DCF - The Reform Our Kids Deserve
Today, we will visit an agency I have had quite a bit of experience working with over the past 5-6 years. That agency is the Florida Department of Children and Families and I think they should be completely gutted, overhauled, and reformed. Here’s why;
I am the stepfather to two lovely and beautiful little girls aged 10 and 8. And in a bit of vulnerability, I am also the stepfather to two beautiful little girls with sexual-based trauma. My oldest was sexually abused at a young age and my youngest has received grooming - all from the same individual. Luckily, that individual has recently been arrested and, unfortunately, has been bailed out from jail while awaiting his court appearance. He was arrested for possessing child pornography and this has been after numerous reports, police calls, thousands spent in court cases, as well as a battle within DCF.
The Department of Children and Families has probably one of the hardest jobs out there, in my opinion. They must weigh the pros and cons of separating a child from their parents and judge what is best for them while still understanding that their decisions may have dire consequences. Unfortunately, in the 5-6 years my family has dealt with DCF regarding this individual, WE were considered the bad guys. WE were the ones who had to prove our worthiness to keep our children. And that’s not right.
My wife and I have never been silent about the struggles that we live with every day. I obtained a traumatic brain injury during my tour in Afghanistan, which caused massive migraines and PTSD, depression, and anxiety. My wife lives with many mental health issues, all of which are also medicated and treated by licensed medical professionals. However, this is the struggle of modern America and is not an issue. We both live typical day-to-day lives. My wife takes the kids to the beach to deal with bad mental health days and I put my headset on and I game. My wife has 12 years clean from illicit drugs as well, and it is a badge she wears with pride and honor everywhere she goes.
Yet, these innocuous health concerns were enough to keep DCF distracted and away from the actual abuser and problem. My wife found child pornography downloaded on her then-husband’s phone. Divorce proceeded immediately. DCF was weaponized almost as immediately by the ex-husband and family, utilizing my wife’s mental health and history of drug abuse as causes for concern. Several years later, we met, dated, and married, and it was still an issue even when we were getting together. During this time, DCF imposed a Safety Plan on my wife, meaning she couldn’t be alone with her children for over three months. She had reported the child pornography and abuse to DCF upon the divorce, but DCF continued to drop the ball. Quoting his now ex-wife, who was around while this was happening, “The DCF officer left documents on the table facing (him) and walked out of the room long enough for him to read the documents. When she came back, she acted surprised that she had left those documents on the table and proceeded to put them away and said, ‘If there is a case of coaching by a mother to attack a father, this is it.’”
On December 5th, 2020, we had a bomb explode in our family. Our oldest revealed that he had sexually assaulted her. We called DCF and filed a complaint. Our other daughter, who is his biological daughter, was with him at the time. Police were dispatched to his home, where they called my wife to come and get our youngest. During this time, the police enforced the parenting plan that my wife had with her ex-husband, forcing my youngest to go back to his home for visitation. During this time, my oldest was undergoing medical screenings, which resulted in my wife being ushered from the room and police and DCF coaching my daughter not to disclose any more information regarding her assault. To this day, she refuses to speak about it as the incident was traumatizing.
The doctor who conducted the screenings informed us about the presence of healed sexual trauma as well as the presence of indicators proving that something had, in fact, happened. DCF and the police refused to investigate, stating the lack of evidence. More evidence eventually presented itself; we recovered photos from our oldest’s tablet that she had taken, pictures that only someone who had been groomed to take those photos would know to do. He admitted to the assault to us but dared us to be able to do anything about it. So we had enough.
In the year 2021, we began the process of attempting to move out of state. I had secured land deals in my home state of Kentucky and had secured millions of dollars in contracts in business deals to provide products for different companies. The only thing that was needed was my signature and my family to move. So started the year-long process of applying for relocation.
The judge responsible for the relocation was also the judge who had presided over several of the other things we tried to do against my wife’s ex-husband. This did not bode well for relocation. We eventually were told that, even with millions of dollars in contracts, 900 acres of land secured, and being closer to not only my family but my wife’s family as well, a move to Kentucky was not in favor of the child and that we had to stay within a 50-mile radius of the address that was listed on the parenting plan. All while, my youngest continued having to see her father.
During the relocation hearing, my wife’s ex-husband brought in the DCF officers that he had weaponized against my wife and placed the false narratives of him being the victim into the public record. The DCF officers, under oath, lied and said how my stepdaughter was in danger when she was living with my wife. Our lawyer fought hard to show how my wife’s ex-husband was a serial abuser, narcissist, and child predator. The judge was not swayed and struck those statements and pieces of evidence from the record.
After being denied relocation, we decided to be as far away from him as possible and attempt to have an everyday life. He didn’t exercise most of his parental rights, so it wasn’t hard. We attempted to give our girls the life they deserved. Our youngest continued to spend weekends with her father and, between then and recently, had a wonderful stepmother who did the lion’s share of work in raising my stepdaughter while she was away from our home and kept her safe.
We eventually landed in South Brevard in Palm Bay, where we currently reside. We had been in Kentucky attending the funeral of a state trooper friend of mine when we received an emergency call from my daughter’s stepmother asking us to come home immediately.
There had been a raid on their home while my daughter was there over child pornography that the ex-husband had. My daughter’s stepmother kept control of my daughter and kicked her soon-to-be ex-husband out of the home. Long story short, we return, get our daughter, and receive the full story through the ex-wife. The next day (we returned home after 2 AM), we called DCF again to file a complaint, as we were advised that the only way to keep her from him legally was to have DCF immediately stop the parenting plan.
The conversation ended much as we had expected. The person on the line was enthusiastic about the case, trying to ensure no detail had been missed. She was helpful and listened. She excused herself to “check some records” and returned several moments later to say, “I’m sorry, there’s nothing we can do. There’s not enough here.” The line quickly went dead as the DCF worker hung up on us. A man, who had his home raided by police for child pornography, through the actions of DCF, retains his right to this day to come and see my stepdaughter.
DCF has a mission and a goal which they fail spectacularly. DCF exists to ensure children are safe and that families have what they need to care for those children. This is not the case.
My Children Deserve to be safe.
My Family Deserves to be safe.
My Daughters Deserve Justice.
As a Libertarian, I’m not really for a bunch of government agencies, but if we have them, we need to make sure that they’re done correctly and are there to help support those they’re there to serve. I will gut DCF and move to fire the current Secretary. I will work to reopen cases such as these where inappropriate contact has taken place and the DCF agents are being weaponized. I will work to ensure every DCF agent is a qualified social worker with experience and adequate leadership to empower them to do their jobs. DCF will be reformed and move from a “reunite” approach to a “protect and serve” approach.
I will also move to make it so that if a “child pornography” or any “pedophilia” charge is levied against a person by the State of Florida, no child will be allowed to see the offender unless a judge deems that it is appropriate.
