A Lubbock mother was recently told by a local Child Protective Services representative she could not meet with her children on the east side of town.
The text message exchange happened last Friday. The local therapist said she is a contracted worker for CPS and supervises the visits on behalf of CPS.
Stacey Saahir is the mother of the woman who was disagreeing with the CPS representative. She said her daughter has three children, ages 6, 4 and 3. She said they were taken away two years ago, and have been living with foster families since.
Saahir said the local therapist, who mediates and supervises visits for CPS, texted her daughter on Friday asking where she would like Saturday’s meeting to take place.
Text messages show the daughter asked for the visit to be held at Mae Simmons Park.
“This is a beautiful, beautiful lake,” Saahir said. “This is a beautiful part of the city. We live on the east side and the children need to be re-introduced into their community. This is our community.”
The therapist then told Saahir’s daughter she could meet at McDonald’s on Slide, Maxey Park or ‘somewhere other than the east side.’
“They view it very negatively,” Saahir said. “People fish here, they ride bikes here. We do a lot of activities in this very part of the town. So I wonder why it is not OK for our children to come have a visit.”
EverythingLubbock.com was sent this statement Wednesday by CPS:
“Supervised visits are usually set up to be at a location convenient to both foster placement and parent. We do sometimes prohibit visits from occurring in certain locations if there is a safety issue with family members or we feel the location is not appropriate, for example close to a relative’s home, or perpetrator in the case that causes a threat.”
The therapist who mediated the visit chose not to comment on the story.
