Pagan Mother Has Kids Illegally Removed From Home (Part One)

Story submitted by: Karen Wayman

Note from the Silver Chalice: Below is a heart breaking story from a mother who has had her children illegally taken from her home by The Broome County Department of Social Services in New York. It is not uncommon for Broome County to discriminate agaisnt religon and disability.

"Hello my name is Karen Sue Wayman and this is a part of my story concerning the injustices that DSS has place upon me. (Ritter for reference is my maiden name and my former married name when I was with my ex was Judson)
In 2001, a DSS caseworker found sealed records on my ex-husband. Records that I had no idea at the time existed. Before marring my ex husband I had ran a check on him through the Department of Social Services (DSS) and originally they came up with nothing. Four months after marring him the caseworker showed up at my house and said that because of these records either my younger two children Paul and Alycia who I had custody of had to be placed elsewhere or my at the time husband had to leave. My then husband turned to me and said if I said anything to the caseworker, he would kill me.
I chose to put my kids at my parent’s house so I could deal with my now ex. Despite my choice to put the kids at my parents home where they would be safe they were placed in foster care the next day. The kids were never hurt and I placed them with my parents out of concern for their safety only to have DSS throw it back in my face. The excuse that DSS gave for illegally taking them from my parents home was that they could have been hurt because of my ex’s past contained within his sealed records. Two months later, the DSS lawyer pulled my ex aside and said if he did not admit that Family and Children’s Offender Counseling was a term of his probation he would be upstate in prison for a term of three years. These admissions were obtained in other words under duress created by the blackmail threat of prison. These admissions have been used against me to this day because I was with him at the time. I did not know he was on probation when I married him, and had no prier knowledge of his past history. Despite the fact that I am remarried to someone who has no criminal history what so ever and in many ways is a model citizen DSS still continues to hold my ex‘s history and many other things over my head to this day.
Since then my children have remained in foster care even though I have left him, obtained a divorce from him, and remarried. I have even prepared a stable safe home and yet DSS does not want to admit there have been any changes, and have refused to work with me in any way to reunite my children with me. My ex beat me quite literally to a pulp on multiple occasions and tried to kill me on a number of occasions. He made it impossible to leave him even when I tried to. I tried to run and every time he caught up to me ether by his own doing or by both aid from his family and the legal connections he had through them. I finally escaped into a safe house once he had been arrested and jailed on prior criminal charges. I went to mental health, and finally got away from him thus fulfilling two of the conditions DSS has placed upon me for the return of my children.
DSS even tried to say because of my choice of pagan religion, I was not a safe mother. I now am remarried, have a full time job, and a stable home, and DSS does not even want to consider this as a change. They have held my children hostage for three years and are bent on adopting my children out no matter what the best interest of my children are. The DSS lawyer does not care about my children, he is only hell-bent on winning his case. I have completed mental health, and a victim’s counseling class, and DSS does not want to admit I benefited from this.
My children are once again Paul who is 6 and Alycia who is 4. My 4 year old Alycia sufferers from emotional duress due to separation of mother and child. She is in handicapped children’s association preschool suffering from sensory perception problems. She is hiding within herself so she does not realize what is around her. My 6 year old Paul wants to be returned home very badly. He wants his mother. I have done everything I could have to get the kids back short of a confession of guilt and admitting to everything they have falsely accused me of including concerning my religion, and this is not good enough for these people. No one wants to work with me, in fact they have done everything in their power to stop me from getting help or completing services. I fear that without more support both from within the legal system and from outside of it that I will lose my children, my heart forever. I am fighting a war against an enemy that seems to be able to change the rules whenever they want, seems to be able to say whatever they want and have it be believed, and seems to be able to do what they want with no one ether having the ability or the courage to stop them. This is my desperate cry for help please don’t let them take my little ones away and make them disappear forever. Please if not for me then think of my children who are innocent in all of this. They cry day and night to come home to me and yet deaf ears are turned on them. What will happen to them if they are adopted out with the bonds that they have formed with me and their grandparents especially with the bond that my six year old Paul has formed with me adoption would destroy them. Please I ask all who read this again help me .help my little Paul and Alycia. Please don’t allow this injustice to continue. If you wish to contact me you may e mail me via this address; Sajorin2000@yahoo.com Eventually contact through other addresses will be possible but for now this will have to do. Thank you for your time and thoughts in reading this. Take care and watch over your children because if you don’t then DSS will.
May you be blessed by the white light,
Karen Sue Wayman (Ritter)"