[GingerR]

Our foster baby was moved to live with relatives on Friday. We objected for several reasons, and submitted those objections... including background on the child/parents... to the judge overseeing the hearing. The bio-mom was given a copy of the letter by someone -- I'm not sure who yet -- and our names, address and phone number were not blacked out. The letter was full of her wrongdoings, all of which were absoluely true.

Today, we received hate mail from her telling us how happy she was her child was out of our home, and she said a lot of cruel, vicious things throughout about how meaningless we were to her daughter in the scheme of things, etc.

What in the world do I do with this??? This person and her husband are convicted felons and she has all of our personal information. I feel like our right to privacy and right to object without harrassment and intimidation has been severely violated. Do we have any recourse if we discover this was non-chalantly handed to her by the caseworker, which is my suspicion?

We have a meeting with our licensing agency tomorrow anyway, at which the caseworker will be. If it was her as opposed to a clerk or someone, what action can we take if any?

I mean... yipes!

[hubbyswife]

Oh that horrible ..... I hope u find out who careless gave that out to her.... Good Luck

[cathy102]

That would be scary!!!! I hope you can find some answers out. Make sure you keep everything that she sends to you.

Good luck to you...Keep us posted..

[Mammie]

Hi Ginger R,

You are handling it with a better level head than I would have! With my red-headed temper, I probably would have hunted them down...(not really, but I would have some major day-dreams about it!)

If you don't get satisfaction in re: to the leak of privacy, how about contacting your foster reveiw board? They would get to the bottom of it, I would think....especially if the info leak came from a careless caseworker.

What about your obudsman office? (Probably the spelling is off on the name)

If all else fails, and you want to make sure this does not happen to anyone else (or even this felon 'run' and steal or sell your identity to anyone) how about contacting your local paper?

This is definately a breech of privacy! Good foster parents are hard to come by. When they are treated like this, it is no wonder there is a big revolving door!

Good Luck!

[missw005]

Ginger -

I can so relate!!! My son's bfamily is involved in a court case which might result in $$ coming to him (I've already insisted it go into a trust fund), and we have MAJOR protection issues with the bfamily. They are connected criminally with not very nice people.

I found out from my son's CW that the judge caught some documents that said his new name, my name, address, phone #s..........AAAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHH!!! I just know (and have been warned by people involved in this case) that if his bfamily ever found out where he was, they'd be on the next plane to get him. They know that they have NO legal rights to him whatsoever, but would just do it anyway!!!!!

So I freaked out, and asked his CW, "How could this happen? I thought we had a protection order????" She said she wasn't sure how it happened, as she said they blacked out our info on all their stuff.........so I don't know. I just hope to GOD there aren't any more mistakes.

She did ask what I would do if they found out our info. I said I'd take the boys and run. Probably not the best idea, but these are veeerrrrrrryyyyyy sssssccccaaarrrryyy people.

So take some names and kick some butt!!!!!! We don't live in the same state as my son was from, otherwise you KNOW I'd be down at that office TODAY.

I would also let your local police department know what's going on......unless you're from a big metro area, where they probably wouldn't do much for you........but a heads-up has always been welcomed by our police dept. (they know about my son) for sure.

Good luck, girl!!!!

Sandy

[leaabc123]

Keep copies of everything sent to you. Check with the police and see if you can get an order of protection, due to their history.

We just moved into a new home and changed our number to an unlisted one, as well as added a home security system. I even go so far as to drive the opposite way then I usually do when picking them up/ or dropping them off for a visit because I don't know where the b-parents are and if they are (or have someone) following us.

[mom2GRLC]

We've had to submit pictures to the court before. Every party in the case had to have a copy of any evidence seen by the judge, that includes the birthfamily.

It is likely they carelessly copied your letter for all to read without blanking out your information. I'm sure they will be able to track down who the person was that gave out this information.

Although it would be nice to know, and to bring them to justice....the DAMAGE has already been done. They now have your information. You have to see what you can do to protect yourself.

It's possible she just wanted to get back at you and she let it all out in the letter. Then, again she might be very revengful and actually go beyond that. My guess is that if she hasn't further threatened you in the letter than maybe she is all done. After all she got what she wanted and that was her child. Once she said her piece to try and make you feel terrible and unimportant she has sought her revenge for your bitter(but true) comments towards her. It's sad but she has the child and that is almost the worse revenge she can throw in your face.

If you were really worried, maybe some further steps need to be taken to ensure your safety and your families.

DHS should be held accountable though, for giving out your personal information and causing you this worry and stress.

[lostboys]

One of our FS'd Bio's recieved our complete background check with not only info on us but on all of our family members as well, parents, and siblings, where they live where they work, everything! even our social security numbers. we founf this out because we discovered our FS had a copy of it as well.

[Kate1129]

I never put that info on any paper work. I will not fill it out and had it to the SW. I make her make all the copies she needs then I sign everything then put our address only on the original. So far it's working!


I'd contact someone and place a major complaint!!!!!!!!! SW and CW and the office supervisor and the works!!!! Then make copies of the letter she sent and hand it out too!!!!

[GingerR]

Thanks all, for your feedback. What frightening situations some of you have also been in... sheesh, there's "blunders" and then there's BLUNDERS.

We alerted our licensing agency and the placement agency to what happened, as well as faxed a copy of the letter to the judge, in case it was someone at the courthouse who made the error.

Our agency was horrified, especially considering we have another placement in our home, and assured us they would get to the bottom of who gave her this information. They are also filing a "no contact" order. Hopefully it will end there -- I hope and pray they do not pull our current placement with the reasoning that she could be endangered.

Thanks again...