20 months for being a black kid that reported a bomb threat in the Enderland School district. It's not a secret that Cass County, North Dakota will not help families, steals children, and lies in their conversations and paperwork, and that Marlene Sorum is nothing but a bully with a cheesy degree and a bad power trip (and alcohol problem). Doug Nesheim is a f^cking moron, and the court personnel isn't much better. (Oh, and the "guardian ad litem" will go to a special circle of hell. I was asked to train for that program, and I know she's a waste of space, going to lunch with the prosecutor, classist pig.)

Did I mention that when I and hubby showed up, dressed very well, with three very well dressed children and briefcases how the entire team got extremely polite? And how I was requested to write a paper to "inform" the staff about the rare genetic disease? (Ya, ME!) The same thing that they were informed of since the beginning where these morons never bothered to even contact the University of Minnesota genetic program where nephew had been seen? (Thanks, UofM for checking on that for me!)

Ya - North Dakota is a third world country where children really do get seized for being black - we're not the only ones!