My question involves civil rights in the State of: Pennsylvania
My daughter is 17 years old and has been diagnosed with bipolar and personality disorder among other behavioral disorders. I have struggled for almost four years trying to deter her from drugs and alcohol and other delinquent peers. She was just released to me in January from TREATMENT foster care after probation for a breaking and entering charge WHILE in treatment foster care.
She was doing OK back home with me until an older alcoholic woman began harboring her as a runaway and purchasing alcohol and cigarettes for her while giving her limitless freedom so she refused to come home. My daughter’s aggressive behavior spun out of control and I felt I had no recourse but to file a petition for dependency to request help in governing her. When I told the intake worker that my daughter was drinking, she asked me “Besides drinking, how do you feel your child is in danger?” I was appalled!
I had hoped the courts would file a disciplinary order (as her probation had) and we would receive in home services (requested at the adjudication hearing) but instead, at the shelter hearing, the Judge removed my child from my custody due to “ongoing conflict” and allowed her to stay with the woman harboring and contributing to her delinquency.
At the adjudication hearing, the Judge stated my child was old enough to decide for herself if she wanted to come home or not. When I mentioned my concern for her drinking at the adjudication the Judge ordered a urine test of which the result will be requested at the Permanency Planning meeting. I called the LCB, the state police, the local police and others who informed me that unless my daughter was willing to testify against this woman, there was nothing I could do about the underage drinking.
I was not found to be unfit or neglectful. CYF set us up with a CYF contracted psychologist/expert who refused to confer with my daughter’s previous treatment records and blindly diagnosed my daughter with “mild” psychological problems. His report is full of my daughter’s false allegations and his connotations regarding my responsibility and neglect for alleged abuses that occurred over ten years ago. He also recommended to the Judge that severe consequence be stipulated if I discussed my daughter’s allegations with my other children who could refute them.
The outcome of the legal proceedings “shocked the senses” and no one, including myself, could believe an agency purporting “child protection” would do such a thing. The hardest part is the years of behavioral counseling in which my daughter’s mental and psychological condition has deteriorated. Family counseling and visitation was refused and I was denied access to her medical and educational records. There is so much more as this is just a summary of the atrocities.
I believe my constitutional family rights have been violated. Do you agree? A neighbor told me CYF helped her do the same thing to her mother several years prior. I am looking for a good lawyer to take this case.

