USA Today Reports How Florida Takes Children Away from their Parents and Puts Them with Pedophiles in Foster Care

As we have reported many times over the years here at Health Impact News, the U.S. Foster Care System is the #1 pipeline to child sex trafficking. Numerous studies over the past several years have confirmed that children do far better when left in their homes, even troubled homes where parents may have drug issues and other problems, than when they are placed in foster care. Investigative reporters at USA Today have done an excellent job in showing just how corrupt the child welfare and foster care system is in Florida, documenting hundreds of cases where children were removed from their homes and then put into foster care settings where they were sexually abused. Several stories are highlighted in their report, including the case of longtime Florida foster father Rick Hazel, who they say repeatedly raped a child in his care, taking videos of the molestation and hiding a camera in the bathroom to watch her shower. More than 70 children allegedly passed through his home. When deputies arrested him in 2019, the Hazels were the longest-tenured foster parents in St. Augustine. More than 70 kids had passed through their home. In addition to the rape victim, the family members of two other foster children came forward with concerns of abuse or neglect. But following Hazel’s arrest, no one – not caseworkers, not child abuse investigators, not law enforcement – talked to all of the other children who had lived in the home to see if they had seen or suffered abuse. Those children were all adopted or moved on to new homes. Until contacted by reporters, the adults in their lives had no idea they had spent time with a man who ultimately was convicted of child sex abuse. Rick and Shirley Hazel were considered model foster parents. They took in children of all ages and races, including kids with autism, and adopted three of them. They were active at church and the foster parent association, meeting with biological parents on nights and weekends to make visits easier. “Wonderful human beings, blessed, doing God’s work,” one social worker commented in their file. “One of the very best places a child could be,” wrote another. As they gained a rapport with workers in the system, St. Johns County sent the Hazels more and more kids, even when their home reached – and surpassed – the state-mandated capacity of five total children. The stream of kids finally ended in 2019, when a 13-year-old told detectives that her foster-turned-adoptive father had “raped me like I was his wife.”

Florida ABC News Covers Widespread Medical Kidnappings Due to Child Abuse Pediatricians

As year 2020 gets underway, we are seeing more and more mainstream media sources covering medical kidnapping stories, especially when Child Abuse Pediatricians are involved. One of the latest investigative reports comes from the Tampa ABC News I-Team Investigations. Katie LaGrone, reporting with ABC Action News, writes: "A Florida lawmaker believes the state’s medical experts on child abuse need more checks and balances after an I-team investigation revealed several pediatricians have made questionable calls against parents who appeared to have done everything right. 'Any position of authority that isn’t checked by something is concerning,' said Florida Democratic Representative Anna Eskamani of Orlando. Eskamani was responding to our investigation that found several cases where child abuse pediatricians, who were hired to be the state’s experts on abuse, wrongly accused Florida parents of child abuse."

USA Today Exposes Florida Doctor Medically Kidnapping Children and Destroying Lives

USA Today reporter Daphne Chen has just published an article on Dr. Sally Smith, a pediatrician who is the head of the child protection team in Pinellas County, Florida. Published in the "Torn Apart" section of GateHouseNews.com, this article is reportedly the first in a series investigating Florida’s child welfare system. Chen refers to Dr. Sally Smith as: "the 61-year-old pediatrician [who] is one of the most powerful figures in the child welfare system along Florida’s Gulf Coast. As the head of the Pinellas County child protection team, Smith examines virtually every child funneled to All Children’s Hospital with suspicious injuries. Among prosecutors, her word is like gold." The USA Today Network reportedly investigated hundreds of Dr. Smith's cases, and: "found more than a dozen instances where charges were dropped, parents were acquitted or caregivers had credible claims of innocence yet suffered irredeemable damage to their lives and reputations." Reporter Daphne Chen discusses several cases that involved Dr. Smith, including: "Beata Kowalski, a 43-year-old mother of two, died by suicide in 2017 after Smith accused her of Munchausen syndrome by proxy — a rare disorder in which a parent fakes a child’s illness for sympathy or gain. Her family members are now suing Smith and All Children’s Hospital for what they said were trumped-up claims. John Stewart, a Marine Corps veteran, spent 300 days in jail on Smith’s allegation that he killed his girlfriend’s son by throwing him repeatedly against a soft surface. Prosecutors dropped the charges after a neuropathologist contradicted Smith’s findings, according to internal memos."

Florida Wants to Become the Most Restrictive State in the U.S. for Mandatory Vaccines

There is a new dangerous threat to vaccine exemptions in Florida. SB 64 was filed by Senator Lauren Book on 8/2/2019. SB 64 would eliminate the religious exemption to vaccines required for public and private school children. It would also add a new section of law requiring the Board of Medicine and the Board of Osteopathic Medicine to jointly create a medical exemption review panel that shall review all medical exemptions. If passed, the new law would become effective on July 1, 2020. We have seen what happens to families in California and New York where religious exemptions have been removed and medical exemptions are reviewed and restricted. SB 64 is a dangerous bill that needs to be stopped early so Florida doesn’t become like California or New York. The 2020 legislative session in Florida convenes on 1/14/2020, however bills are filed in advance (session dates). It is very important that families who support the religious and medical exemptions get out ahead of Senator Book’s effort and talk to their legislators and like-minded families to get involved now! Those who are currently in office during this interim period will be the same legislators who will vote on this bill this spring as statewide legislative offices are not on the ballot this fall.

Adult Medical Kidnapping: Euthanizing America’s Seniors – Orlando Medical Guardian Resigns After Getting Caught, but How Many More Are There?

The Orlando Sentinel is reporting that professional guardian Rebecca Fierle has resigned after an investigation revealed that she had filed unauthorized “do not resuscitate" orders on almost all of her senior patients, against the wishes of the patient and their families. The investigation was prompted by the Orlando Sentinel's report that one of her patients died due to her "do not resuscitate" (DNR) order, even after the patient and family requested that the DNR be rescinded. The Sentinel reports: "A man died at a Tampa hospital after staff could not perform life-saving procedures because of a “do not resuscitate” order his Orlando guardian filed against his wishes, state investigators determined. The investigation into the final days of 75-year-old Steven Stryker of Cocoa caused Circuit Judge Janet C. Thorpe to seek the removal of his court-appointed guardian, Rebecca Fierle, from 95 Orange County cases at once in a hearing sealed from the media last week. Thorpe found Fierle had “abused her powers” by requesting that incapacitated clients not receive medical treatment if their heart or breathing stopped — without permission from their families or the court, records show. The investigation concluded that Fierle refused to remove the DNR despite Stryker’s desire for life-saving actions, and that her claims about his final wishes contradicted his daughter, friend and a psychiatrist." We applaud the work of the Orlando Sentinel, fulfilling their role as the media was originally intended to be: a voice educating the public on matters that government and medical authorities would prefer remain in secrecy. Too often in our own investigative work here at Health Impact News, we find that the corporate-sponsored media is the mouth-piece of the medical system and government, rather than exposing its corruption. If not for the investigative work of the Orlando Sentinel, this professional guardian working for the State of Florida may have continued to euthanize seniors against their wishes and the wishes of their families. Rebecca Fierle has now resigned and faces criminal charges, but how many more like her are still out there?

Florida Governor Signs Bill to Legalize Growing Food on Your Own Property

Gov. Ron DeSantis signed SB 82, legislation protecting the right of all Floridians to grow vegetables and fruit on their own property. For one Miami-area couple, this represents the end of a years-long struggle that started when their town ordered them to dig up the garden they had been growing for 17 years. Starting July 1, any local ordinance that expressly limits or prohibits growing vegetables on one’s own property will be “void and unenforceable.” In 2013, the Institute for Justice (IJ) filed a lawsuit on behalf of Hermine Ricketts and Tom Carroll seeking to strike down the Village of Miami Shores’ prohibition on front yard gardens as an unconstitutional violation of property rights.

Florida Wants to Track Vaccination Status of All its Citizens with Proposed New Law

HELP STOP EXPANSION OF REQUIRED INTRUSIVE GOVERNMENT VACCINE TRACKING AND ENFORCEMENT SYSTEM! We need your help to defeat a terrible bill, HB 213 sponsored by Representative Ralph Massullo, M.D, which expands the intrusive Florida SHOTS vaccine tracking system. HB 213 needs to be opposed because: 1) HB 213 requires reporting by all vaccine administrators including tracking in the registry of refusal to participate rather than leaving reporting optional as in current statute. 2) HB 213 expands the registry from a childhood registry into an adult vaccine tracking registry by requiring the reporting of adult college and university students aged 19-23 or requiring tracking refusal to participate in the registry. 3) HB 213 exposes private vaccination and personal identifying records to collection and abuse by allowing automated data to be uploaded from “existing automated systems,” and making all the records in the registry “available” to permitted users and deleting current statute which requires the direct transfer from the registry to a user as needed. 4) HB 213 requires tracking of everyone from birth to 23 years old! Do not be fooled by anyone claiming children or college students can opt-out of being tracked under this bill. This is simply not true. If HB 213 passes, every single person from birth to 23 will be tracked in this intrusive Florida vaccine enforcement and surveillance system either with their vaccination records or marked as a vaccine tracking refuser! There is no opting out of some kind of tracking in this system.

Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital to Deny Medical Services to Unvaccinated Children

Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida, has notified parents that if their children are not vaccinated, or if they follow an alternative vaccination schedule, that they will be denied medical services. They also notified parents that they will not honor Florida State law that allows for religious exemptions to vaccines.

Florida Illegally Separating Children of U.S. Citizens from their Parents – Where’s the Outcry?

Young children torn from their parents, sleeping in a different bed every night. Families torn apart needlessly - and illegally -- over and over again. But this time it's not the U.S.-Mexico border. This time it's Florida. Who says it's illegal? A report commissioned by the state itself. Why is it happening? In part, because caseworkers are terrified of "media consequences" if they leave a child in her or his own home and something goes wrong.

Florida Mom Seeks 2nd Opinion on Dying Newborn After Car Accident – Loses Custody of All Three Children and Baby Dies in State Care

When an 8 month pregnant mother arrived at the hospital after a car accident, her baby was clearly in trouble. Doctors allegedly seemed to be more concerned about Johnna Furman's broken wrist than the emergency facing her unborn baby. Her baby needed to be born quickly, but the delay of a necessary c-section resulted in life threatening lack of oxygen to the baby in the womb. Baby Gabriel was born with brain damage and other serious medical conditions allegedly arising from this lack of oxygen. Throughout his first week and a half of life, doctors at the University of Florida Shands Hospital told Johnna that her baby would not survive. She refused to accept that answer. When she tried to transfer care of her baby to a local children's hospital for a second opinion, doctors from Shands Hospital reported her to Child Protective Services. While doctors blamed the mother, Johnna says that it was their medical malpractice that resulted in brain damage to her baby, ultimately leading to his death, and that the hospital is covering up what they did by blaming her. Child Protective Services seized her baby and her other 2 children 11 days after the car accident. Evidence that would have proven her innocence was not heard by the Florida judge, who is known for approving over 30,000 adoptions, and her parental rights were terminated less than a year later. She had another baby the following year, but Florida seized custody of that baby, too. In a video that Johnna recorded to talk about her case, she said: "My family's gone. I can never have another child. I don't understand how this is supposed to be the American dream, that justice doesn't matter. The truth doesn't matter."