Parents Against CPS in San Francisco

They threw us to the wolves, and we came back as a PACC…

by: Michelle D. Chan, founder and director of Parents Against CPS Corruption (PACC)

I started PACC in 2017 because there was no one else standing up for CPS-involved parents at the time. Nor was anyone fighting for the rights of children who so desperately wished to go home. Part of the problem was the society stigma, social ignorance, and the prevailing idea that Child Protective Services (CPS) can do no wrong. The name, Child Protective Services, implies altruism and righteous honor and integrity. Simply by having an open CPS case, parents were assumed guilty of something awful- no questions asked and no questions needed.

As it became increasingly clear that something was off, the system was corrupt, and my attorney was s shitbag- I had no where to turn. Every complaint lodged regarding the misconduct in my case re-routed back to the people named in my complaints, who in turn engaged in more misconduct and bullying behavior as a response.

Parents are people. We are imperfect. We make mistakes. But CPS is the system where children can be removed based on scant or questionable evidence, without a warrant are trial- and placed in foster care where they are left to rot.

The following is a poem I wrote that tells the universal injustice and senselessness of this system.

The Sun, the Moon, and the Stars

Poem by: Michelle D. Chan

The child protection social worker asked me if I love my son.

Yes,  I said. I love him to the sun, the moon and the stars and back.

Then if you want to see him again, you will sign away your rights, she said.

And so I signed away my rights.

She asked me again if I loved my son. 

Yes, I said. I love him to the sun, the moon and the stars and back.

Then if you want to see him again, you will give up everything you have. The home you live in, your job, your money.

Yes, I told her, I’ll do anything for my son. And so I gave up everything I had.

She asked me again if I loved my son. 

Yes, I said. I love him to the sun, the moon, the stars and back.

Then if you want to see him again, you will give up your life.

And so I gave up my life. I was utterly destitute and distraught, clawing at any bit of hope my child protection social worker would give me.

Then she sent my son away for life, to live with another family where he would call another woman mother. Overcome with grief, I asked her why she did this.

She said this:

You are a loser. You have no rights, no home, no money, no life. You are a nobody with nothing. Who in their right mind would give you back your child?

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