Tennessee Legislators Demand Return of Children to Parents After Cannabis Possession Arrest

At the Child Rights Foundation, we always speak and defend children first, then parents. After all, the children are always innocent. They are the victims of abuse, neglect or abandonment – or a combination of all.

Too often it’s the parents who commit crimes against their children. And sometimes it’s those in “the system” – teachers, government, officials, foster parents, courts, and law enforcement.

Last month, five children were taken from their parents in Tennessee. The reason? Their father was in possession of five grams of cannabis.

On February 16, a Tennessee Highway Patrol pulled over Deonte Williams, who was driving along with his wife and five minor children. He was stopped because of a tinted window violation. At the Coffee County Justice Center his wife waited with the children as her husband remained in custody. Suddenly in the words of a their mother, the children “were forcibly removed.” She went on to add that an officer restrained her from her crying baby, who was still being breastfed.

The Department of Children’s Services (DCS) then obtained an emergency order to take custody of the kids who they claimed were neglected.

Over a month later, the children are still without their parents.

Mental health professionals, as found in the 2021 NIH study, determined that separating children from parents results in lasting trauma. Experts agree that such separations are only warranted when the life of the child is at risk.

When Tennessee Lookout reached out to DCS for a statement, they did not respond for comment.

Tennessee legislators have demanded the children be returned to parents immediately.

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