Inclusion Daily Express -- Child Protection Agency Discriminated Against Mom Because Of Her Disabilities, Official Rules

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Child Protection Agency Discriminated Against Mom Because Of Her Disabilities, Official Rules
By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
January 3, 2008

LIVINGSTON, MONTANA--A Livingston mom said she can relax now that a hearing officer has determined that a state child protection agency discriminated against her when it threatened to take her son away.

Geri Glass has used a wheelchair since her spine was injured in a 1996 car accident. Three years ago, she gave birth to a son named Gage.

Since Gage was born, Glass has made sure she was never alone with her son out of fear that workers with the Montana Child and Family Services Division would remove him from their home.

In a complaint she filed against the division, Glass accused state workers of treating her as though she couldn't take proper care of her son because of her disability. After she filed the complaint, she says, division workers retaliated against her.

The Billings Gazette reported that on December 21, Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services Hearing Officer Terry Spear ruled that CFSD employees failed to conduct an independent investigation into Glass' parenting skills and physical abilities; imposed "different and more burdensome" requirements on her than parents without disabilities; made false statements about her disability; withheld information on how to file a complaint against the agency; and refused to respond to her discrimination complaints once she filed them.

"What they did was so wrong . . . they were just bound and determined to take my child away from me," Glass told the Livingston Enterprise. "I'm just so ecstatic that it's over and I don't have to keep looking over my shoulder."

Glass said she wants the agency to train and educate its employees to make sure such discrimination does not happen again.

Another hearing will be scheduled later this year to determine what damages Glass is entitled to.

Related:
"State discriminated against disabled mom, investigator rules" (Billings Gazette)
http://www.inclusiondaily.com/news/2008/red/0103c.htm

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