Staci Everheart

Despite the good intentions of some workers in the agency, Child Protective Services (CPS) is not what it claims. It does not do us a service, it does not protect our children, it does not create healthy environments for them. CPS is designed to enforce a so-called “normal” model of the family, actively punishing those of us who do not comply with the capitalist, patriarchal, racist, white supremacist ideal of what a family should look like. CPS is used to scare and punish people who threaten or fight the system.

Since the beginning of Occupy Oakland, CPS has harassed many parents involved in the movement, and has gone so far as to take away the children of a single queer mother on false, outrageous claims that bringing kids to Occupy events endangered them. The truth is that single parents have found tremendous support in the Occupy Oakland, where many of us have been empowered through mutual aid, new networks of care and emotional support, and sharing of the material goods available in our community.

CPS targets the poor, people of color, single mothers, and non-gender conforming parents.

The actions against occupiers are typical of CPS. The agency is notorious for targeting poor single mothers. Instead of helping mothers and children who find themselves in abusive situation, CPS often takes the children away on the grounds that the abuse makes mothers unfit to have custody of their children. In keeping with the patriarchal culture we live in, this practice effectively blames and ...