> Do you explore their resources before listing them as your kind
> of resource?
Yes, at least to the extent that I have obtained a copy of their file
listing.
To be more specific, what I am looking for are sites that offer files
and conferences that would provide genuine information about the
issues of false allegations of abuse, genuine cases of abuse (let us
remember that both do exist), as well as false allegations of any
variety. I'm also looking for legal resources, as such information is
very hard to find both on BBS's and the Internet.
These files may include newspaper articles, Supreme and Circuit Court
Opinions, miscellaneous items such as the now famous Santa Clara and
San Diego Grand Jury reports on Child Protective Services, newsletters
from advocacy groups, copies of Complaints or Amicus Briefs in support
of parents during termination proceedings, copies of related statutes,
Interstate Acts such as PKPA and UCCJA, position papers from bona fide
organizations such as the AMA and the Bar Association, papers from
bona fide researchers, Program Instructions from CPS agencies, legal
citations, particularly as regards parental rights or civil rights in
general, archives of related conferences or mailing lists (such as
the one maintained by Lazarus Long of the WITCHHNT mailing list), and
any other information that may be of some tangible benefit to people
seeking information about child abuse and neglect, false allegations
of abuse or neglect, and of false allegations of any other variety.
Ask yourself this question, what kind of BBS would you have hoped to
find when your situation occurred? Wouldn't a set of appellate briefs
in reference to a woman allegedly falsely accused of child abuse have
been the first thing you'd have downloaded? Wouldn't so much as a set
of jury instructions have been helpful in terms of furthering your
understanding of the law? Wouldn't an up-to-date listing of advocacy
groups have saved you a considerable amount of time?
Consider how readily this could be accomplished. By way of example,
almost every advocacy group has a newsletter. VOCAL has one, and I
believe you said Ingram did as well. This means that they exist in
someone's computer, more than likely in Word Perfect or Word format.
In a few minutes of time, these files can be dumped into plain text,
compressed, and uploaded to a BBS for less than the cost of a stamp
and an envelope.
For some time, Valery was manually typing these darn things, copying
them from the hard copy newsletter. Isn't that a waste of time and
effort? Heck, send me three hundred such newsletters, in plain Ascii
or any other format, and I'll reformat them, make them look pretty on
the screen, and catalog them with meaningful descriptions in under one
weeks time. (This offer has been on the table for quite a while now.)
Consider the number of Complaints, Briefs, civil suits and other such
actions taken by people against child protective services agencies,
and, in some cases, prosecutors. While it's all well and fine that I
can send three or four dollars to some office for a zerox copy of a
particular suit, wouldn't it serve us all better if I could simply
make it available here, else available via immediate and unverified
download? Why reinvent the proverbial wheel?
While I have personal copies of key cases, i.e., Santosky, Smith v
Organization of Foster Care Families, Stanley, Skinner, Meyer and
Prince, along with several key Virginia cases, wouldn't it go a long
way toward furthering a distraught parents learning curve to find
all of these available on one phone call? Syllabi, Opinions, and all.
End result? In one evening, that parent has received an education as
to his/her rights that takes some people several weeks, or months, to
gain. I'd call that a good springboard for further research.
What is clear is that we are not taking the fullest advantage of the
opportunities offered us by this technology. Too much time is wasted
on duplicative efforts, while resources already spread thin could be
more effectively allocated.
But, as is often the case, I do digress.
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* Origin: Parens patriae Resource Center for Parents 540-896-4356
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