Chronology of Events Concerning Montria - California Past Paper PDF 2024

Chronology of Events and Concerns - Case 18DP0387 We, Boris Mack and Xavier Mack, are the legal guardians of Montria Monae Williams who was originally in the foster care system. We received Letters of Guardianship on May 20, 2021 at the Superior Court of California, County of Orange, Juvenile Divis...

Chronology of Events and Concerns - Case 18DP0387 We, Boris Mack and Xavier Mack, are the legal guardians of Montria Monae Williams who was originally in the foster care system. We received Letters of Guardianship on May 20, 2021 at the Superior Court of California, County of Orange, Juvenile Division, Lamoreaux Justice Center. Case number 18DP0387. On August 12, 2024, Montria filed a Request to Change Court Order (form JV-180) to terminate the existing legal guardianship at aforementioned court. Montria has lived with us since February 22, 2020. We are the primary caregivers, meeting her emotional, educational, and physical needs. Montria came to our home after no longer being able to live with her half siblings’ grandparents (the Yips) from 2018 to 2020. She continued counseling through the Department of Mental Health (DMH) for significant childhood trauma, PTSD, anxiety, major depression, abandonment, and neglect. She came to our home with suicidal ideations. which we reported to Social Services and her counselor. Recurring safety plans and interventions have been in place. According to school assessments, she was significantly below grade level in reading, writing, and math. Due to collaboration with the school, educational support, combined with her hard work, she achieved honor roll status in grades 3, 4, and 6. She was on a 504 plan from November 2021 to June 2023 and is now on an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) since August 2023. We have facilitated access to services, including counseling, personal coordinator services, peer mentoring, after-school tutoring, mentor programs, youth groups, and summer programs. Before living with us she struggled with suicidal ideation, first attempting suicide at age five by trying to drown herself. She reports daily depression and suicidal ideations. She engages in self-harm activities such as cutting hands, burning herself with lighters, cutting her inside thighs with a knife, attempting to cut her vagina with scissors. On May 2, 2023, Montria shared a plan to kill herself with a knife and was taken to the hospital for evaluation. On August 22, 2024, she expressed another suicidal plan to her therapist, leading to a 72- hour involuntary hold, followed by a voluntary hold, and she was released on August 30, 2024, with a safety plan and psychiatric medication. See Montria's Safety Plan, attached hereto as Exhibit A. The discharging Physician, Rebecca Ba’Gah, MD noted: “Montria has a very complex past psychosocial history having sustained adverse childhood experiences and emotional/physical traumas. Though Montria had been involved in comprehensive outpatient services there are times she seems to decompensate usually in the setting of contact with biological family. Based on presenting symptom burden, working diagnosis 1 Chronology of Events and Concerns - Case 18DP0387 includes Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder." See Montria's discharge document, attached hereto as Exhibit B. Since 2018 Montria has received therapeutic services from the Department of Mental Health (12/6/2018 – 11/23/2021), Olive Crest (12/2/2021 – 6/14/2023), Seneca (11/2023 – Present) and Project Renew (8/2023 – Present). We facilitated access to services through Olive Crest, Seneca, Project Renew, and other community services/support. Currently, she meets once a week with her therapist at Seneca and twice a week with her Project Renew mentors. On 11/1/2024, we asked her therapist to increase her sessions to twice a week which will begin the week of 11/4/2024. Her depression is medically managed by a Psychiatrist through the Seneca program. See letter describing Montria's current treatment at Seneca, attached hereto as Exhibit C. Montria was also enrolled in a six week “Social Emotional Group” for girls at her middle school. According to the school Psychologist, lessons will be taught on “self- esteem, inner beauty, social media, building resiliency skills, loving yourself for who you are, and how to boost the self- esteem of others”. Chronology of recent events In May 2024: Montria's biological mother had a baby with the man that abused she and Montria. This triggered Montria badly and she became very unstable. We continued to work with her school at the time, her therapist, and mentors so she could have support. Montria’s shared that her mother told her that she was ‘trying to stay put' at the uncle’s home and ‘would do anything to get Montria back.’ Montria also shared that she was told by her mother that the sister was working with DCFS to be the infants foster care provider. Montria told us that she asked her sister if she could live with her. Montria reported that her sister told Montria no and explained why. This triggered Montria more and she started to decompensate. We continued working with her providers to help her. Montria shared that she asked her half siblings grandmother (S. Yip) about living with them, reportedly was told that she could, and that they would talk about it more in July when Montria visited them. In June 2024: Montria had a lot of distress about her mother’s new infant, worry over if her family was going to come to her 6th grade promotion, anxiety about going to a new school/7th grade, depression from a ‘boyfriend’ breaking up with her, conflict with her friend group, and loss of friends. She was triggered and required a lot of intervention. We worked with the school she attended at the time and all of her community providers to get additional support. She 2 Chronology of Events and Concerns - Case 18DP0387 admitted to vaping marijuana in December 2023 and this year. Reportedly she found the one vape pen in her sister’s room while visiting her and found another vape pen in some belongings her mother gave her. In July 2024: While in New Mexico visiting the Yips, Montria called us and shared that she and the Yips talked. She said that she can live with Yips. When we asked the Yips about this, S. Yip said that she was waiting for us to reach out to them. We set up a call to talk to the Yips about this then decided to cancel it and speak to Montria when she returned home. In August 2024: Montria came home and shared that she wanted to live with the Yips because she did not like our rules, did not have our same values, she wanted to wear revealing clothes, and she wanted to live her life the way she wanted to live it. We took Montria to the city of orange court on 8/12 and helped her file the JV 180 to remove us as her guardians. In the form we helped Montria to note that she wanted to live with the Yips who supported this. We told Montria that every week we would go down to the court to check on the status of her request and were told that it was on the judge’s desk, there were a lot of JV 180 cases, there was no court hearing scheduled, and Montria/We would get a letter in the mail or a call. We asked Montria if she wanted us to give the Yips updates weekly about what was shared with us. She said that she did not want us to talk to the Yips and she would share the information. On 8/9/2024, Montria visited her biological mother, uncle, and sister and she returned home with a 'secret' phone and a bag full of revealing clothes not appropriate for her age. We explained that this was inappropriate. We tried to work with Montria so she could use the phone with rules. Over the next week, her behavior escalated. She said, ‘they took matters into their own hands, and nothing was wrong with that.’ She said that if we did not have cameras, she 'would do things.' She said that her family members are 'criminals' and that if she told them about this 'it would be bad.' Montria has a history of homicidal ideation (HI) toward her biological mother and her boyfriend for the abuse Montria suffered. Due to this, Monteria’s belief that we were treating her badly, and her because of her impulsively for our own safety we started locking our door and barring it with a chair at night. We continued to work with Montria's providers so she could have support. Montria continued being absent from homework club after school so she could get help with missing assignments. She called us later saying she was at a pizza place hanging out with friends and we ‘needed’ to pick her up there. She continued to stay in her room with the door closed, using the phone her family gave her. Her grades were impacted. 3 Chronology of Events and Concerns - Case 18DP0387 We told her that the phone was having a negative influence on her behavior. We told her that her family giving her a secret phone undermined our role and attempts to keep structure and rules that helped her. We told her that she could no longer use the phone her family gave her, and we collected the phone. We also told Montria that we now recognized how destabilizing it is for her to visit with her family, that it is also impacting us, and we would no longer be taking her to see them. We told her that she could continue as always to talk to her family on the house phone anytime and she could use the home tablet as well to communicate with them after her schoolwork and chores were done. Montria’s family has had the house number for 4.5 years, all of Montria's family and friends’ numbers are programmed into the phone. The family has also had a special number to communicate with us at any time for the last 4.5 years. Montria continued to be argumentative and aggressive with us daily. On 8/21/2204, Montria ran away at night with the phone her family gave her. After not being able to find her, we called the police to file a report. During the call with the police, a parent of Montria’s friend called us and told us that she was at their home. We told the police this and did not file a report. The parent shared that Montria texted her friend, told her that she ran away, the friend told her mother. The mother picked Montria up, took her back to their house, talked to Montria then called us. We went to get Montria and brought her home. On August 23, Montria made a report to her therapist that she wanted to kill herself and had a plan to do it. The CAT was called for an in-home evaluation. CAT determined that she should be taken to CHOC for a psychiatric hold. Montria stayed at CHOC for 9 days. We continued to visit her, worked with CHOC providers, alerted her school, and her community providers. Montria continued to demonstrate aggression toward us while at CHOC and in meetings with us and CHOC staff. She eventually began participating in groups at CHOC, regained some calm, and a plan was developed to discharge her home. On 8/24,/2024, Montria's half sibling’s grandmother (S. Yip) texted us asking if Montria ‘was ok.’ Given all that had been going on we were overwhelmed and needed time to care for ourselves, so we did not respond. On 8/25, the grandmother texted again saying 'I see you are not responding - asking if Montria is ok... we do love her & are concerned... can you please let us know.' We did not respond. On 8/26,/2024 the half siblings grandmother texted. 'Xavier & Boris - We do not understand why all of the sudden you guys have cut us off... 1. What's going on with Montria. 4 Chronology of Events and Concerns - Case 18DP0387 2. Montria said "that we should be ready to attend the court date" and you guys do not want to talk to us about this. I'm requesting- court date & docket / case number so we know when to go. 3. I ask you Xavier that I don't want things to get weird between us - all of us. Because Montria has spoken up for herself & has been saying she wants to be removed, which you know already. We should have open dialogue, it's about Montria 4. Montria our family we love her, we are concerned. Bruce & Suzanne' During her time at CHOC, Montria’s half sibling’s grandmother texted Montria on the secret phone asking if she had her the phone. Montria did not have the phone because it was collected by CHOC staff at the time of admission. On 8/26/2024, we sent the Yips the below text. 'The last few days have been difficult so we have had to take time to process everything that has occurred. Montria has been struggling with suicidal thoughts and we have been transparent sharing that with her family the last 4 years. She took the next step and was planning to take her life on Thursday. She shared that information in her therapy session. The therapist fearing imminent suicide dispatched a team to support her. She was taken to the hospital by ambulance and placed on a psychiatric hold and has been hospitalized and is receiving treatment. She is in a lot of emotional pain and that is a trauma response to everything that has occurred in her life. She will need ongoing therapeutic support to work through these issues. We do not have a release date. According to Montria, on the way to hospital she texted Kiana to let her know what was happening. Based on your text messages maybe that didn't occur. Montria is the primary contact on her case, and we don't have information on next steps. In either case she said she will contact you directly and doesn't want us to do so. We are respecting her decision. The court will determine next steps. We don’t have any court information to share. This has been difficult on all us. We need time and space and will not be responding to additional voice mail or text messages. We also received a voicemail from Kevin tonight. Please let him and others know this.' 5 Chronology of Events and Concerns - Case 18DP0387 Montria's half siblings grandmother responded to our text. After sending that text we later received texts from Montria’s biological mother and biological maternal grandmother. We responded to the biological maternal grandmother multiple times that we asked Montria to call her. As of the date of this letter, Montria has decided not to call her. We also shared this information with DCFS. During Montria's stay in CHOC in August and since her release from CHOC in September she has been communicating with her half sibling’s grandmother daily. We believe that being in communication with her half siblings’ grandmother has continued to undermine our role, attempts to help Montria, and has further increased the aggression and defiance Montria demonstrates. Montria has made remarks like 'we don't trust you, it should not take the court that long to have a hearing, I go into my room and close the door because we don't want you to hear us.' She continued to be aggressive toward us, refused to come downstairs when she is called to eat meals made for her, refused to follow simple rules like doing school work, cleaning up her room and bathroom. When angry at us she trashed her room, threw her clothes and belongings all over the floor, tore the stuffing out of her stuffed animals, broke a cabinet to her desk, tore up things, broke a full-length body mirror that was ours that she kept in her room. Each episode, we would try to help her, notified her providers so they could support her, alerted the school so they could support her too. In September 2024: The Yips filed an emergency guardian appointment in Costa Mesa noting that we restricted communication, Montria was suicidal, and we were not telling them what was going on. We responded directly to the court with an objection to this. On 9/26, there was an ex parte hearing and Costa Mesa court denied the half siblings grandparents’ emergency request noting that the matter should be addressed in the right city of orange court jurisdiction. Conclusion from our objection filed with Costa Mesa court: ‘Montria has a team of professionals, at school and in the community, dedicated to supporting her educational and mental health needs. We believe discontinuing services and sending her out of state to New Mexico with no therapeutic services or educational plan in place will have detrimental consequences. Based on the above facts, we respectfully request the Court deny the Petition for Appointment of Temporary Guardian and refer this matter back to the Juvenile Court in the City of Orange where there is a Termination of Guardianship pending, case 1DP0387. See 6 Chronology of Events and Concerns - Case 18DP0387 page 1 of Request to Change Court Order (JV-180) filed on 8/12/2024 attached hereto as Exhibit D.’ That same day, 9/26/2024, Montria called us from a friend’s cell saying, ‘we have a problem, my family is at the court and they are waiting to talk to someone.’ We explained to Montria, and we were previously told by the court that they would not be speaking to anyone that this was an ex parte hearing. We reminded Montria that she also told us that S. Yip confirmed that no one could attend court. Montria further shared that in the absence of the cell phone that her family gave her, she had been communicating with her family on a friend’s cell. As a precaution, we decided to go to Costa Mesa Court to check on this ex parte hearing. On the drive there, Montria became very anxious and started biting her fingers, nails, and skin. When we tried to help her calm herself, she said that she was ‘afraid what would happen’ when her family saw us. We reiterate to her that while we know S. Yip and her family believe we are trying to keep her from them, that is not true, that we are not angry with them and we had to sets limits for our own wellbeing after her family undermined our role and bought her a secret phone. We reminded her that we hope that she can live with family/the Yips and that we were waiting for the court to schedule a hearing. She said that her family wanted to know if she could spend time with them. We told her no. We arrived at Costa Mesa Court, the Yips, Montria’s sister and the sister ‘s boyfriend were sitting in the lobby. We said hello, no one spoke. Montria hugged everyone and talked to them. We were given a copy of the minute orders and reminded that this was an ex parte hearing. We were made aware that the Yips also had a copy of the minute orders and they were aware of the decision upon calling Montria to come down to court. When we travelled home, Montria was incredibly angry. She said that her family saw the objection, she asked when we filed the objection, why we wrote ‘so much stuff’ and if we had an attorney. We shared that our goal was to still help her live with family/the Yips but we felt like she needed services setup that were not in place, and to move to New Mexico without services would not be good for her. We told Montria that this will give the Yips time to set up services and talk to the city of orange court so they can make arrangements to help Montria. On 9/26/2024 in the evening, we received a call from the DCFS worker assigned to Montria JV 180 request. We left the worker a message and informed Montria of this. Montria continued to talk to S. Yip daily on the home tablet, be aggressive and defiant, toward us, she stayed in her room with her door closed. She would not do anything we asked, and she said things like ‘you do like my family, we don’t like you either.’ 7 Chronology of Events and Concerns - Case 18DP0387 In October 2024: On 10/3/2024, we spoke with the DCFS worker by phone and shared the aforementioned. We were told that there was a City of Orange Court hearing on 10/24/2024. We provided the Yips numbers, the biological Mother’s number last known, and Montria’s sister’s number. We informed Montria that we spoke to the worker, shared the above, and that plans were made for the worker to talk to Montria. On 10/7/2024, the DCFS worker came to our home to talk to Montria and us. We reiterated the aforementioned and other things not noted here. Montria shared her thoughts privately. The worker inspected our home and Montria’s room. Over the next weeks we worked with the DCFS worker, providing information, updating Montria’s school and community providers. On 10/8/2204, we sent the Yips, Montria’s brothers, sister, her biological mother and maternal biological grandmother a group text with an update about the meeting Montria had with DCFS on 10/7/2024. On 10/16/2024, Montria asked if she could walk, around the corner to her therapy appointment after school. We said yes. On 10/17/2024 around 145pm, Montria called us to ask if we were going to pick her up after therapy. We said yes. Around 2pm, We tracked her down at the local place where Montria likes to hang out with friends and saw her biological mother there with her. Montria said that she should be allowed to have pizza with her mother. We asked her to get in the car and took her to her terhapy appointment. Montria as angry, she shared that her eldest brother drove her mother to see her. We reported this to Montria’s therapist, other providers and the DCFS worker. On 10/17/2024 in the evening, DCFS scheduled a CFT meeting with Montria, us, the Yips and Monria’s therapist. The DCFS worker shared that Montria could stay with us until she could placed with a family in CA or until she could relocate to live with the Yips. Montria said that she wanted to leave. We told Montria that we respected her choice and wanted her to know that everyone is concerned about her putting herself in a dangerous situation by going to Orangewood or a STRP. We told Montria that a counselor show worked in a STRP said she would not send anyone she know there. We told Montria that teachers told us that children get raped, sex trafficked, drugged in those environments. They everyone is concerned for her because she is impressionable and could be at risk. Montria decided that she still wanted to go to Orangewood or a STRP. After the meeting, the DCFS worker talked to Montria separately about meeting her mother at a Pizza place. We and the DCFS 8 Chronology of Events and Concerns - Case 18DP0387 worker spoke about the plan for 10/24/2024 since Montria still wanted to go to Orrangewood. We continued to share with Montria that if she changed her mind she could stay with us until DCFS found her a family to live with or until she could relocate to the Yips. Montria continued to say that she wanted to leave our home and was ok with going to Orangewood. We told Montria that she could use the phone her family gave her on the weekends if she did her school and chores and that DCFS could arrange visits with her family where someone would transport her there and back to our home. Montria continued to say that she wanted to leave our home. We alerted DCFS and Montria’s providers of her response. On 10;18/2024, Montria’s court appointed attorney’s assistant came to our home to meet with Montria. We shared the information mentioned above. Montria separately expressed her thoughts. On 10/19/2024, sent a second group text to them with more updates. We told them that Montria has an assigned DCFS worker and attorney. We shared that Montria had their cards, and the Yips had the DCFS worker’s number. We told them that Montria wanted to live with the Yips and that Montria shared the same. We asked them to pass on the information to all family members not listed on the group text and that if they had any questions, they could talk the DCFS worker directly. We reminded them that our goal was always for Montria to live with family and that is why when Montria first came to live with us we asked DCFS to do an exhaustive search for any family she could like with. We told them that we gave DCFS all the we had about family in CA and TX. We told them that DCFS later met with Montria and us. Montria named all the family she had and wanted to live with. DCSF told Montria that they researched the matter again and found that ‘it was not safe’ for her to live with any family. DCSF wanted to proceed with adopting Montria. We shared that Montria did not want this. Montria was educated about egal guardianship, she said that she was ok with that and we honored her choice. On 10/22/2024, we sent Montria’s father, currently incarcerated in Texas, the same texts we sent to her other family. We also shared with the DCSF worker that we sent the information and updates her family. On 10/21/2024, Montria asked if she could take the phone her family gave her to school to take pictures and get friends’ numbers. We gave her the phone. Since 10/21/2024, she has had the phone. She stopped following the rules. We told her that if she did not follow the rules that she could not use the phone her family gave her. Montria asked ‘how are you going to get it 9 Chronology of Events and Concerns - Case 18DP0387 back, if you touch me, I am going to report you.’ We shared this information with the DCFS worker. 10/23/2024, DCFS shared that due to the complexity of this matter, they needed more time to coordinate and arrange placement for Montria and they were going to request an additional 30 days to manage this. DCFS shared that children can come and go as they please, there are dangerous things that kids getting lured into including sex trafficking. We shared that we continue, despite our own risk, to help Montria because we know it would not be good to place her in an unsafe environment. DCFS shared that they would also request the court to approve an order to remove Montria at any time if things escalated and/or she or we requested removal. 10/24/2024, court hearing occured, DCFS asked for more time. DCFS shared that order for removal at any time on approved by the court. We were told that the next court hearing was 12/17/2024. On 10/25/2024, Montria was in a fight at school. We sent an email to the school and shared reported bullying behavior made known to us along with traumatic experiences Montria suffered in the past that could have been contributing factors to her behavior. We also shared a photo of Montria's bruised forearm and her report that after she hit a boy at school during their fight, hit her back, she shared that fell and that is how she sustained the bruise. Montria got angry and hit the boys because they told her that boys break up with her because she ‘is a whore.’ It was reported that the boys also talked about her father being in prison and that angered her. Unfortunately, Montria shared her trauma with children at school and they are using it to hurt her. We shared this information with the DCSF worker as well. On 10/28, in the morning Montria admitted to ‘doing things’ with boys she should not have and she said that she learned her lesson. In the past year Montria admitted to having 8 ‘boyfriends.’ Since she has been in 7th grade she told us about 3 ‘boyfriends’ she had. Montria and we meet with school staff about the fight. After the meeting, Montria refused to get in our car to go home. We notified DCFS immediately. We got a text from DCFS saying that Montria called them and shared that she was ready to be picked up from the Pizza place. We were told that if we did not pick her up it would be considered neglect allegation. We shared that we were on our way to get her. We also requested a meeting with DCFS that night. We expressed our ongoing concern about her escalating behavior, our safety, the negative impact created due to the use her of the secret phone her family previously gave her, etc. We shared that either the phone be given to DCFS or Montria had to leave our 10 Chronology of Events and Concerns - Case 18DP0387 home. After meeting with Montria in person, DCFS shared that they could not take the phone and Montria refused to give it to them. We were told that we could request a 14-day advance notice to remove Montria from our home. We made that request formally via email that night. On 10/29/2024, we sent Montra’s school and community providers an email noting that the bruise on her arm was from a fight at school on 10/25/2024. We sent them a picture. We also sent an alert to the DCFS with a picture and shared information in person on another date. We also shared: In lieu of suspension she was given detention as a onetime gift. Next hitting incident will be a suspension. We shared with DCFS verbally on another day that this is the second time Montria was due to be suspended and after our advocacy the school was lenient. In 6th grade Montria wrote a very sexually explicit letter to her ‘boyfriend, ‘a classmate found it on the ground and gave it a teacher. We meet with the school staff about this. The letter said things like ‘send me nude pictures, I will send you some, think of me as you stroke your dick, we talk dirty to each other, put it in me already, I don’t mind having a baby at 13.’ We worked with Montria’s community providers and school to give more support. Meeting held with DCFS in our home on 10/28/2024 about the matter. We expressed the negative impact the phone her family gave her had on her. Montria comes home, goes straight to her room and closes the door. She does not eat the food we leave out for her, she does not follow any rules, her behavior is erratic, and she is defiant, she comes down late at night to eat. She told us that she does not because she does not want to see us or be in the same room as us. She talks to her half siblings’ grandmother daily, it is unfortunate that they speak badly about us to Montria which further creates discord in our home, undermines our role, and positive attempts to help Montria. The half siblings’ grandmother sends Montria money through apple pay and Montria uses it to buy junk food. We explained to DCSF that the Psychiatrist said that eating healthy, balanced meals was crucial to prevent side effects from the medication. Montria was told this by her providers and us. Montria's sister gave her a Disney account so Montria can watch things on the phone her family gave her. Unfortunately, the things she watches are very mature, adult oriented. 11 Chronology of Events and Concerns - Case 18DP0387 Montria's friend at school sent her a picture of a male who looked to be in his early twenties. The male did not have a shirt on, and his jeans were low, showing his underwear above his groining. Montria's friend asked her if she thought her 'cousin' was cute. It appears that Montria and this male are communicating. Since Montria would not give DCFS the phone, we asked DCFS to remove Montria from our home given her escalated behavior and concerns that it will get worse. Montria also asked to leave. We were told by DCFS to send a formal request to remove her. We did that on 10/28/2024. We shared that on 10/29/2024, we were told that the DCFS Director would not approve for Montria to be removed immediately even though she and we requested that and were previously told that a court order was approved on 10/24/2024 to remove her at any time if needed. We were told that the DCFS will remove her in 14 days or prior if they found a placement for her as they did not want to send her to orangewood. DCFS said that they texted Montria this information as well. Removal date was for 11/11/2024. In that email on 10/29/2024, we also shared with the school staff and all her community providers that we are concerned with Montria's account of things. DCFS was sent this concern via email as well. We shared that Montria does not have a good relationship with the truth. Every day she tells us things that are not accurate. This has been occurring for 4.5 years. We shared that we recently discovered that while getting into the ambulance to go to CHOC for a hold Montria was texting a friend saying that we were 'arguing' with her. The friend told Montria to patch her, others in on a call and put them on mute so they could listen. Montria sent her friend a picture of her legs strapped to the gunnery in the back of the ambulance and typed ‘look what they did to me.’ We shared that Montria’s account of that day is vastly different than what happened. The CAT came out to evaluate her, they decided to take her to CHOC for a hold. Montria refused to go, went upstairs, sat in the hallway, then began crying. Boris went upstairs to console her; they cried together and eventually she came down to get into the ambulance. We are not sure how Montria perceived comfort as 'arguing.' We shared that we would continue to try to help her until she is no longer under our care. Montria got her phone taken away previously for using it during school time. She told us that she does not care if she gets in trouble at school for using her phone, that certain times of the day are the only time she can talk to her biological mother, so she was not going to stop using it. 12 Chronology of Events and Concerns - Case 18DP0387 On 10/30/2024, Montria’s school advisor responded to our email with the School Psychologist and all of Montria’s community providers copied. Below is what was said in the email sent from the school Advisor: ‘I appreciate the detailed account of what occurred on Monday afternoon. Montria chose not to attend lunch detention yesterday, which was part of the consequences of Friday's altercation. Two days have been added to her lunch detentions. She shared with me that she may not be returning to El Rancho. I reminded her that as long as she is at El Rancho, she is to follow through with the lunch detentions and after-school detention. Failure to do so will lead to a suspension. ‘ ‘This morning, I also received a phone call from a concerned parent regarding Montria. The parent shared that Montria had been texting/DM-ing her son about what happened after school on Monday. She told the parent that she had been kicked out of the home and that in the past, she had been hit. The parent asked if she was at home or on the streets to which she replied that she was at home. The parent wanted to make sure the school knew her situation and asked that we check on Montria. I assured the parent we were aware of Montria's situation and that everyone who needed to know was involved in her case to support her. ‘ ‘I am finding that Montria can be manipulative to get what she wants and often stretches the truth. We will continue to support Montria as long as she is here at El Rancho.’ After reading that email on 10/30/2024, we added the DCFS worker to our response, thanked the school for the information, shared that we have NEVER hit Montria, or kicked her out of the home. In the email we asked DCFS to remove Montria immediately. We expressed that we were concerned for our safety, that when Montria does not get what she wants she has a history of escalated, aggressive behavior and it was clear she was ‘trying to get us in trouble.’ We reiterated that for our own safety we sleep with our door locked and put a chair against it to bar entry. We also sent the DCFS worker a text about the matter and asked when she or the DCFS Supervisor/Director could talk that day because the matter had to be addressed due to very serious, untrue allegations made by Montria. On 10/30, DCFS we spoke to the DCFS worker. We expressed concern for our safety and that Montria's escalated behavior continues to put us at increased emotional and physical risk. DCFS made plans with us to remove Montria from our home the following day, 10/31. We made the removal request because DCFS previously shared that during the court hearing on 10/24 there was also a request made to the court to approve an order to remove Montria from our home at any time if needed. 13 Chronology of Events and Concerns - Case 18DP0387 On 10/31 about 11am we were at El Rancho with staff about to complete the exit form when we received a call from DCFS worker. She reported that they were notified that the paperwork needed to remove Montria from our home was not completed by the court during the 10/24 hearing so they could not remove her. DCFS informed us that if we wanted Montria removed immediately they would have to file an Abuse Registry report, say that the guardians were unwilling or unable to care for child, someone would come to our home to interview us and Montria, then the investigator would make a finding. Given all the stress of this we could not continue talking to DCFS worker at that time. We made that known. We requested a summary of our conversation to address it with our attorney. We were given a covering supervisor's name and number who was on duty that day. We asked for a meeting with the worker and the supervisor covering. Upon getting the email summary, we responded that we DID NOT want to go that route of having an Abuse Registry report filed as did not abuse Montria and we were concerned about the impact on our job. In addition, we have not ever abused, hit, or kicked Montria out. We left a message for the covering Supervisor requesting to talk that day and we told her that we DID NOT want to pursue filing an Abuse Registry report. We also alerted the DCFS worker via email of this and asked that the information be shared with the covering Supervisor. On 10/31, about 3pm, a call was held with DCFS worker and the covering Supervisor, Maria C. Maria told us that an Abuse Registry report was filed because of 'guardian absence and no one to care for the child.’ Maria said that was the only way they could remove Montria from our home immediately. We expressed disappointment about the action they pursued even after we asked them not to. We told the covering Supervisor that when we asked that Montria be removed from our home due to concerns for our own safety. We made this request because we were previously told that on 10/24 there was an order approved by the court to remove her at any time if needed. We explained to the covering Supervisor that we received a call about 11am that day when we were completing an exit form at Montria's school and the DCFS worker shared they realized that day that the court never signed the order to remove Montria at any time. We expressed disappointment with the covering Supervisor's decision to move forward with an Abuse Registry report. We asked her why we were not spoken to about this before they acted, especially knowing that a call was arranged with us for 3pm that day. We expressed disappointment about how all of this was handled, again shared the impact this report could have on our job, license, and livelihood. 14 Chronology of Events and Concerns - Case 18DP0387 We were told by Maria, the covering Supervisor, that 'the Manager' made the decision, that they do not have to talk to us about it, and that filing an Abuse Registry report is 'standard protocol.' We again expressed disappointment with this, we reminded DCFS that we have been continuing to care for Montria for 4.5 years despite the physical and emotional detriment to ourselves because we did not want her to be placed in an unsafe environment. We said that we would continue to keep her until 12/17 /2024 hearing. We asked that the Abuse report action be stopped. The covering Supervisor told us that the action could not be stopped, that someone would contact us for an interview at our home with Montria and us. We asked the covering Supervisor to talk to DCFS legal counsel to file a request with the court for Montria to be removed at any time if things continue to escalate since this was not done during the 10/24/2024 hearing as previously reported. The covering Supervisor said the court is busy and the next time any issues can be addressed is on 12/17/2024 during the hearing. We shared that we requested help from our court appointed attorney regarding all of this, that we called and sent him an email. On 10/31 about 430pm, the Abuse Report Registry worker and the DCFS worker came to our home. We were told that the 'allegations' are that we are 'absent' guardians, unwilling or unable to care for the child.' We expressed our disappointment with all of this and explained to the Abuse Registry worker that we were previously told by DCFS that on 10/24 there was an order approved by the court to remove her at any time. We told the Abuse Registry worker that earlier that day we explained this to the covering Supervisor that we received a call about 11am that day when we were completing an exit form at Montria's school and the DCFS worker shared they realized that the court never signed the order to remove Montria at any time. We explained that despite very serious concerns about our own physical and emotional safety, including sleeping with our bedroom door locked and a chair put against it we continue to care for Montria and there is a court hearing on 12/17/2024. We also shared that earlier that day just prior to talking to the DCFS worker and the covering Supervisor Montria told us that she wanted to remain in our home until the 12/17/2024 hearing. We asked that all of this information be documented in the report as well. We were interviewed, the inside of refrigerator and freezer were looked at. Montria was interviewed by the Abuse Registry worker and the DCFS worker in her room. We were not present. The DCFS worker shared that she also covered the issue about a parent calling the school to share Montria said we hit her and kicked her out. We were told by the Abuse Registry worker that there was 'plenty of food' in our home and the findings DO NOT substantiate the report filed about us being 'absent guardians.' We are waiting for information about where we can request a copy of the final report. We asked for a copy of the final report. The Abuse 15 Chronology of Events and Concerns - Case 18DP0387 Registry worker shared that she would text us the information about how to request the report. To date we have not received that information. Anyone who wants more information about this can contact the DCFS worker directly. DCFS worker's card was previously given to the school and all of Montria's community providers. In November 2024: On 11/2/2024, while at school staff allowed Montria to call us. She was struggling, reported having thoughts of wanting to run away, and wanted us to come pick her up. She said that she was using her phone during school, and it was taken away. We talked to Montria for 30 minutes, discussed ways she could positively cope, praised her for calling us and talking about her struggles. We encouraged her to talk to her teachers, advisor, and school Psychologist. We shared that running from her problems is not an effective way to handle challenges. We did grounding techniques with her to help her regain calm. We told her that she has to focus on school, but we would see her after school and do something she identified as fun we all could do at home to relieve her stress. We told her that we would ask her mentor and counselor if they could see her that day or the next for support. We followed up with the school after the call, shared our thoughts and interventions, and said that we wanted to come get her but felt like if we did that, she would not learn that she has the strength to cope with challenges in positive ways. We also told the school that we shared with Montria that calling us, talking about her struggles, and crying were all healthy coping and she should be proud of herself for doing that. We told the school advisor that if she felt like we should pick Montria up from school that we would. The advisor said that she thought would be ok. Later that day, Montria met with her mentor for support. Montria shared that she wanted to watch a movie and play games. In the evening, we went to her room and asked her if she still wanted to watch a movie and play game because we could start then. We asked her what she wanted us to make her at home to eat, she said she wanted Canes. She continued to ask; we told her not that night. She decided that she did not want to hang out anymore and went to her room. We heard her talking to her 'new boyfriend.' She asked him to send her money, she referred to us as 'those fucking niggers.' Montria was upset and was cussing, saying things like 'fuck me in the ass, fuck, shit, damn.' It appears she was trying to get money sent through her apple pay cash app her from her 'boyfriend' or sister so she could have food delivered to our home. She was using the phone her family gave her. On 11/1 our court appointed attorney responded to our email sharing that he could file forms to revoke our guardianship immediately if that is what we truly wanted. We 16 Chronology of Events and Concerns - Case 18DP0387 responded that night to his email and told him that we would get back with him soon. On 11/2, Montria met with her counselor via zoom, per our request so she could have additional support. We also asked the counselor to increase sessions. Due to Montria's escalated behavior it seems she may benefit from this. 17