Behaving almost like a libertarian caricature of a government agency, New Jersey’s Department of Children and Families is ironically working to destroy a family for arcane reasons that it refuses to explain.
In April, The Libertarian Republic reported on the case of Ethan Chaplin – a 7th grader who was suspended from school, required to submit a blood sample, and made to undergo a battery of psychological tests because a classmate said that he had twirled a pencil “like a gun.”
Though the school backed off in the face of media scrutiny, the faceless, unaccountable bureaucrats at the Department of Children and Families did not.
Ethan’s father, Michael Chaplin, got on the Department’s bad side when he initially refused to take his son to be physically and psychologically tested. Michael relented after the Department sent the family an ominous letter labeling Michael’s noncompliance “an incident of abuse or neglect.”
A subsequent letter from the Department said that no problems were identified during the evaluation – but demanded that Ethan return for even more tests.
If Michael does not return his son to the Department, the letter threatened, officials will seize Ethan and put him up for adoption.
The shadowy Department refuses to speak on camera about the case.
Desperate for help, Chaplin sent a letter to Governor Chris Christie. But Christie’s office simply forwarded the letter to the Department of Children and Families.
“I’m absolutely scared,” says Michael Chaplin. “They have a habit of running away with things, unchecked. And that’s exactly what’s going on – they are operating unchecked.”
[about_ian]
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