Joe Erwin

One of the scariest things happened to a friend of mine here in New Jersey. Their 2.5 year old couldn't stop crying, and they couldn't figure out why. So they did what any responsible parent would do - they took him to the emergency room. They spent over nine hours there. More than half of that was just waiting for doctors and nurses to become available. Nurses ran a few tests. Everything came back normal, except for traces of ibuprofen in his system. The doctors never gave them a clear diagnosis. The best guess was that at some point during the day, he'd gotten into his mom's purse and swallowed an Advil. The child slept for a few hours at the hospital, and they went home relieved, glad that it was nothing serious and that they needed to be more careful. The next day, two investigators from Child Protective Services showed up at their doorstep. They didn’t realize that the doctor at the hospital filed a complaint against them for neglect/abuse with CPS. It's been an ongoing nightmare that's stretched on for weeks, with no end in sight and no real recourse. CPS has been relentless. They've had the parents fill out stacks of forms. They've insisted on speaking alone, multiple times, with a 2.5-year-old child who can barely hold a conversation. They've conducted investigations with the neighbors, the school, and others. CPS found nothing in their first visit or in their conversations with anyone else. My friends are attentive, loving parents who provide the best of everything for their child. But CPS kept going. Now they're asking the parents to take drug tests. While they keep adding demands, they've been painfully slow at actually moving the investigation forward. Also, the doctor who filed the complaint is the same one who fumbled the child's vaccination, leaving a cyst on his body. But she was quick to file a report with CPS against the parents, who now treat them like suspects. The investigators told them that if they don't do everything asked, CPS will file a complaint in court, and then they'll be subject to whatever the court orders. Including, potentially, removing the child from their home. So they do whatever is asked. They are asked to sit for interrogations, sign forms, etc. It's frustrating, but they don't want to lose their child. Both the reporting doctor and the investigators operate under broad immunity. There is essentially no accountability on either side of the system. No consequence for a baseless report, no check on how aggressively an investigation is conducted. My friends were shocked when CPS showed up and said they were conducting an investigation into neglect/abuse of their child. Also makes them scared to now take their child to the emergency room or to doctors. They are probably already flagged in the system, even if the report concludes without anything. It makes you wonder: how can people be encouraged to have children when a single report from a single (potentially incompetent) doctor can set this kind of bureaucratic machine in motion, with no way to stop it? It’s so maddening to see people like them have to go through this without any recourse.

Do you know where your birth certificate and/or marriage license is right now?