Emily Fields: Mom-of-3 says social workers threatened to put kids in foster care if she let them play outside

PEARISBURG, VIRGINIA: Emily Fields, a Virginian mother-of-three is constantly worried that her children will be taken away from her by Child Protective Services and now can’t allow her children to play outside after her neighbor threatened to call on her, accusing her of negligence. It was after her son, then aged 4, kicked a soccer ball toward a neighbor’s cat and since then she’s scared of losing her young ones’ custody.

Emily lives in Pearisburg, Virginia, and claims she is being harassed by social workers who have been urging her to sign a form disallowing her children, a six-year-old son, and two daughters, aged 8 and 9, from playing outside without continuous supervision. The mother adds that one of the social workers is a local and holds animosity toward their family. In an incident that took place in May 2021, her son had kicked a football across the road in the direction of a neighbor’s cat but didn’t hit it. When Emily took his son to apologize, she said, “They began to scream and yell. They said that everyone in the neighborhood thought I was a horrible mother, and that my children abused animals." The next day, two caseworkers visited her home and not knowing what else to do, she signed what they called a ‘safety plan’. As per the documents, she now requires "to supervise the children at all times when playing outside. If safety plan is violated, a protective order will be filed."

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