Lets rattle some cages together...

Hello all,

You don't know me, and neither does Utah's DCFS, but I have created this blog in hopes that you will get to know me better than the system has attempted to. My name is Sydney Claxton-Martinez. I have many roles that I play in my life. I am a mother, a wife, a United States Marine, a daughter, a sister, and so forth. A more recent title that has been thrusted upon my husband and I has been child abuser.

August 4, 2016 has gone down as one of the worst days of my life. Upon waking up, and attempting to feed my 6 week old child (at the time), I noticed that his right arm and right leg were twitching. I monitored him for about 10 minutes, called my in laws to get my older two, and rushed my son to the hospital. Upon arrival to the hospital a CT scan was done of my son’s head. The doctor came up to me and explained to my surprise that my son had multiple skull fractures and bleeding of the brain. He explained that my son needed to be transferred to a different hospital by life flight, and the results from the CT suggest that my little boy’s injuries seem to be NAT or non-accidental.

I was devastated, lost, and determined. I knew at that point that my son had not been subjected to abuse. I know for a fact because I was there. My son was transferred, where more tests and exams were done. The doctors put my baby on anti-seizure medication, a blood thinner, gave him pain killers, and sedation meds. In the room of the PICU my husband and I were told by physicians that we need to start thinking about our son’s quality of life, and when they take the ventilator out, our little boy will not neurologically remember how to breath. Our hearts sank, I cannot describe to you the way that this made me feel except empty, shaken, and broken.

My husband and I had hefty conversations, we were ready to make a difficult choice, but the day they told me they were taking the ventilator out, I prayed harder than I had ever prayed before. I made a choice that day that we were not done fighting. We weren’t ready to say goodbye. I received a text from my sister that said “you will not pull a plug today, maybe tomorrow but not today.” I told the nurse and doctor that if he does not do well after the ventilator comes out, reintubate him, save him, do whatever, but that day is not the day that I say goodbye.

My son’s middle name is Legend. My husband was heavily against it, but I finally got him to come around. Let me tell you, there is not a better name that he could have. I stepped out of the way for the treatment team to remove the ventilator. The tube came out, and my little Legend ran with it. From that point on it was as if my son was out to prove to everyone that he wasn’t a quitter.

Now, meanwhile at the PICU while we were trying to process everything that was going on law enforcement showed up, the Utah County Sheriffs to be exact, along with their buddies DCFS. I did not feel as though I was kicked while I was down, but just completely annihilated. After my son started defying all odds, DCFS served us with an emergency petition, gave us 19 hours from the time we were served, to the time we had court to get absolutely nothing in order. About an hour after we were served these papers, detectives show up with a search warrant for both of our cell phones, and just for an additional flex of power, which I am almost positive is illegal, they seized my laptop without a warrant and stated, “we were going to get a warrant anyways, so were just going to take your laptop now and get back to you.” Hmmmm…..

Okay, so what about my other two children right? On Saturday August 6 I made a call to my mother and step dad (I never call him my step dad, but for the sake of my story I have two father figures, both of which are my dad, I shall refer to him as Mike from now on.) who are residents of Nevada. They drove up to come pick up the kids until we were able to get out of the hospital, and so they could spend summer vacation doing kids things rather than being held up in the hospital with us. I told my oldest I was going to miss him, we both got teary eyed, and I told him that we had to be strong and to show me his muscles. He complied and flexed his little arm. It’s the little things that make me smile, sorry. Moving forward.

Going into court we were extremely unprepared. My question to the doctors, lawyers, everyone involved was, I know that child abuse didn’t take place, so what is wrong with my son?! I talked to everyone I could, my mom and I researched, there has to be some kind of medical issue. I asked for them to do every single test they could while my son had an IV, they said that they already made up their minds, and it was only child abuse. I was given the run around so many times, I am surprised I haven’t lost more weight. They refuse to look at any other options, so I researched, stripped of my resources of course, but it was going to take more than that to keep me from doing my research. They are playing games using my children as leverage. It’s not funny.

I looked up every kind of medical condition I could, people with similar stories, I contacted anyone and everyone. It didn’t do much because once I requested further testing…. Nope. I was like being in a movie. Testing takes too much time, too many resources, and no one has the time to put into this case that may be a one in a million medical case, but who knows because no one will do the work. It is easier for the physicians to say “no, its child abuse” rather than put the time and effort into ruling out everything.

This leads me to the second worst day of my life. The court hearing in which an order was finalized to take all of my children into state custody off of the pure assumption that child abuse if the cause. The following week we had mediation in which there was not enough information to come up with a conclusion. WEIRD!!! Now they want to acknowledge that there isn’t enough information. Now they want to hear me out about testing and other possibilities. Now that my son is being released from the hospital, now they want to put him in their radar. It was also a HUGE deal that my parents have not returned the kids back to Utah. They told me they want her to return the children now, but there is a warrant out for her arrest. Does this make sense? Not to me. My mother petitioned for guardianship, and are wanting to keep the kids out there, this does make sense. Let me tell you more things that don’t make sense about DCFS:

-         They want my children immediately returned so that they can be put into foster care. What?

-         Everything is “I’ll have to get back to you” there are no immediate answers, they need time to find a way where they can control everything.

-         They keep bringing up, we have the best interest of the child at heart. They have no interest in my children, they have interest in funding, but I’ll touch base on that later.

-         They make it close to impossible to get kin-care approval.

o   My parents wanted to do everything through DCFS in the beginning, but when they weren’t sent the paperwork, they took matters into their own hands.

-         They give my husband and I one hour a week with our kids. Its not a visitation, it is a joke.

-         My husband and I have to share that 1 hour.

Now this leads me to my research done on DCFS as a general entity. When I look at through the policy and procedures manual, the funding for DCFS, and the stigma that surrounds them, I personally feel as though they are legal human realtors. In order for the state to sustain their funding or have their funding advanced, they must remove a certain number of children from their families a year. By observing the hospital environment, it seems to be a black hole where social workers and law enforcement swarm preying on the already weakened population of parents. Granted, I understand that there are families in which children are abused, and this system could be utilized for good, but my case is not it.  

Not only will they not take the time to look further into your case, they will patronize you, tactfully threaten you, and apparently attempt to take parental rights away from a loving and stable mother and father for what is called an adoption incentive for the social worker. Yes, they will make money off of your lose. You will be guilty until proven innocent. You will watch everyone in the legal system smoking and joking in the offices, the people you don’t trust are hanging out and laughing with people you are supposed to trust such as the public defender. They will prey on low income families, families with little to no resources, families who will be easily weakened. They picked the wrong the family.

As I mentioned, my husband and I are both veterans, and our income flies under the radar. I will NEVER stop fighting for my children. We don’t make a ton of money, but were comfortable. If I have to put up my house, my cars, my belongings, I will do whatever it taken to get my kids back. They are not looking out for your children’s best interest, they are looking to lease your children out. They are placing monetary value upon your children. Look it up, I dare you. It’s incredible.

As of now in my life. I have a large house with no little feet running about. I am a stay at home mother with no children to care for. I am innocent and spending money in masses to prove it. My children have been taken from me based on an opinion and absolutely no facts. On the flip side, my son is doing so well. He has defied all odds. He’s kicking ass and taking names, but I am not there to encourage and aid him. My two older kids are still out of state. It is me and my husband together, alone, tired, but are steadily fighting this uphill battle.

For some reason the fact that we are both Marines has for the first time been used against me multiple times through this journey. If you’re a Marine you automatically have PTSD, let me just say that while I roll my eyes. We have been told that law enforcement “knows exactly how Marines are” placing us in a negative light. I feel discriminated against because I served my country, and this comes from civil servants. Who do you trust anymore? Let me say this though in conclusion. Yes, we are Marines. Yes, Marines stick together. Yes, Marines are fighters. In my front yard you will see a Marine Corps flag proudly flying and what that means to me is that I am United States Marine and I earned that. I am strong, I am a fighter, and I may come out this bruised, hurt, and injured, but I will come out of this, and I will come out of this with my children.

Semper!

Sydney Martinez

If you are having similar issues feel free to express yourself here, but always be looking over your shoulder.