CPS (Children Protective Services)
Hello, My name is Philip Henderson. I’m 18 years old and I spent most of my teenage years in the Custody of the state. Fun huh. Anyways I would like to tell my life story fighting with CHD, CPS, and CFS. I spent a lot of time in foster homes. Not very exciting!
It all started out one day when I got back from school. I walked in my parent’s house. My little brother said something to me and I just went off. I had a bad day at school and I frankly wasn’t in the mood for any crap. So, I just used violence as an answer. Big Mistake. My mother called the cops and I was hauled off in a cop car to Detention in Pendleton, Oregon.
When I was in detention sometimes it didn’t really bother me. Most of the time it did though because I knew that I had got myself there. I spent a lot of time in foster homes.
Fighting with the state. I ran away at least 5 times. Most of the time I got put in detention. Other times I just got put back in the foster home. I never like to talk to people I didn’t know so most of the time I just kept my mouth shut. I was emotionally abused, and physically abused in foster homes. Most of the time foster parents didn’t care because sometimes they thought that you were not their responsibility because you were not actually their kids.
Sometimes I came to a point that I didn’t care about anybody or anything. All I wanted to do is get out of that foster home and go home. I never liked to go places or do anything with other foster kids because they always treated me like a piece of mud.
I myself have seen every kind of juvenile you can possibly think of. I even met kids that said they were in with Kip Kinkel. Most of them I never paid any attention to but some others I actually felt sorry for. I don’t know why. Most of the foster kids I met thought that they were the only thing that mattered in the world. Some of them spent a lot of time in detention. Others just went straight to Prison. After I got kicked out of a few foster homes I thought I was getting nowhere.
I got sent to a place called E.O.A.M.T.C (Eastern Oregon Adolescent Treatment Center). I saw a lot of things I don’t want to talk about. Some pretty morbid things. Most of all though the people in that center. I’m not going to name any names. These people thought that. Well you see they would take normal NORMAL teenagers into this treatment center and try to convince them that they had some kind of mental illness. Most of them didn’t have a mental illness at all. Some others were just plain hopeless because they were born real disabled. They had no business there because they were born in bad shape. Like retarded. In this center if you said something or did something wrong you would go to the time out room. If you would choose to refuse you would go to the lock down room. If you would continue to refuse they would restrain you to the concrete floor (OUCH). I still have scars from being restrained on that floor.
I never like to talk to those people because they thought they had everything figured out. Some of them were so strongly into believing the state it would make you sick. This is where they dreamed up I was PTSD and they said my step dad made me that way. This is bogus crap. He never did anything bad to me and they made up this crap and got him in bad trouble with the SCF and made him sick. He lost his businesses and almost died. Even after all that, he wasn’t mad at me and he took me back in and is trying to get me job skills and a GED. The state didn’t do anything but screw me up and keep me on bad drugs to keep me screwed up.
Another thing when I was in foster homes the state never told me what kind of kid we where getting. The state doesn’t care what happens to you when you get out of their custody. Another thing I got shot in the knee with a bb gun. That’s not the point. The thing is I was told to keep my mouth shut. No medical treatment nothing. They just told me basically to deal with it.
In a foster home also if you get beat up by the other kids there the state doesn’t care. They just tell you to deal with it. “Tough, deal with it”. To tell you the truth I was scared to death of some of them. They always threatened me. Two of the kids that went through the foster home that I was in, told me “Violence was the answer”. All I have to say about that is “Ha”- Now that im out of the state’s custody.
Every time something was to go wrong in the foster home I was always told to keep my mouth shut, it’s always a “BIG SECRET”. What they’re really telling you is keep your mouth shut so we don’t get in trouble. To tell you the truth the people that I met in these foster homes. I don’t ever EVER want to see them again.
Oh, also Molly Rogers (Wallowa County Oregon). When I was in state custody she tried to get my dad to sign a form that I don’t even think it was his responsibility to pay. Oh another thing in the article in the newspaper they called me a monster. They’re the monsters they’re the people destroying citizens families.
Oh, another thing when I was going to public school I was told “Don’t think just because you’re going to public school that im not going to lock you up”. When I was getting beat up in these foster homes (GETTING BRUISES) I was always told to shut up.
Oh, when I was in treatment at EOAMTC the staff their put a lot of things in there documents that where not even true. They just had to keep making up stories to keep you in their custody. Also when I was when I was in this treatment center they kept switching my meds like crazy. Like I was a physco or something. I learned a lot about these meds when I was going there. First of all!!
*Zoloft- Makes you violent.
*Wellbutrin- Gives you a major boost in your sex drive.
*Depkote- Makes you where you Cannot sleep, you see hallucinations.
*Desepramin- You cannot sleep, and you hear things.
The state didn’t put me on these medications to help me. They put me on them to DESTROY me. The state never helped me. They just always made it worse for me. When I got back to my mom and step dad, we quit the medicine. I have been of the drugs know for over 2 months and I am thinking lots better. And staying out of trouble.
I learned a lot of things from being in foster homes. The main thing though was when I got out. To STAY as far away from the state as I can from know on.
I can’t join the Army because of the juvenile record. And Molly Rogers wouldn’t expunge them so I could. Molly says I can’t until I stay out of trouble for 2 years. Know I am trying to get into job core so I can learn how to make a living and take care of myself know I am an adult. Thanks a lot state of Oregon for screwing my life up!
By Philip Henderson