Though I am only an observer of this topic thankfully not having had any kind of interaction with DOCS, learning about this whole scenario has changed me. IHGD (I Hate GOV DEPT) suggested I do a search on DOCS and I was gobsmacked at how many, many people have been butchered by this system and department. So many innocent people and CHILDREN irrecoverably damaged.

There were some mentions within this forum of the Stolen Generation. Another time when Government deemed what was a good environment and parenting for children then ripped families apart with long-term devastating effects. A parent is part of the child no matter what, whether deemed good or bad (by whomever).

And dear "thisisgood", I was in agony, my heart breaking and my stomach twisting as I read your description of your feelings when your child was taken to foster care. I thought of my own little boy and I would die if someone took him from me. I would not want to live! And not just because of the pain I would feel being without him, but mostly because I would know that he would be devastated and ruined forever being ripped from familiarity and his roots and the only person who will ever love him as only a mother can.

And finally, a comment on guilt...guilty until proven innocent?! We must re-examine our system as I am quite sure this is not the way it was intended! I am one of those that would rather see a bunch of guilty people slip through the fingers of justice than to see one innocent person hanged.

For example, say you had 10 adults with a child each, and you knew one of those adults was in some way "abusing" his/her child, but you didn't know which adult it was. Therefore, sadly, but truthfully, one human being is seriously suffering, one child.

So say you investigate these 10 people and find that you've narrowed it down to 3 of the 10 adults that seem to be the possible abuser. And you decide to prosecute the three (unless they can prove their innocence, and it is harder to prove something "didn't" happen than something "did" happen, so now you are trying to prove a negative). And say you found 2 of the three suspected adults "guilty". Let's now see how many people are being destroyed. Two "guilty-charged" adults and each of their children who now lose their parent.

We started off knowing one child was abused. Now we have four people destroyed, not to mention the 1 of 3 that was acquitted, but that was put through trial, judged by society, their reputation permanently stained, so whose life was virtually destroyed anyway, and maybe their child's as well, so that is possibly 6 people now. To make matters worse, now suppose that the adult that was the abuser was so clever that they avoided suspicion in the first place. So he was never amongst the 3 of 10 thought to be guilty. Now we can add the one original abused child (whose parent was never even suspected) to the scenario and have possibly 7 of 20 people whose lives are in shambles.

Just something to think about.