San Diego (CNN) -- Is child obesity a form of child neglect?
Of course not. That's ridiculous. But, it seems, the ridiculous is now standard operating procedure in the upside down world of the Department of Children and Family Services of Cuyahoga County in Ohio. In a case making headlines around the country, the agency recently decided that a Cleveland third grader should be taken from his mother and placed in foster care.
Was this an instance of child abuse? Apparently not. Was it an urgent situation that required this local government entity to immediately intervene and take the drastic step of separating a family? It doesn't seem so.
In fact, county public defender Sam Amata told reporters that his office would challenge the removal because the boy was not in imminent danger.
Here's the alleged abuse: The 8-year-old boy weighed more than 200 pounds, and officials essentially claimed that his mother was to blame for not doing enough to help her son lose weight. So they went into the home and took the child away. Just like that.
http://www.cnn.com/2011/12/02/opinio...tml?hpt=hp_bn9