AngryHumanoid

It was really brave of you to immediately admit that you couldn't back up the first thing you said.

OK now cite specific actions listed in the article and which violation they match up to. You started by saying testing them for marijuana was a violation of human rights, maybe start by explaining that one.

Do you think that's some magic phrase you can parrot with absolutely no context? Let try an easy one: what human right did they violate? Are you referring to one of the 30 defined by the UN? If so which one? Are you using a different definition? If so cite your reference please.

Well if you tried actually reading the article it sounds like the settlement was for the delay in returning the baby and the practice of using pot use as a negative factor. Not testing the baby or mother for marijuana, and not removing the baby because the mother smoked pot in the hospital while pregnant. Headlines are not an adequate source of information, you have to keep reading.

I'm wondering why his genitals weren't in an adequate enclosure.

Before I thought you were uninformed, now I think you're an idiot AND uninformed.

Heh, not a teacher, I've just been in a career for a long time that primarily requires explaining data to people. I spent enough years as a data analyst to know how bad policing in the US is, the numbers are pretty damn clear. It definitely sounds like NY CPS has its issues but I've seen a lot of data around what other state CPS organizations do and they get a lot of crap to do an insanely difficult job.

Obviously there could be mountains of context we don't have which could push this in either direction. I do know subjecting children to second hand smoke is absolutely a factor which can result in CPS getting involved.

Tovthecbwsr of my knowledge hospital workers have never been mandated to report drug usage to the police, I know for a fact it's explicitly illegal for medical staff to report drug use to the police, with one major exception: if there is evidence of harm to the user.

As for reporting drug use to CPS: probably depending on the drug. Again, pot use is legal, but if you get high around your children to the point where you are diminished in your ability to care for that child it becomes an issue.

Yeah but you're thinking of it as an action being punished. She was not reported to the police for doing something illegal, even though they technically could have. The hospital was not trying to punish her, they were trying to make sure the child was safe. CPS didn't take the child away because the mother smokes pot (see caveat at the end), they took the child away because the mother smoked while pregnant. Not to punish her, to protect the baby.

Caveat: a major point of the article is that CPS had been continuing to use smoking pot as a factor of determining unsafe conditions, which they should not have been doing once pot was made legal. Just like smoking cigarettes is not illegal and shouldn't be a factor in and of itself. However, smoking cigarettes or pot AROUND children is still a negative factor.

I'm sorry but what you just described is not even close to what was alleged in the article and frankly incorrect on several points. I have no intention of arguing against a strawman, I've made several othee comments in this thread which add context to the situation, you should read them.

The article said a nurse witnessed the mother smoking pot in the hospital room, I would err on the side of assuming that was the reason the baby was tested. The article says there is a history of racism at CPS in NY towards black people which yeah, that's an issue. But I'm unwilling to assume that about hospital workers given that the inherent basis of medical work is to treat everyone as best you can regardless of personal feelings.

OK think of it like this, CPS' duty is to the child. Their goal is to provide the best environment for the child they can. Absent other factors that will always be with the parents. If they see issues with how the child is being raised or their environment they don't immediately take the child away (depending on the severity, obviously). They will provide the parent with education, supplies, etc to fix the problem and get the child back into a healthy environment.

Things can escalate from there if repeated attempts are not yielding positive results. In this case it said she had previous issues with smoking around her other children. That is unhealthy. I doubt that was the only factor in removing them but it is part of the history, so when they saw she had been smoking while pregnant they removed the child.

I would also like to point out from Googling it sounds like that is the procedure in NY, a child can be removed and then the parent can go to court to ask a judge to have the child returned. That is what happened. Then it sounds like the issue with CPS was them not returning the child in a timely manner and using marijuana use it self as a factor determining a child was in a bad environment. Those are obviously issues, but the initial removal (keep in mind we are both armchair quarterbacking) did not seem like an issue to me, it fit standard practices as I have known them.