Latest news with #Children'sRights
Yahoo
11-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Foster Kids Are Too Often Forced to Take Psychotropic Drugs to Manage Their Behavior
PeopleImages Stay up-to-date with the politics team. Sign up for the Teen Vogue Take I entered the foster care system at a young age, moving many times. My experience was nothing short of a nightmare. I was told that no one loved or wanted me. Without the nurturing environment and stability that a child needs to thrive, I sank deeper into hopelessness and depression, which caused me to act out. Unfortunately, instead of getting the counseling and nurturing I needed, those responsible for my care decided my behavior required multiple doses of powerful drugs, as many as five at a time. This included the antipsychotic Abilify, which made me shake involuntarily; and Strattera, a medication prescribed for ADHD, which I do not have, that has awful side effects like nausea, vomiting, dizziness, and suicidal thoughts. When you're in the foster system, it's easy to feel like you're an inconvenient problem rather than someone who deserves support and love. Far too often, as I experienced, if a kid is acting out or causing trouble, the response is psychotropic drugs — medications used to control behavior rather than address the underlying trauma a kid is living with. I was shuffled between different homes and facilities where psychotropic drugs were the norm. Rarely was I asked how I was feeling, what people could do to help, or if I wanted to take the medication. Instead, these powerful drugs were given to me as a cure-all — and without proper supervision or meaningful evaluation. To make matters worse, the effects of these medications are not temporary; I still deal with related health problems, along with enduring feelings of loneliness and isolation. An estimated 26% of youth take at least one psychotropic drug while in the foster system, according to Children's Rights, a nonprofit aimed at protecting children's civil rights and keeping families together. According to the organization, these drugs are often administered without proper informed consent prior to their use. Psychotropic drugs do have a place in treating mental health issues, but they should only be administered after the necessary protections and oversight are put in place to ensure it is a safe option for the child, with approval from the child, their caregiver, and a medical professional. The reality is that most youth in foster systems are not consulted about their own treatments, forcing them to bear the related physical and emotional trauma for years — or a lifetime. We cannot allow this to continue. I was a named plaintiff in an historic class action lawsuit in Missouri that now ensures children in the state's foster system are only administered psychotropic drugs when it is safe and necessary. This legal victory sets an example I hope other states will follow. Those in charge of state foster systems can begin by limiting the use of psychotropic drugs to situations where it's truly necessary. Rather than prescribing a pill to keep us quiet, these leaders must listen to us and invest in systems that prioritize the mental health and emotional well-being of children. Young people in systems need trauma-informed care, therapy, and stable environments to provide them with a safe space to heal. I lost my innocence and my childhood to the foster system, but I will not let this be the end of my story. I will continue fighting so others do not suffer like I did. By sharing my experience, I hope to spark a much-needed conversation about overmedication and abuse in the foster system and the urgent need for change. Originally Appeared on Teen Vogue Want more U.S. government coverage? The Current Supreme Court Is Illegitimate What It's Like to Live In a State Run By Politicians You Can't Stand Mass Incarceration Is Cruel, Expensive, and Ineffective The True Story of a White Supremacist Insurrection in the U.S.
Yahoo
12-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Details emerge in death of child in Texas foster care; court upholds judge's removal
Four months after a three-judge panel on the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals removed federal Judge Janis Jack from a major, yearslong case against Texas' foster care system and vacated her latest contempt order against the state, a divided 5th Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday declined to reconsider the decision. In a seven-page dissenting opinion joined by four other judges, Judge Stephen Higginson wrote that he believes the decision by a majority of his colleagues puts 'abuse and neglect … out of sight of the law once more.' 'It is fundamental in our historic liberties that the state may not set aside due process of law in the care of its wards,' Higginson wrote. 'But today, we turn away the children protected by those guarantees and shut the doors of this court.' The order, decided by a 9-5 vote, came down just hours after court monitors assigned by Jack filed a new report suggesting the state may still be failing to sufficiently investigate group foster homes for reports of abuse. In one of several deaths highlighted in the report, investigators found that an 11-year-old boy died during a group movie theater outing in November after foster care staff members ignored signs of extreme medical distress, including the boy 'screaming and crying in pain' hours earlier, having difficulty walking and soiling himself while in his seat. The home had a history of violating state regulations. National child welfare advocacy group Children's Rights filed the case in 2011 against then-Gov. Rick Perry, arguing Texas was violating foster children's constitutional right to be free from an unreasonable risk of harm. Both Jack and the 5th Circuit affirmed that finding, Higginson noted. A Better Childhood later joined as a second plaintiff. Tuesday's decision denies the plaintiffs' appeal of the three-judge panel's unanimous ruling granting Gov. Greg Abbott's request for the case to be reassigned to a new judge. The panel also struck down Jack's April order that would have fined the state hundreds of thousands of dollars for not sufficiently complying with her orders. Abbott, alongside the heads of two state agencies that manage the foster care system, is a defendant in the case. In his dissent, Higginson took particular issue with the removal of Jack, who for 13 years presided over the lawsuit that put Texas' foster care system under a microscope, appointing and overseeing court monitors to keep tabs on the state's compliance and imposing strict standards for state agencies. He said Jack's removal was an extraordinary step that struck him as 'having rested on miscalculations.' 'I worry that we have concluded, from Judge Jack's assiduous effort in the face of structural friction and intense factual complexity, from remarks based in at best a desire to expeditiously give effect to the Constitution and at worst human error of a nature with regard to which we have perhaps not always set the best example, that Judge Jack is not suited to preside over this case for precisely the reasons that she is suited to preside over this case,' Higginson wrote. In the October ruling at issue in this appeal, Judge Edith Jones wrote that Jack had to be removed because her "intemperate conduct on the bench" could reasonably make an observer question her impartiality, alleging that Jack had become "too personally involved in the proceedings" and exhibited a "highly antagonistic demeanor" toward the defendants. The state argued that Jack's standards for compliance with a litany of remedial orders, including directives that the foster care system fully investigate reports of abuse and keep children without placement under adult supervision, were unrealistically high. Jones and the panel agreed, writing that the state has made good-faith efforts to comply in the decade since Jack's first remedial order and that Jack "clearly indicated an intent to continue oversight well into the future. ... This contempt order seems a harbinger of even more drastic district court micromanagement." Houston-based attorney Paul Yetter, who is representing the plaintiffs pro bono, said he "regret(s)" the appeals court's decision to uphold the October ruling while praising the dissent. "We are gratified and encouraged ... by the powerful words of the several appellate judges in support of Judge Jack and the contempt order," Yetter said in a statement. "And we will continue to fight to keep Texas foster children safe.' Abbott's office did not immediately return the American-Statesman's request for comment. More: Federal court removes Judge Janis Jack, who oversaw Texas foster care system for 13 years Four and a half hours before the 5th Circuit order came down Tuesday, court monitors appointed by Jack filed a new report detailing how the state may have ignored neglect and abuse in several foster homes. The monitors, who are charged with tracking Texas' compliance with past court orders, highlighted the Nov. 27 death of an 11-year-old boy identified as O.R. Two weeks after O.R. was placed at Thompson's Residential Treatment Center in Greenville, he woke up 'screaming and crying in pain,' investigators wrote. After involuntarily soiling himself in the bathroom, he received Tylenol for constipation. Later that day, staff members ignored the boy's request to stay home from a movie theater outing and, as per surveillance footage, dragged him through the hallways of the theater because he could not stand, the monitors wrote. At one point, the boy collapsed. O.R. was left unattended for the duration of the movie and was found at its conclusion to be 'cold, unresponsive and bleeding from his nose.' He had passed away during the film from unknown causes. A criminal investigation is ongoing. The report found that Thompson's Treatment Center had a 'history of regulatory problems' related to corporal punishment and caregiver responsibility. One child was hospitalized after a restraint 'resulted in a laceration to his liver,' the court monitors noted. State Sen. Angela Paxton, R-McKinney, suggested O.R.'s death was connected to a need for additional investigative staff during a legislative hearing Feb. 3, as the Texas Tribune reported. The McKinney Republican was commenting on a budget proposal to increase investigative staff at the Texas Health and Human Services Commission. 'Tragically, in my district, there was an 11-year-old boy who passed away this past November while he was under the care of a licensed residential treatment center which has since had its license revoked and children placed in other centers,' Paxton said. The state's need for additional regulatory staff 'is something very tangible and concrete in my district," she added. Yetter, the attorney representing the plaintiffs, said the death indicates the system still needs significant reform. "Yet again, the state is shutting down a dangerous facility after another tragedy," the attorney said in a statement. "Innocent children are still dying in state care. This is not a safe system.'The court report also noted that a 17-year-old girl named D.M. died from fentanyl poisoning after her foster parent 'failed to take an action that a reasonable person in her profession with 13 years of experience and trainings should (have) taken to ensure (the girl) was safe and out of harm.' The state closed the investigation and determined neglect was not a cause of the girl's death. In another case listed in the status update, a 17-year-old girl, H.H., died in a car crash four weeks after running away from her foster home. The Department of Family and Protective Services 'did not pursue an abuse, neglect or exploitation investigation into H.H.'s death or elopement, though the DFPS Child Plan in effect at the time required her to be under heightened supervision due to a history of running away,' the monitors wrote. This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Details emerge in death of 11-year-old child in Texas foster care
