By DENISE LAVOIE, Associated Press
BOSTON (AP) — Testimony has begun in a class-action lawsuit alleging that thousands of Massachusetts children in foster care have been abused and neglected.
The first witness Tuesday was a young woman who spent years in multiple foster homes.
Lauren James said she often did not get enough to eat, was forced to scrub floors and prescribed up to five psychiatric drugs at a time.
During cross-examination by a lawyer for the state, James acknowledged that doctors began prescribing drugs for her even before she was in state care. She also said she sought and continued to receive state services after she turned 18.
The lawsuit alleges that the department violated children’s constitutional rights by placing them in dangerous and unstable situations.
The agency says it has increased the number of children being safely cared for at home.
The state takes children out of good homes and uses their authority to create unstable situations that take children from loving families and create emotional problems for the child who then needs psychological help to recover from the stress of being taken from their homes.
i really hope the agency pays through the ***. i will say the agency has come a long way since the overhaul and state takeover. (no longer dss now dcf) however, their gross abuse of power and intimidation tactics of the former agency was terrible. they took children from parents for reasons as rediculous as low income for years. they intimidated parents and children into admiting things that didnt happen and talked children into saying things about their parents that wernt true. they ruined alot of peoples lives simply for the money the state gave them per child that was removed.
who gets the money if they win?
and why is wggb covering this ?
who what where and how