In Their Own Words: The story of DS and her family in Norway
In this series, we present the testimony of persons saying they have been victimized by CPS. Names and other identifiers have been redacted.
I am DS, born in 1959 in Saigon, Vietnam. I came to Norway the August 1983 as boat refugee and have lived in K. since, except for two periods in other countries.
In 1987, I became a Christian. In 1989, I married HS, and 6 years later, in 1995, we had our first child, a boy.
Just before Christmas 1995, we got a letter from the Child Protection Services (CPS) saying there was a so-called “concern” about us based on an anonymous letter which contained the following mendacious assertions:
“We had delusions. My husband HS is violent and could not hold a regular job. And that I am just a Vietnamese. “
CPS dropped the case. However, after that they came for “talks” with us. I subsequently realized that they used these talks to invent more lies against us.
In 1998, we had our second son. The next year, we were notified to the CPS with the complaint that our elder son, then 4 years old, could not speak. We had not yet sent our elder son to school, and were teaching him at home as we did not like sending our children to public school when they are still under six years old.
At this time my elder son could say only 3 words: Mom, Dad and the name of his brother. He and his younger brother could speak to each other in another language but we, his parents couldn’t understand him before he was 5 years and 10 months. My other two children began to speak as they were about 2 years old. My elder son was the only one to begin speaking later, but he developed normally except the language and when we started him in school he followed the school as all others and had not any problem with keeping up.
In autumn 2000 our older son went to kindergarten and we accepted in addition an educator in our home, who would teach our second son to speak. We later realized that this educator was sent to spy on our home. That year we had another baby, a daughter.
February 2001, our second son also started kindergarten with his brother. In later years, I took him out there again as I did not like the kindergarten and decide to homeschool him. It resulted in reaction from CPS.
CPS threatened now with the County Council and we gave in. This resulted in that we had to send our second son and our little girl (born 2000) to the kindergarten for 6 months in 2002.
In 2005, our eldest son was bullied by one or two of his classmates. He was beaten by a boy in the class with a cane 5 cm in diameter.
My husband called the principal and complained about this violent behaviour in school. We decided to keep the boy at home for a couple of days and demanded that the school deal with the matter. But the school did absolutely nothing.
It got so that we had to keep our child home many times due to similar attacks he suffered from classmates, and this continued all in front of the face of the teacher.
Altogether this resulted in 64 days of absence from school, including 30 days we took extra off due travel to my family in France. Is it not so that the problem of bullying is on the political agenda and must be counteracted, also in school?
In 2006 the school finally acted on our inquiry – for help to end this bullying – by reporting us to the CPS. In summer of the same year CPS decided to take our kids.
January 2007, I traveled with the children to Vietnam. My husband notified he was moving right after.
In May 2008, I came back with the kids as my husband insisted that we should go home. In December of that year, the police emergency squad stormed into our home. They forced us to go to their car, took the kids and drove us away to the police station. Having bodily inspected us, we were thrown in the security cell, each of us for about four hours, before they interrogated us and let us go home. What the community achieved for child welfare and what has the police obtained by such behavior toward a family with children?
One week after they took our children, we were allowed to visit them in the police station in K. for one hour.
A week later we traveled to the institution F. in A. and retrieved the children.
Later that month, I was arrested in Denmark with the children. We were taken on a night boat to K.. As we walked down the gangway the two younger children were crying desperately. An employee on the boat commented: “So terrible to hear” while we walked past where he worked. Nevertheless, CPS constantly claim that our children don’t want to go home.
In October 2009, the County Council gave the decision on our case. They said the children remain under CPS until 18 years, with 6 visitation of 3 hours, and they will never again be allowed to come home.
Throughout the process we realized that CPS only lie. Not only them, but the entire public system supports the fraud, media is censored. We realized that CPS conspired against us, and our lawyer acted with them against us in court. The expert, our children’s school, the emergency homes where our children were held, all lied in court. The three judges passed the order against us based on these lies.
CPS produced the anonymous letter against us just before the trial. We learned that it written by my husband’s sister-in-law. She was behind the vengeful letter.
CPS accused us saying we would not want being like others, for example, fancy clothes, fancy car, fancy house, we cultivated our own food, and that our children who was then 10, 8 and 5 years were not social.
At this time, we started to publicly demand the return of the children, and announced and informed about our case on all internet sites we have access to about abuse of our family by child welfare services.
[I get neither law of CPS to speak my mother tongue as I did when the kids were home with us, otherwise company of kids ended at once, and there I got the message from the boss in police in K. that police will intervene and cut off all contact if I speak in my mother tongue with them.
In January 2012, we appealed to the District Court and lost again. My eldest son was allowed to see us six times a year with surveillance, but the younger got reduced visitation to three hours 4 times a year, also with strict supervision. My eldest son came back home to us in August 2013, just before he was 18 years.