SavetheChildren2009

In a crushing rebuttal to the hysterical lies spread by the Christian fundamentalist right about the Terri Schiavo case, the Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF) has released documents on its investigation into complaints of abuse of the brain-damaged woman, showing that charges repeatedly filed against Michael Schiavo over the past four years had no foundation.

The DCF investigated 89 complaints against Michael Schiavo between 2001 and March 2004. Some were made in anonymous phone calls or letters to the DCF, others by Terri Schiavo’s parents, Robert and Mary Schindler, who waged a protracted legal battle, supported by the Christian right, against the removal of the feeding tube that kept their daughter alive in a persistent vegetative state.

Additional complaints were filed after March 18, 2005, during the weeks of political frenzy over the disconnection of life support, culminating in Terri Schiavo’s death March 31. The DCF has not yet completed its investigation of the most recent complaints, but they largely rehashed the earlier charges that the DCF investigated and completely discredited.

These complaints became the basis for scurrilous attacks on Michael Schiavo on the Internet and on talk radio, Fox TV and other outlets for the fascistic right. Some of these charges were uncritically rehashed in the "liberal" Village Voice by the prominent commentator Nat Hentoff.

Schiavo was accused of deliberately neglecting his wife, causing her to lie in filth, refusing to authorize needed medical treatment, injecting her with insulin although she was not diabetic, and even causing her irreparable brain damage in 1990, by beating or strangling her. (The actual cause of the brain damage was oxygen deprivation brought on by a potassium imbalance related to Terri’s bulimia.)

The DCF investigators judged all these complaints to be unfounded. Beyond that, they praised Michael Schiavo’s conduct, declaring: "the spouse has always been courteous and very compassionate toward his wife" and "all her needs were being met."

This testimony is all the more persuasive, given that the agency functioned under the direction of Florida Governor Jeb Bush, an ally of the Christian right who repeatedly sought to intervene on the side of the Schindlers and against Terri Schiavo’s expressed wish to have life support withdrawn.

Three of the investigations took place in 2001, four in 2003, and two in the first half of 2004. The investigation report dated June 25, 2001 is typical (in the bureaucratic jargon of the DCF, Terri Schiavo is V, for alleged victim of abuse, while Michael Schiavo is PRP, for alleged perpetrator of the abuse):

"PRP has done every possible thing to rehabilitate V, even taking her to specialists as far as California. Nothing has helped improve V’s condition. PRP has approved all medical treatments including administration of antibiotics when doctors indicate a need for them. There is no evidence to support allegations of any neglect or abuse."

The largest number of complaints during this three-year period were filed in October 2003, when a state judge approved Michael Schiavo’s decision to remove the feeding tube from Terri Schiavo, and the Florida legislature intervened, at Governor Bush’s urging, passing special legislation taking custody of Ms. Schiavo and restoring the tube. The law was later ruled unconstitutional by the Florida state Supreme Court.

Complaints filed on October 14, 2003 included charges that Terri Schiavo suffered from untreated bone fractures (supposedly the result of Michael Schiavo beating her), that he had injected her with insulin (allegedly to hasten her death), and that he had repeatedly expressed, in coarse terms, the desire for her to die so he could inherit a trust fund set up to pay her legal and medical expenses.

The DCF report entered December 11, 2003 cited the finding of two physicians, Dr. James Carnahan and Dr. Eugenio Alcazaren, who gave sworn affidavits that a bone scan of Terri Schiavo showed "an indication of heterotrophic ossification, not trauma." The report continued: "Both physicians indicated that it was common for patients such as Mrs. Schiavo, suffering from degenerative bone loss and heterotrophic ossification, to sustain fractures from being turned or from physical therapy."

The report also noted that, contrary to wild allegations, Terri’s blood sugar showed "no changes" after visits from Michael Schiavo. "The documentation reviewed indicates there have been no abnormally low glucose levels of Mrs. Schiavo in nine years, nor has she been experiencing any seizures or changes in her neurological conditions."

As to the foulest slanders retailed by the Schindlers and the Christian right, the DCF found: "There is no supporting documentation that the spouse ever made statements about ‘Is the bitch ever going to die,’ or ‘When will the bitch die because I will be rich.’ The staff involved with her care stated the spouse is always courteous and rarely alone with the patient."

The charge that Terri’s dental care was being neglected was also investigated. According to the DCF report, "the attending physician, Dr. Gambone, stated that a routine dental exam and X rays would cause major distress to Mrs. Schiavo and would require extraordinary measures to accomplish such as sedation and lift equipment and she could suffer from aspiration.... Mrs. Schiavo does receive oral care and cleaning and to date there are no known problems such as abscesses, bleeding gums, or caries."

These findings underscore the depraved character of the right-wing groups attacking Michael Schiavo. In many cases, the measures being advocated—dental examinations for a woman who could not swallow, for instance, or physical therapy for a patient made brittle by years of vegetative existence—would have been positively injurious.

The December 11, 2003 report concluded by stating the facts about the supposed financial interest of Michael Schiavo in his wife’s demise: "Mr. Schiavo was appointed plenary guardian in 1990, with total assets of $20,900. In Oct. 1992, he turned over the finances to Barnett Bank Trust Co. and total assets listed at $139,000. In April, 1993, Southtrust Estate and Trust Co. took over and assets listed $776,254.89. In July, 2002, Ms. Carpenter was appointed guardian of finances and the information on assets is sealed by the court.... Mr. Schiavo has not controlled the finances since 1992, and all payments were court approved."

A second DCF investigation from late in 2003, based on a complaint filed October 24, 2003, rebutted claims that the area where the feeding tube entered Terri Schiavo’s stomach was infected. It noted that the complainant "stated that her information on current state of infection and lack of treatment was from Yahoo chat line. Reporter stated that she has no personal knowledge of infection and victim’s lack of treatment." The investigators found: "Victim’s feeding tube area does have a little drainage. It is not infected."

The DCF document concluded: "During the time Mrs. Schiavo has been a patient of hospice, the spouse has always been courteous and very compassionate towards his wife. They have never heard him make any statements pertaining to wanting her to die. He is rarely alone with her when he visits and he has never compromised her care."

In March-April 2004, there were a series of complaints after a purple plastic object was found on the floor of Schiavo’s hospice room by her parents, who claimed that it was a "needle top" that proved their daughter was being secretly injected. The DCF investigated, and reported that the attendant who cleaned the room had testified it was not on the floor before the parents visited, that the mother carried a purse, and that she emerged from the room with the alleged "evidence." Terri Schiavo was examined but no injection site or drug was detected.

Additional complaints charged that Terri was missing a tooth, had a bedsore, and was not being bathed or turned in bed. A DCF investigation concluded that Terri was clean and washed, and had a small external ulcer which had been treated and healed before the complaint was phoned to the agency’s hot-line. The hospice had also agreed to the "purchase of a new bed which automatically will turn the V every 20 minutes to preclude skin breakdown or her body being in one position too long."

Michael Schiavo’s attorney Hamden Baskin III, in a comment to the Orlando Sentinel, said the DCF documents were a refutation of the agency’s own decision, on two occasions, to seek to take custody of Terri Schiavo away from her husband. "From the get-go, this was nothing but a political intervention," he said. "There was and continues to be no reason for them to have been involved."

The findings of the Florida DCF demonstrate that the right-wing campaign against Michael Schiavo was based on deliberate lies which were spread on the Internet, through right-wing talk radio and by leading Republican congressional leaders. Among these was House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, who publicly derided Michael Schiavo for his decision to terminate life support for his brain-damaged wife, even though DeLay authorized the same painful step in the case of his own dying father.

The cynicism and barefaced slanders employed in this campaign demonstrate the methods employed by the Bush administration and the extreme right in every sphere of political life. They lie just as readily and crudely about Iraq, the "war on terror" and their plans to destroy Social Security as in the tragic case of Terri Schiavo.

Mildred "Brent" Timperman passed away at her home on July 12, 2006. Known as Memaw to the Gravelle children, she lived next door to the Gravelles for six years and had an active part in their lives. Some of the children were very attached to her. She cooked meals on a daily basis and helped to care for them. It gave her the will to live after her husband died.

The children loved to spend the night over at Memaw's and the little ones would sometimes take their blanket and pillow to Memaw's for their naptime. During the summer of 2005, Memaw had storage shed erected on her property so that the little children could ride their tricycles in the wintertime. Her back patio was strewn with toys, as was her living room when the children were there. She loved those children!

After the children were taken by Huron County, she had a picture of a big yellow ribbon painted on the side of the shed with the message "Bring the Children Home, Lots of Love, Memaw. We Love You, Mom and Dad." When the Gravelles took pictures of the shed to show the children at a visitation, the social workers wouldn't allow the children to see them because, "It might make the children feel guilty."

As she lay dying, she kept asking to see the children. The Gravelle's attorney contacted Huron County Children's Services who felt it would not be in the best interest of the children to visit their grandmother.

David Broehl, Administrator of Huron County Children's Services, suggested that the Gravelles videotape Memaw on her deathbed and they would show it to some of the children! The Gravelles are appealing their case to have the children returned. How horrible and emotionally devastating this is going to be for these children when they find out that their grandmother wanted to see them before she died and they couldn't see her one last time.

This doesn't sound like it is in the best interest of the children to me. It sounds cold, heartless, mean, unkind, despicable, nasty, contemptible, vile, inhumane, merciless, brutal, pitiless, ruthless, barbarous, mean-spirited, dastardly, rotten, dishonorable, sinful, wicked, foul, loathsome, scandalous, immoral, evil-minded, malicious, nefarious and cruel.

Soon after the children were taken, Memaw made a very profound statement, "Huron County doesn't know it yet, but they've got a hold of a hornet's nest and they aren't going to be able to let go!"

Why is this happening? One of the basic reasons is a conflict of interest for social workers, both in county and adoption agencies. Social workers are human and subject to biases and prejudices based on their character, integrity and training. In county agencies, social workers are trained to take children out of homes and put them into foster homes in order to keep getting huge amounts federal funding for their agencies and thus, keep their jobs.

Because they have sovereign immunity from the Federal CAPTA Act passed in 1937, they can do anything they want including lie, threaten, file false information and false allegations to get a search warrant, commit perjury, and try to alienate children from loving parents and families by the same techniques used by terrorists (Stockholm Syndrome) and vindictive parents (Parental Alienation Syndrome). They also use drugs to control unhappy foster children, which only programs them for later drug abuse.

Social workers in private adoption agencies need to keep placing children for adoption in order to keep money coming into their agencies. Because of this need to adopt out children, the social workers that do home studies for their agencies, write glowing reports of families desiring to adopt. When naive parents tell the social worker of previous problems, they are told that if the information is five or ten years old, it can no longer be held against them.

The adoptive parents aren't allowed to read this report, but may be asked to sign at the bottom of the page acknowledging that the home study was done. It then looks like they have agreed to the information written by the social worker. Later on, if the adoptive parents are investigated, they may be charged with giving false information and/or perjury because of this signature.

Another issue with private agencies is that if they refuse to let a child be adopted because of a negative home study, the parents may go to another agency. If the second agency allows an adoption, then the first agency gets a bad reputation and parents will stop trying to adopt through them. It's bad for business when a social worker writes a negative home study because adoptive parents pay private agencies thousands of dollars to adopt children

There is no cost to adopt from public agencies. However, if they do not keep placing children in foster care and adopting or re-adopting children, they will lose huge amounts of federal funding. Since all this information is public, all one has to do is request it from the county auditor. Much of this money goes to county employees. You can also request the salaries of county employees from the auditor.

If this money were used to help parent's correct "problems" and keep their children at home where they belong, there would be less need for all the county workers, which creates a conflict of interest for county workers. Instead of paying money to foster parents, why is this money not being used to help parents keep their children at home?

The federal CAPTA laws that were enacted in 1937 were meant to protect children from abuse but instead are being used by CPS to abuse families and children.

One of the children was moved "again" in May because he got mad about something so he "peed" all over the walls and expensive carpet and furniture. The foster mother called children's services and said, "Get him out of here NOW!" The Gravelles wouldn't have done that. They would have asked Elaine Thompson what they could try now to control the behavior. The sheriff should go to that foster home and he might smell urine there too, but now he'll understand why.

The expenses to appeal a case are enormous. So far, $10.000 has been paid just to the court reporters for the cost of the court transcripts. They now want an additional $2040.00.

PLEASE keep the Gravelle family in your prayers and help them in their fight to have their children returned home where they are loved no matter what they do. Donations can be made to the Gravelle Family Defense Fund at Key Bank, 11-13 West Main St., Wakeman, OH 44889 (or any Key Bank).

Posted August 14, 2006

 Why Eleven Children?

Sharen Gravelle was asked "Why eleven children?" and she responded first by telling this story.A woman came to the beach every day after the tide went out. She would pick up the starfish stranded on the beach and throw them back into the ocean. One day, a man asked her, "Why are you throwing the starfish back?"

She replied, "Because they want to live too." "But you can't save them all," he exclaimed.

"No," she answered as she picked up a starfish and threw it into the ocean, "but I can save this one." She picked up another and threw it back, "and this one." She continued picking up starfish, throwing them back and saying, "and this one; and this one; and this one.

Sharen ended her story by saying, "Someday, when I stand before God on judgment day, I'm going to have eleven starfish in my crown."

~Gravelle Family Friend

Annette,

I have to tell you that I broke down and cried when I was trying to write this story and then I cried again when I read your story "Family Court: What Was I Thinking?"

I just talked to a woman for 2 hours who approached Sharen in Walmart on Monday. Ironically, Sharen had a dream about this woman the night before!

This woman, Judy, said she is currently involved with Huron County Court and CPS and wants to help Sharen. Sharen's attorney doesn't want her to be involved with starting a support group for parents who are having similar problems but I will! June said she will allow me to use her phone number and one of her email addresses to start the support group.

I have talked to Roz McAllister who is president of the Ohio American Family Rights Association and she will give presentations about what to do if a social worker comes to your house, etc. Also I can ask Bob Surgenor from the Family Defense Network of Ohio to speak to the group too.

I talk to him about the Gravelles and he also uses some of my stories on his website that reaches over 6000 people in Ohio. He's very involved with these types of cases. Do you know who he is?

Judy wrote a column for a newspaper for 5 years and would be willing to help with a newsletter. I would like to use your letter in some of my updates in the future or in the newsletter with your permission and of course your name. I think we need to get more of these horror stories out over the internet and to our lawmakers on a regular basis. Perhaps we can use the newsletter for that reason?

Roz is planning to run for state representative where she can have an impact on the laws. There is a lot of work to be done to change the system.

If you have any suggestions about starting a support group, please let me know or call me when you have a spare minute. ~ Janet
(Not her real name.) Posted August 14, 2006

Gravelle Case Update

Protecting the Innocent Victims from Zealous State Workers

Updated January 20, 2006
by: Annette M. Hall

NORWALK, Ohio - On November 15, 2005 Huron County Judge Timothy Cardwell refused to return 11 special-needs children to their adoptive parents, keeping them in county custody pending a hearing scheduled for Dec. 6 due to allegations that the children were abused and neglected.

In a brief ruling Judge Cardwell said, "Based on the information submitted, the court finds the ... motion for Immediate Return of, or Extended Visitation with the Children to be not well taken."

County authorities removed the children from the home of Michael and Sharen Gravelle on Sept. 9. The Gravelle's reside in Clarksfield Township. Some of the children, ages 1-14, were being kept in homemade wood-and-wire cages for their own safety.

Attorney Kenneth Myers, representing the Gravelle's filed a motion this month seeking the return of the children or an increased visitation schedule for Mr. and Mrs. Gravelle. Since the youngsters were removed and placed in foster homes, Michael and Sharen have only been allowed to see the children every other week for one-hour under the supervision of child protective service caseworkers.

The judge has agreed to a request from the family to allow Mrs. Gravelle's mother; her adult daughter Lisa, and Mr. Myers to be included in the visitation sessions.

"Returning the children to the home, or allowing visitation to occur in the home that is the issue of the complaint, is not in the children's best interest," Ms. DeLand wrote.

Assistant County Prosecutor Jennifer DeLand filed a response Monday in opposition to the motion filed by Attorney Myers' on behalf of the Huron County Department of Job and Family Services, which has been awarded temporary custody of the Gravelle's children.

"Among other things, the Father and Mother have not indicated any willingness to cease the use of the enclosures. Returning the children to the Gravelle home would put the children at risk for additional future harm."

Yet, the state has filed no criminal charges against the couple. The Gravelles deny ever harming the children and insist that the enclosures are needed to protect the children from harming themselves and each other.

The allegations made against the Gravelles may put their pending adoption of the youngest child in jeopardy. A nonprofit adoption agency, The Cradle Society, based in Evanston, Illinois, has filed a legal response in the juvenile division of Huron County (Ohio) Common Pleas Court, opposing the return of all the children to the Gravelles.

The Cradle Society is seeking to have Mercy Anne Gravelle, a 19-month-old girl, returned to Illinois and made a ward of Cook County, stating that Mercy requires supervised care because she may need surgery to correct unspecified birth abnormalities. Her adoption by the Gravelles has yet to be finalized. The child is currently being held in foster care in Huron County, OH.

Though Margaret Kern, the children's guardian ad litem has sought discovery documents from the county, none have been forthcoming. Kern was forced to filed a motion stating that she could not take a position on the Gravelles' request for additional visition in the proceeding because she had never received the requested documents from county authorities.

Some very positive things have happened for the Gravelles, who have finally been portrayed by the media as loving, compassionate parents who adopted the children when nobody else would take them. They were caring for children with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, Autism, Reactive Attachment Disorder, HIV and Pica, an eating disorder that causes children to eat dirt and rocks and other problems few parents would tackle.

But out of this situation, the Department of Children's Services has seized the opportunity to try something I have feared for years they would attempt to do, change the child abuse laws in the state of Ohio.

When our organization was contacted by Sharen Gravelle, we forwarded her a copy of the Ohio Revised Code pertaining to the restraint of children allowed under law. Section §2919.22, the "Endangering children." statute, states:

We explained that what she was describing as unlocked "enclosures" certainly did not constitute child abuse under Ohio law.

The Gravelles have recently retained an excellent attorney, one that I became familiar with during my years on the police department. As you all probably know, the Gravelles have not yet been charged with any crime! It has been over two-months since their children were ripped from them by Children's Services.

Does anyone want to guess why they haven't been charged? Because they have not broken any laws, that's why! This is another excellent example of social workers jumping the gun and grabbing children from their parents without completely researching the law. These social workers had a court order, which means the judge didn't know the law or the real facts either!

Yesterday, the local Fox News station ran a special story on the Gravelles and their children. I am usually against talking with the media, but this time, Bill Sheil of the Fox 8 I-Team did an outstanding job exposing the truth in the Gravelle story. Sheil interviewed Elaine Thompson, a social worker who was on the Gravelle's side, and who has worked for forty years with troubled children.

She clearly pointed out to Sheil that the enclosures portrayed by the media as "cages" were simply their "beds." Thompson stated the Gravelle's children, for once in their life, had parents who they could trust. The enclosures with battery powered alarms on the doors not only warned the parents when a child opened a door, the children actually felt safe with the alarms on their enclosures. They could sleep without worrying about a stranger getting at them during the night. The enclosures were never locked, so the children could escape during an emergency.

Social Worker Thompson stated that the Gravelle's adopted these children "at great personal sacrifice and with little assistance." She also stated that the removal of the children "further traumatized the children." But that wasn't the best part of the interview! Thompson went on to say, "It is not the Gravelles who have abused these children, it is Huron County!"

Folks, this social worker deserves a medal! She went on to say that the removal of the children by the social workers has destroyed all of the hard work the Gravelles have done with the children for the past seven years.

The children were finally beginning to trust someone to protect them. That trust has now been destroyed. But compounding the damage done by the DCFS, the prosecutor, Russ Leffler, commenting about Elaine Thompson's statements, said, "Some people don't know when to keep their mouth shut."

This sounds to me like a prosecutor who is not interested in the truth, but only in pursuing a case that probably has no merit.

Another disturbing thing about this case is what the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services had to say about it. Interviewed by the Fox News Network, the representative from the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services stated that the current Ohio child abuse laws were too "vague."

Folks, I am considered an expert on Ohio child abuse laws by the courts. Ohio child abuse laws are some of the most precise, exact, child abuse laws in the country. The Department of Job and Family Services is wrong.

If he made that statement out of ignorance, then he needs to be educated. He went on to say that Ohio's child abuse laws need a major overhaul, and need to be revised to address situations like the Gravelle's. Folks, the law already does address the Gravelle situation, and the law says the family has done nothing wrong! I am afraid that this is the beginning of an effort by DCFS to make Ohio child abuse laws less "parent friendly" and more "social worker friendly."

We have to make sure that the Gravelles are not charged with a bogus crime that will force them to spend thousands of dollars for their defense and perhaps lose their children. Anyone who is interested in contacting the Huron County prosecutor or the director of the Huron County Job and Family Services, the telephone numbers and addresses are below. The contact information for the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services is also provided. There is strength in numbers, and I know from experience on the job that the public voice is an extremely important one.

Robert R. Surgenor Sr.
Retired Detective

Detective Surgenor has studied juvenile crime extensively, conducted seminars on juvenile crime, parental authority, and discipline.

Family Defense Network of Ohio
Phone: 1-800-438-8277

 Huron County Job and Family Services
185 Shady Lane Drive
Norwalk, Ohio 44857
Phone: (800) 668-8126

Huron County Prosecutor's Office
Russ Leffler, prosecutor
12 E. Main Street
Norwalk, Ohio 44857
Phone: (419) 668-8215

Ohio Department of Job and Family Services
Barbara Riley, Director
30 E. Broad Street, 32nd Floor
Columbus, Ohio 43215-3414
Phone: (614) 466-6282
Fax: (614) 466-2815