Let's Bring Jr. Home!
My name is Amy Standridge, and I am fighting to bring my 8 year old son, Jr home where he is wanted, loved, safe, and missed so much! Jr was wrongfully removed from our loving home where he lived with myself and his other siblings in 2021, and despite our best efforts, we have been separated for over three years. My other children remained safely in my care where they all have been since birth and still are today. Jr was the only child removed from our home.</p><br>
I recently learned that my parental rights were terminated in 2023 I had no idea. Back 2021 during the time that DHS had our case open, we were assigned six different caseworkers to our case all within 4-6 months. After several court hearings, it just felt so helpless as if it wasnt going anywhere it was literally the exact same thing everytime repeatedly! The first caseworker, Joan Darden, was the only caseworker that actually did everything she was court ordered to do like house visits and drug screens. When I first learned that Joan Darden was our caseworker, I was releived because about 4 years before I had a case open with DHS and Joan Darden was our caseworker then too. I felt releived because Darden had spent a lot of time with my children and I and she knew all of us so well. I also thought my kids would be more comfortable since we already knew Darden. After a month or so we had one last meeting that was held at the DHS office in Little Rock. People that attended this meeting was myself, Jr's biological father, my cousin, Joan Darden, and four other ladies that worked at DHS. I will add names soon, and Jr was at the meeting with us.
When the meeting was finally over, everything was fine we were fixing to go home with Jr. Darden stood up and pulled out papers and said I needed to sign guardianship of my twin sons to Jr's biological father's oldest son, Michael and his wife April. I said no i am not signing anything over to them I don't trust them. One of the other ladies stood up and said ok then it's time to do a removal I said what Darden said removing Jr from your home and placing him with Michael and April. I couldn't breathe. I should have had a lawyer with me in that meeting the one that was assigned to me I can begin to describe. They kept Jr that day after the meeting. Before we left the meeting, Joan was told to do a drug screen on me. As we were walking to the restroom Joan says to me ms standridge yall do know that's them thats not me that them. A few weeks before me, joan, and the biological father were standing outside and joan says to why don't you just let michael and april keep the twins that way jr can stay with me and we wouldn't even have to ever go to court. I said because these are my babies.
To help everyone get a better understanding of Michael and April when Jr was about 3 months old it was before he started walking, Jr went to stay for a little bit with them. Well when it was time for Jr to come back home they didn't want him coming home. I had tell them I wanted to just visit Jr so they brought Jr to me I went outside and started undoing his carseat and April turned around and said to me "You're not taking my baby". I was thinking WTF! I said really, this is my baby watch me. I took him out of the carseat and went inside. After that Michael stopped talking to his dad (which is also Jrs dad) for 2 years! When i got pregnant with the twins is when Michael slowly started talking to him again. Michael always use to say that he was supposed to Jr. Im sorry but it is hard to talk about this it just hurts Jr didn't choose to have his name and believe me when Jr gets home we will be loosing the Jr and they can all keep it!!! It always felt like DHS was pushing for them to get the twins it just i regret not hiring an attorney then i didn't know. To bring us up to date michael and april both just got senteced to 5 years for abusing my son they almost killed my junebug (Jr) and only got 5 years they should have got LIFE! Any human being that would hurt a child should be locked up forever! Click link below to see copies of all their charges. Jr is currently with Michaels youngest sister. I am exhausted i fear for Jr everyday. My goal is to have my parental rights reinstated AR law says that if it has been at least a year since TPR then i can request that my rights be reinstated. I also want want Jr to be placed back in my care with me and his siblings where he is wanted loved safe and missed so much by all of us, and i want jr to be in some type of trauma focused couseling immediately i want to scoop him up hold him so tight tell him i love him that it is ok now and that I promise that no body will ever hurt him again not ever as long as im alive never! I want him back home so we can begin the healing process. Every child deserves a childhood they can brag about, not one they have to heal from!