Amid demands for foster care reform, the Bay Area News Group has been documenting the alarming use of medications allegedly used to control foster children through sedation.
Bay area reporters interviewed 175 people, including dozens of current and former foster care children. In part five of an investigative series, “Drugging Our Kids,” a documentary video gives a voice to many people who were silenced during their youth by powerful drugs.
In San Luis Obispo County, the bulk of children taken from their families were not abused by the parents, but allegedly neglected, according to state reports. In some cases, parents have lost custody of their child even though there have been no claims of abuse or neglect against the non-offending parent. A lawsuit filed this month in Riverside County says social workers are kidnapping children for the funding their departments receive from the state.
Meanwhile, studies show children in state custody are up to 600 percent more likely to be neglected, abused and murdered then those left in the custody of their parents.
