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Group bashing child protective services pressures Durham County officials, raising safety concerns

A North Carolina advocacy group is using high-pressure tactics to push Durham County officials to return children taken away from families by child protection services. County officials say the group's tactics are making it difficult for social workers to do their jobs.

Posted Updated

By
Laura Leslie
, WRAL capitol bureau chief
DURHAM, N.C. — A North Carolina advocacy group is using high-pressure tactics to push officials in Durham County and elsewhere to return children taken away from families by child protection services. County officials say the group’s tactics are making it difficult for social workers to do their jobs.

Operation Stop CPS alleges on its website that racial minorities are systematically “kidnapped” by the child protective services system and placed with other families, often white families, as foster children or permanent adoptees.

“If a child is in danger, if a child needs something, then the community needs to respond—not a system, not a government agency,” Amanda Wallace, a former Wake County CPS social worker who founded Operation Stop CPS, told WRAL News in an interview.

She says the CPS system removes children from homes to draw down state funds needed to keep the system in business. She claims certain racial minorities are disproportionately targeted for removals because they have fewer resources to defend themselves.

The group’s efforts have raised safety concerns among Durham officials. In addition to speaking at board meetings, the group recently publicized the contact information for Durham County Commissioner Wendy Jacobs, urging its thousands of followers to “hold Durham County Government to the fire.”

The post includes a video clip of the commissioners’ Aug. 1 work session, where Wallace asked the board to intervene in CPS cases in Durham.

“This body of people has given Durham County millions of dollars to do a service,” Wallace said, speaking off camera. “And that service looks like kidnapping children.”

“I can tell each and every person after this video continues to come to email you at this point and ensure that you don't sit in this seat again if you don't do something for these children, and for each and every child that's been kidnapped in Durham County,” Wallace added. “We're not asking anymore. We're telling you that these children need to come home.”

Jacobs declined to comment.

In email messages reviewed by WRAL News, county Department of Social Services Director Ben Rose warned state officials and county leaders that the group’s tactics are causing concern in his agency “that soon this is going to lead to potential violence and harm to someone.”

“We feel we are in eminent [sic] jeopardy as this group is selectively targeting multiple people and using families against us. They run inflammatory rhetoric and put us at risk,” Rose wrote in an email to officials at the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. “There is genuine fear here now, even from court officials. We need help.”

A spokeswoman for the county said Rose declined to comment on the matter.

His warning followed a protest Tuesday outside the Durham county office building. Wallace and others from the group stationed themselves near the exit door used by employees of the county’s social services department, according to a report filed by a county security guard and shared with WRAL. The group was shouting at the workers as they left for the day, the report said.

“Durham County loves to protect the kidnappers!” a message posted Tuesday to the group’s Facebook account said. The message included an image of county security guards standing between the group and the building. PHOTO 25292

Last month, Operation Stop CPS said on social media that its pressure campaign in Durham resulted in the recusal of District Court Judge Shamieka Rhinehart from a case involving two young children removed from a Durham family.

A county official familiar with the matter told WRAL that the recusal was due to safety concerns. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity due to fear of possible retribution from the group.

Rhinehart declined to comment.

After this article published, the Durham County Department of Social Services issued a statement. "The court has jurisdiction in cases involving custody of children and is the legal authority in charge of abuse, neglect, and dependency court," the statement said.

"The Durham County Board of Commissioners do not have legal authority over child welfare cases. Durham County Government will continue to follow best practices and attorneys for parents, DSS, and the Guardian ad Litem Office will present evidence for the court to make best interest decisions on behalf of children. The court is the final jurisdiction.

The department added: "Statements brought forward by Operation Stop CPS are pending matters in court and therefore no additional response will be forthcoming in the future, oral or written."

The state Department of Health and Human Services said it is aware of the situation. “The most important thing is the safety of both state and county social services staff and the children they serve,” Kelly Haight Connor, a department spokesperson, said. “We are working with counties to ensure employees are safe and social workers are able to deliver services to children and families.”

Wallace says her group is just exercising its right to free speech. She accused the county of attempting to intimidate protestors with the use of law enforcement and she said their fears of purported threats were unfounded. “We have never said that we were going to be violent, never,” she said. “And that is not our intent.”

The group has become involved in cases in other cities and states. A spokesman for the Wilmington police department said Wallace was cited on June 24 after the group protested a New Hanover County CPS case.

A petition started by group supporters sought to pressure New Hanover District Attorney Ben David to drop what it described as charges of “targeted picketing” and violation of a no-contact order. More than 300 people signed it.

Wallace says she no longer faces charges in the county. WRAL wasn’t able to independently confirm the status of charges on Monday.