Lawsuit: State threatened to take children after false positive drug test
according to U.S. Anti-Doping Agency: Research shows that morphine and codeine can sometimes be detected in the urine up to 48 hours after ingestion of poppy seeds from some pastries, such as bagels, muffins, and cakes (see reference one for a free article on this topic). http://www.usada.org/can-poppyseeds-cause-a-positive-drug-test/
So these “investigators” knew or should have know this fact… when Holly asked if eating poppy seeds on Bagel Chips could have caused the positive urine test… Also this information states that the poppy seeds MAY CONTAIN Morphine and Codeine… and Heroin is metabolized in the body into Morphine so these “investigators” jumped to the conclusion that Holly was using Heroin… Just another illegal process by “people in authority” … to gain “extra money” for their agency. Kind of reminds you of civil asset forfeitures ?
Holly Schulkers said they knew she wasn’t on heroin before she left the St. Elizabeth hospital in Edgewood, but that didn’t stop state social workers and hospital staff from threatening to take her children and putting her through a two-month “nightmare.”
Now, she’s suing the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services and St. Elizabeth Healthcare in federal court in Covington.
Schulkers walked into the hospital Feb. 8 to deliver her child through induced labor. She and her husband, David Schulkers, each have two children from previous marriages. This would be their first child together, and Schulkers said likely their last.
The labor went smoothly and she gave birth to a seven-pound baby girl on Feb. 9, a Thursday. She breastfed her new daughter within the first hour, and began discussing discharge with her doctors.
On Friday morning, according to the lawsuit, the Schulkers received an unexpected visit to their room from a hospital social worker who told her she had tested positive for opioids.
Schulkers agreed to a second urine test and was told her baby’s umbilical cord would also be tested. But, she said, before the results of those tests came back, the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services was contacted and social workers came to her room.
“They started asking me how the heroin, is what they said, got in my system,” Schulkers said. “I said, ‘There’s a mistake. Somebody mixed up the urine. I’m not a heroin addict.'”
She said she asked if the poppy seeds on the “Stacy’s Everything Bagel Chips” she had eaten before she gave birth could have thrown off the test, and was told the result could not be affected by that.
The state workers asked where she lived, how many children they had, where the kids were and where they went to school, according to the suit.
“She said she was going to run a background check on me, and asked what drug charges they would find,” Schulkers said. “I told them they weren’t going to find anything. I work with children. I volunteer at the kids’ school. They run background checks on me to make sure I’m not a criminal coming into the kids’ school.”
Schulkers said the cabinet even called her mother-in-law to ask if there was any history of drug abuse.
The suit states a supervisor with the cabinet told Schulkers, still in the hospital with her newborn, to “let me get the help you need so you can be a better mother to your children.”
When Schulkers insisted she did not do drugs, the suit states, she was told “until this gets figured out you are no longer allowed to be around any children without supervision of (an) approved individual.”
The suit states Schulkers’ second urine test and the umbilical cord test came back negative over the weekend, but that Schulkers and her husband weren’t off the hook.
According to the suit, they signed a prevention plan, which barred Holly Schulkers from being alone with any of her children. Stamped at the bottom of the plan, in capital letters: “Absent effective preventative services, placement in foster care is the planned arrangement for the child.”
The couple signed “under duress” and “coercive conditions,” the suit states, because they were worried that their children would be removed from their care.
Schulkers was allowed to take her daughter home Sunday. She said her the baby never showed any signs of withdrawal.
On Monday, Schulkers’ husband stayed home to “supervise” his wife and newborn. Their older children went to school where they were met by cabinet investigators, according to the suit. Schulkers said she was not told this was happening, and didn’t learn about it until afterward.
“They pulled my kids out [of class], my husband’s kids out and questioned them about if I took any prescription medicine, if they ever saw me smoking anything,” Schulkers said. “They asked if my husband and I fought, if we fought did we hit each other?
“My oldest daughter said she was really nervous and scared. My son thought they were getting information to kidnap him and break into our house. No child at that age should have their innocence taken away.”
She took yet another drug test, a hair test that would show any long term abuse. The suit states that test came back negative, too, and the results were sent to the cabinet.
It wasn’t until April 7 that the Schulkers received a letter stating the prevention plan was over and that “the claim of abuse was unsubstantiated.” Schulkers said it was a two-month “nightmare” in which she lived in fear of losing her children, sometimes worried to even answer the door to her Fort Thomas home.
“The birth of my last child has been ruined by these people,” Schulkers said. “I was basically guilty in their eyes. It wasn’t ‘innocent until proven guilty.’ It was, ‘This lady is on drugs and we’re going to do what we need to do to prove that.'”
Her legal team argues the cabinet may have had financial incentives for keeping the case open as long as it did. The suit claims the prevention plan’s language matches the language required for the cabinet to receive federal funding for investigations.
“If the investigation is terminated, they quit receiving the funding. In our mind, that explains why the cabinet may have kept this open for two months,” said Schulkers’ attorney, Paul Hill. “If that was done to this family for money from the federal government, it’s pure evil.”
The Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services did not respond to requests for comment on the lawsuit.
“We cannot comment on any prospective or active litigation matters,” a spokesperson at St. Elizabeth said in a statement Friday. “St. Elizabeth follows all necessary protocols and procedures to ensure the safety and health of all patients.”
For Schulkers, the lawsuit extends beyond her family.
“I’m sure this has happened to other people,” she said. “I want to make sure it never happens to anyone else again.”
Filed under: General Problems
On the other side of the issue of at risk children, a good friend of mine has been a father figure to three young children whose father is Bipolar and the mother doesn’t have a high school diploma and she is cowering under her bipolar husbands unrealistic and power happy personality. Children are 8, 6 and 4. Bipolar dad doesn’t want children to go to school, so they don’t. He is afraid that the children will talk about thier father’s abusive ways. They lie to Social Security calls (after my friend called Social services to report this abuse) telling SS that thier eldest daughter was taking first grade classes online. She did for two weeks then bipolar dad “lost” thier only cell phone. These children eat only junk food, from 7 Eleven. Never had a home cooked meal. They might prosper from foster care…..or not. Right now they seem pretty ok, although they suffer from low self esteem, and don’t have any input from friends or “normal” friends. My friend, a normal adult, has a close relationship with the father, and is friends with the kids when he sees them, he tries to “parent ” the parents, but it goes nowhere. Social Services are not interested in helping these kids, they are overwhelmed with worse cases of child abuse. Should I contact Dr. Phil?
I was a foster parent for twenty five years and closed my home when it became crystal clear that the priority was money and job security and not in any way the safety and welfare of the children involved! As a foster parent I had no voice and had to stand back and watch the horrors being perpetrated by the powers that be against these innocent children and their families. It’s heartbreaking to watch children being put back into obviously dangerous situations while others who should never have been taken into the system were permanently removed!
Diito,,when I was much younger 19 thru 26 ,,I worked w/deaf adolescents,,,orphaned or taken away from parents,,residential school,,and it becaome obvious,,even back then,,about fillen up their pockets,,,the more kids,,the more the documented ,”behaviour issues,” even if there were none,,the more money from the state,,,state owned kids were always more profitable then privates,,Payen the house psychiatrist,,ungodly salaries,,,whilst the ,”lower staff,” ,,ie Directors of the houses,, got 7 thru 10 bucks a hour,,,,if there were any staff,,,15 kids to 1 staff member per house,,,,,insane,,,the kids were suppose to get soo much a month for cloth,sundries etc,,,,they NEVER SAW IT,,, went rite into the shrinks pockets,,,,corrupt all the way!!!!!mary
PSS,,in the case of the inka tea,,,the drug MAKING kits are going after thee original plant material,,the leaf,,,combined w/their reagants MAKES BENZOLECGNINE,,,,,,Soo when it happens w/poppy’s it is the combo of the ingested seed,,plus the ,”reagants,,,MAKING the positive,,,,,,,not testing for is,,obviously,,,or it would of distinguish it ONLY AS A SEED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! think people!!!!!! god THIS BLIND OBEDIENCE AND TRUST IN OUR GOVERNMENT IS killen us,,destroying lives,,,,if people would just use their freaken heads,,.some common sense,,,They should sue the crap out of all of them,,,This happens to at least 5,000 people a year,,they loose their jobs,,,thus their lives,,,now a days,,,maryw
Sue the crap out of them,,,it does happen to 36% of all false positive drug making kits,,Ill say it again,,,THESE ARE NOT METABOLITE TEST,,,, a ,”friend” did a experiment,,,took a bag of inka tea,,put that bag in a cup of water,,,with a pee strip,,NO PEE,,,,Dam test strip popped positive,,,on /in these drug making ,”test” kits are chemicals called reagants,,,before u ever pee in that cup,,thier in the cup or on the test strip they use,,,these ,”reagants,”ie chemicals are thee exact chemicals used in MAKING THE DRUG,,,,ETHANOL AND ACID,,THERE MAKING THE POSITIVES,,,,,NOT TESTING,,,,,,,IE why u come up positive from a cup of tea and a muffin!!!!!!!!don’t believe try yourself!!!!DRUG TESTS are 1 BIG LIE,,,,,IT IS REALLY DRUG MAKING KITS,,,NOT TEST KITS!!!maryw
I hope they win. In fact everyone who has been discharged by their doctor for a false result should sue. Then they would realize that are consequences for excusing people of a crime just for having a false positive test. I do not know what the accuracy of many of the urine test they do but their seems to be a lot of room for error or substance’s that can cause false postive. Everyone want to make sure children our in safe homes but they way these people investagated this was obviously that a horrible way of doing and cause unnecessary stress on the entire family. Maybe if more doctors and hospitals get sue and lose they will also use some common sense before labeling people with something that will cause other to prejudge the person in a negative way for the rest of their lifes.