Suspicions High Over Polk County DSS in N.C.

Columbus, NC (TLS). One thing you can say about the mountain folk of North Carolina other than the fact that they are some of most hospitable, good-hearted people on earth is that they don't take kindly to outsiders meddling in their business. And that goes for individuals who work in government agencies that tend to believe that they are the watchdogs of the behavior of private citizens.

A perfect example of this phenomenon is the case of Joyce Painter, a resident of the North Carolina mountain town of Columbus. Painter thought she was minding her own business, raising her 7-year-old son as best she could, when along comes 'Big Brother' to tell her that because her son is 'too fat' she is therefore a sorry Mother.

'Big Brother' in this case is the North Carolina Department of Social Services, which utilizes 'anonymous tips' to justify going after private citizens, usually with regard to cases of suspected child abuse. The Polk County Department of Social Services received such a tip concerning Ms. Painter, except in this case it was not about child abuse but about the weight of her son.

Considered 'morbidly obese' by medical definition, the Painter boy had at one time topped the scales at 254 pounds, despite being taken by his Mother on numerous occasions to see physicians about what to do to correct the problem.

Ms. Painter had placed her son on numerous eating programs recommended by various physicians, all to no avail. She insists that she fed her son only those foods prescribed by the physicians.

In spite of Ms. Painter's obvious concern about her son's health, DSS officials moved in and implicated Ms. Painter with innuendo concerning possible 'child neglect,' 'child endangerment,' or other such terms, all designed to place the blame for the boy's obesity squarely at the feet of his Mother.

Yet DSS had NO medical history of the boy and ordered none. How, for example, do they know that the boy does not have a hidden medical problem that contributes to the weight gain? Does his thyroid gland function normally? What about his digestive system? Does his digestive system function in such a manner that food is digested along a normal continuum?

Studies published in various medical journals indicate that persons who have what is called a 'slow rate of digestion,' that is, food tends to stay in the stomach for much longer periods of time before being emptied into the small intestine, tend to gain weight.

Has the boy ever been checked for this? If not, why?

It would seem that if DSS were actually doing its job rather than conducting a smear campaign against an overweight boy's Mother, it would want to know about potential medical problems that cause this kind of weight gain.

Yet so far, not a single indication has been made public that DSS has checked into these possibilities.

Rather, DSS decided to aggressively pursue Ms. Painter as an 'unfit Mother.'

But this is not the end of the story. DSS in its almighty wisdom decided that the Painter boy needed to have knee surgery at Duke University in Durham...several hours away from the Painter home. A mere 30 minutes to the north, however, is Asheville, North Carolina, a nice medium-sized city with several top-notched medical facilities that routinely do the type of surgery DSS claims the boy needs.

Rather than allow the boy to have the surgery closest to home, DSS instead decided to seize the child, remove him from his Mother, and place him in foster care--so that he could then have knee surgery in Durham.

On Monday a Judge in Columbus put DSS in its place by giving custody back to Ms. Painter, stating in essence that DSS did not have the authority or the proper rationale for removing the boy from his home.

Needless to say, this entire episode has the entirety of Polk County in an uproar. It is clear that DSS Social Workers are attempting to make an example of Painter and her son, but for what reason? At this point it is clear the boy has become nothing more than a football being passed between his Mother and DSS. DSS, however, has been called on a technical foul. In fact, DSS should not even be in the middle of this at all.

This is only the tip of the iceberg. There are rumblings among folks out and about that this is not the first time DSS has used heavy-handed, gestapo-like tactics in dealing with social service issues. And these folk are still in an uproar over the fact that DSS went to Ms. Painter's local grocery story to 'check up on her buying habits.'

A DSS official went to the local Ingle's Supermarket in Columbus to ask employees if Ms. Painter had been buying junk food and other treats for her son.

Store employees were so outraged over this that they immediately contacted a local TV News station and reported the actions of DSS officials who came to them to snoop on Painter's buying habits.

It is time we started to snoop into the Polk County Department of Social Services. Obviously something is terribly amiss in this department. Taxpayers do not pay the salaries of these persons to act as 'Big Brother' or to browbeat citizens who have overweight children. Employees of DSS are supposed to be public servants who act only at the pleasure of the citizens who pay their salaries.

Once they step out of that role and begin to act as if they have more power and authority than our Constitution allows, then drastic action needs to be taken to reign them in. If there ever were a government agency that needs to be reigned in, it is the Polk County Department of Social Services.

An immediate top-to-bottom investigation is in order. And if North Carolina won't do it, then perhaps the Federal Government will.

We as citizens CANNOT allow renegade organizations like DSS to run roughshod over the rights of individual citizens.

The Liberty Sphere intends to use every legal means within its power to expose the gross corruption, over-zealousness, and outright gestapo tactics of the Polk County Department of Social Services. Their reign of terror in North Carolina needs to be stopped.