Gossip Mill, Grist Mill
Why gossip, slander, speculation, fear, hysteria, and
overzealousness are detrimental to our children.

As a child I belonged to a 4-H club for a time. We would meet up
one evening per week and talk while we worked on crafts projects and
play games designed to instill positive values in our optimistic
young minds. One of the games left a lasting impression on me. The
Gossip Game. We lined up single file and one of the adult leaders
wrote a brief message on a piece of paper and let the first person
in line read it. That person then whispered the message to the next
person in line, who whispered it to the next person and so on. By
the time the message reached the last person in line, it had been
transformed into a completely different message. The original
story, "Jane and Jack met for a cup of coffee at Joe's diner. Joe
is married to Jane's sister, Jill, who is expecting a baby.
Afterwards, Jack walked Jane home and then he went back to work."
became, "Jack and Jane had coffee with Joe who owns a diner. Jane
went home with Joe who is married to another woman and now Jack is
jealous. Jane is pregnant and Jack thinks it's Joe's baby." The
moral of the story: Keep to the facts or keep your mouth shut.

While we embrace gossip in the media as a form of entertainment, we
prefer to hear the facts when it comes to the more serious issues of
life. Facts allow us to develop an intelligent understanding of the
issue. Facts are synonymous with truth and knowledge. Gossip is
synonymous with slander and dishonesty. Truth is noble while gossip
is cheap.

Religions have always discouraged people from engaging in gossip and
slander. In Judaism, the Talmud tells that "the tongue is an
instrument so dangerous that it must be kept hidden from view,
behind two protective walls (the mouth and teeth) to prevent its
misuse." The harm done by speech is even worse than the harm done
by stealing or by cheating someone financially, because amends can
be made for monetary harms, but the harm done by speech can never be
repaired. In Islam, the Quran tells that "you who believe, if some
perverse man should come up to you with some piece of news, clear up
the facts lest you afflict some folk out of ignorance and some
morning feel regretful for what you may have done. Do not spy on
one another, nor yet any of you slander others. In Christianity,
the Bible tells that "Thou shall not bear false witness against your
neighbor." and "Love your neighbor as yourself,."

Throughout history we have witnessed how detrimental the tactics of
gossip, slander, speculation, fear, hysteria, and overzealousness
can be. The infamous Salem Witch Trials of the late 1600's are a
classic example of the judicial failure and anarchy which resulted
from community leaders relying upon such tactics instead of turning
to science, fact and truth to resolve the problems of the
community. In the end, Increase Mather, head of the Boston-area
clergy published "Cases of Conscience Concerning Evil Spirits." In
it, Mather stated "It were better that Ten Suspected Witches should
escape, than that the Innocent Person should be Condemned." In the
1800's, Nathaniel Hawthorne, inspired by the travesty of the Salem
trials, wrote the classic, "The Scarlet Letter," in which Hester
Prynne is ordered to wear a scarlet letter A for the rest of her
life so that she will be condemned by the community for committing
adultery.

Adolph Hitler masterminded genocide against Jews, Gypsies, Poles and
anyone else who didn't fit into his twisted view of the perfect
world order using such tactics to coerce the German people into
following his policies. From the Cold War of the late 1940's to the
McCarthy blacklistings of the 1950's these tactics were used to fuel
the flames of hatred that destroyed the lives of innocent citizens.
The term "McCarthyism" is still used to describe irrational fear and
paranoia causing systematic or institutionalized action to be taken
against any perceived scapegoat group. More recently, we witnessed
the same tactics used to create the bogus Ritual Abuse cases of the
1980's and 1990's which were tried in courts across the nation and
which resulted in destroying the lives of and imprisoning innocent
citizens.

So it is today with child protective services (CPS), our nation's
system of child protection. When a mandated reporter or any other
citizen calls the child abuse hotline to report child abuse without
certainty, without evidence, without facts, the gossip mill kicks
into gear. The report itself is one of "suspicion", not fact. As
if that were not bad enough, the mandated reporter will then discuss
the situation with his or her associates. Before the investigation
has even begun, the accused is considered guilty in the eyes of the
school principal and teacher or the doctor and nurse or the next
door neighbors. This assumption of guilt will continue long after
the investigation has been concluded. The accused are branded for
life. We may as well stitch an A for Abuse onto the breast of every
parent accused of child abuse, because the stigma of the accusation
will never go away no matter what the outcome of the investigation.

The accuser is granted unlimited power to destroy with words alone
and once the grist mill is in motion, there is no legal way to shut
it down. There is no objective scientific approach to the process.
It is a system so saturated with gossip, slander, speculation, fear,
hysteria, and overzealousness that those who work within the system
cannot see beyond their own personal disdain for child abuse long
enough to ascertain whether or not a child was actually in need of
protection in the first place. More often than not, there is a
display of blatant violent hatred towards accused parents and when
their children object to the unnecessary intervention, they too
become targets of this hatred. This insidious method of protecting
children and helping families is so totally counter-productive to
helping people that it needs to be shut down immediately and
forever.

Here is one example of how it works:

1. Child goes to school with bruise sustained during play.

2. Mandated reporter interrogates and strip searches child, then
calls the child abuse hotline to report suspicion of abuse.

3. CPS visits child at school and interrogates and strip searches
child a second time.

4. CPS launches surprise visit to child's home and interrogates and
strip searches child a third time. CPS coerce parents into
receiving therapeutic services under the threat of removing children
from the home.

5. Parents agree to therapeutic services and CPS bills Medicaid.

6. Parents names are entered into the statewide central abuse
registry.

7. After several months of services and home visits the
investigation is complete and the case is closed.

All this despite the fact that the child was not abused and did not
need protection. The process can just as easily begin again because
there is absolutely no vindication for the innocent parent.

1. Child goes to school with bruise sustained during play.

2. Mandated reporter interrogates and strip searches child, then
calls the child abuse hotline to report suspicion of abuse.

3. Child is removed from home and taken into protective custody.

4. Child is interrogated and strip searched by CPS medical team.

5. Parents will have to go to court daily, then weekly, then
monthly, attend therapeutic services and attempt to have visits with
child.

6. Child is emotionally traumatized and at risk of physical,
emotional and sexual abuse, even death while in state custody.

7. Working parents will lose employment and health benefits and
eventually housing due to constant court appearances and therapeutic
services.

8. After several months or years, depending on the judge, child
will be returned to parents.

Again, this can happen despite the fact that the child was not
abused and did not need protection and can just as easily begin yet
again because there is absolutely no process of vindication for the
innocent parent. It is an endless, vicious cycle that does
absolutely nothing to help families and children.

Post-CAPTA CPS is so engrained in our daily lives that we, as a
nation, simply take for granted that this is the only way to protect
children. I would like to believe that there are sincere
individuals with a genuine interest in protecting abused children
working for CPS, although I have to admit that in my 20 years of
dealing with CPS I have never met one. According to our government
statistics, my own personal experience, the heart-wrenching
testimony of parents and former foster children who have endured
more suffering than a human soul should ever have to withstand, it
is undeniably evident that CPS is not protecting families and
children, it is destroying them, one child at a time.

For information on how you can create a better system of child
protection, please visit my website at
www.childprotectionreform.com. You will find more information about
the problem, the solution and links to many excellent websites
advocating for reform and the human rights of families and children
and all people.

J. Holderbaum
www.childprotectionreform.com