Camping Is Child Abuse?
A Michigan family recently had their children taken away for the crime of… camping. Christopher and Antonia Hernandez and their six children had decided to camp on a 10-acre property they were purchasing, in order to get a feel for the land and figure out if the wanted to go off-grid when they built their new home on the property.
But nine days into their stay, CPS officials came and removed the children. While many states have laws against living in tents long term, nine days can hardly be considered long term. Many people take camping trips longer than that.
Click here to learn more about the case.
A CPS representative also was on the property, and had concerns about the living conditions. CPS made four allegations, according to the official court document:
- The family was not in a “stable living environment.”
- The family had no electricity or water source, and was using kerosene as a means of heat.
- The children were playing in the woods, cared for by a 15 year old.
- The youngest child had a diaper rash.
- The 17-year-old girl, who has Cerebral Palsy, was cold.
Fortunately, due to the mother and children being eligible for enrollment in the Tlingit Native American Tribe and the Indian Child Welfare Act, which makes it more difficult for state officials to separate Native American families, the children were returned to their parents. And though the case is now closed, it sets a worrying precedent . Parents should not have to worry that the state will take their children because they went camping.
Want to know more? Check out these related articles:
- Kids Who Camp Are Happier and Healthier
- Family Camping Tips | Roughing It With The Kids
- How Much Time Do Your Kids Spend Outdoors?
For awesome survival gear you can’t make at home, check out the Survival Life Store!
Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and Tumblr!
**Disclaimer: All content on this site is for informational purposes only. Please read our full disclaimer .**
Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on July 16, 2015, and has been updated for quality and relevancy.
CPS is child abuse, clear track record of aiding and abetting child abuse and death.
What the hell is happening to this country when you can’t even take your kids camping?
Total CONTROL over the Masses JACK, where have You been ? Its happening every where , every day .. Children in pre-school (Virginia STATE) being forced to give Alliance to the Muslim’s God ” ALLAH ‘
Social Security, there’s talk of cutting it off its not ‘ if ‘ but ” WHEN ” ..
Conscecration Camps / F.E.M.A. Camps filled with Quillotines and are Active
Civil Unrest is looming, Dems wanting it so they can declare ” Martial Law ‘ ..
An active threat from Russia and Iran of an ” EMP ” attack ..
Looming is the realization of an ” Economic Crash …
Life is on Edge for us ” We the People ” but we need to get rid of the ” Division and Separation ” that is being
forced upon us by those that Create Media BS ….
It’s the government way, total control, to make you completely dependent on the powers in DC for everything!
this regime is on the fast track…all the shit that is going on now has been being implimented for decades,it was just now approved to start taking action against us in the last 6 years,that’s all!
wake up people,when you have the nerve to say what the gov’t is doing doesn’t effect you!well,your wrong,it effects every single one of us,some of you just don’t know it yet!…this is a good example of it!
You are spot on !
CPS- Child PROCUREMENT Services… >:-
Get right with God now, cuz tomorrow will be too late! We are being ushered into the Brave New World (Order) of Aldous Huxley. Soon, they will start the culling, only 500k will survive world wide, to be slaves to the “elite”. What makes you think you will be one of the ” lucky” ones?
when we camp we are fully armed; long guns and side arms. ya never know when a predator will appear to wreck your vacation.. diaper rash, packing in water, kerosene lamp, playing in the woods. sounds perfectly fine and normal to me. Would michigan cps rather have to notify the county coroner to retrieve the dead bodies that resulted from a drive by shooting at a local city park
NAME the CPS employee who decided to kidnap those children!
Nine days is more than just camping, with no running water or toilets. I camp. I know the difference.
BS! You can camp for more than 9 days and it is still camping. Just because you are a weenie….you don’t get to decide if it is camping. The Gov’t doesn’t get to decide. The family decides.
That’s your camping. We go every year. Into the Colorado Rockies 2 weeks. Me wife & our 4 kids is tradition for last 16 years. That’s camping. ( city folks afraid of nature).
You don’t know what you’re talking about. You’re just a shill for the government pukes that want to infiltrate our lives and create problems. Tell us where you live, and I’ll tell you who you are.
MORON
Be prepared to kill government workers they are the enemy of freedom & agents of Lucifer.
The truth burns! You are all F##### up!!!
CPS have children dieing in their care and the care of the people they put the children with. They cant get their shit together and keep those children safe. They need to stay out of the business of folks that take care of their children. someone called on them, I would be finding out who and why? Camping is not abuse. and yes it can last several weeks. and those kids were fine,. diaper rash, oh gee you get that in the city too. and if they are so concerned they should clean up those apartments they have people living in with rats and all kinds of things. They better stop trying to run our lives and take care of theirs. This is getting out of hand and we need to start fighting back. preferably with just words and elections. Those parents should sue CPS for the time they spent trying to get their kids back and the stress it caused to the whole family. That must have been devastating for those kids.
I agree with You but they ” WON’T ” stay out of our lives, on the contrary they are ‘ Invading ‘ our Lives and will continue to do so until people either WAKE UP and fight back or be ‘ Exterminated ‘ altogether and that’s called Genecide, were collateral damage, a means to an end for those that live lavish lives ar our Expense and those are Career Politicians, the ones that can’t be ‘ FIRED ‘ the ones that retire with an income of $300,000 a year …
Were just ‘ FUEL ‘ to their ‘ FIRE ‘ and they use us through Taxes (IRS) to LIVE the kind of Wealthy lives that they do, were their ” SLAVES ” at Minimum Wage, until ” THE PEOPLE ” rebel we will always be their ” BITCH ” ….
CPS / juvenile dependency cases, etc., your accuser can hide because their identity is kept confidential and accusations dont need real proof, just the opinion of social workers. Social workers have too much power and the lawyers appointed by the courts dont actually defend, they force parents to plead guilty and go through reunification services. My family dealt with false accusations and it was torture getting my children back. I do not and have never done drugs or abused/neglected my children. I was accused by a relative because I denied that abusive toxic person (that abused me as a child and was cruel to my kids too) to be around my children. Tread carefully always and trust no one.
I only knew who the accuser was because Im not an idiot. I knew by the wording of the accusations and the timing of surrounding events. The person later admitted it but my children were already placed in the abusive relative’s custody, we were trapped in “the system”, and even though I finally got them back my children have taken years to get over the trauma. Trust no one.
Yes teaching your children survival is child abuse in the eyes of the left. An adult throwing a drink in the face of a teenager and stealing his MAGA hat isn’t, if a person of color does it.
Dad used to take us deep into the forests where Native Americans went to spend summers to camp and train their kids in woodcraft in Michigan for the summer. Under the supervision of the few adults who could stay during the week, the kids made friendships and passed things onto each other. Dad tells me the idea was to make sure that if we ever found ourselves alone in the forest with nothing we could not only survive but thrive. Those were wonderful days and I have been given that it still goes on though deep enough in the forest that CPS won’t go in after them.
The thing is, though, progressives want everybody dependent on the government in some way. Camping encourages independence and self-reliance. So they can’t have parents doing that with their children.
When I was young, I used to ding my parents to go camping. We hardly ever did. For a long time, the old green canvass tent was set up in the back yard and we would play in it. When I got older, I went to summer camp. Guess what? We lived for four weeks in old Marine canvass tents that were on a wooden frame. Sure, we ate in the lodge, but everything else was outside. We learned how to use a compass, start a fire, engaged in riflery, archery, camp craft, we had nature lore, swimming in the lake which was an adventure because of the clay. The water turned light brown! In addition, we had to hike to the lake. We rode horses. We had a campfire in the evening. We would go hiking in Yosemite and sleep on the ground in Camp 9. Some of the kids went on three day backpacks. It was a lot of fun. I did that for years. The last year I was at camp for six weeks! In tents. And, we had to keep them neat and tidy. No, it wasn’t the scouts, but similar.
The powers that be are usually people who have grown up in cities and don’t know what they are talking about. Here in CA, the state parks has put in a hands and pans only rule in areas where it shouldn’t be. Again, they are from cities and don’t know squat about the rivers. The idea is to keep it “pristine.” Uh, huh! I can see that rule at Coloma because of it being the gold discovery site. But down at the river that is BLM land and you have to drive a dirt road to get to it, no.
I have grown to hate CA. Not the state itself because it is beautiful. It’s the politics. And Moonbeam wants to take all the gold and mercury out of the river around Auburn!
See, they do not understand the river!
I can see the point if the youngest was in diapers that is too young and leaving a teenager to watch the kids in a situation where snake bites ( just to name one) could suddenly happen out of the blue, is probably not the bet idea unless the teen has had training with the scouts, the Red Cross, etc.
Also, I have cerebral palsy and use a power wheelchair. I therefore know cerebral palsy can vary a lot from very mild physical only effects to very severe impact on physical, emotional and cognitive functions. A very small percentage of people who have it need a jtube because they throw up from trying to drink any liquid. Also, it can make one more sensitive to hot,cold or both.
For me, I am extremely sensitive to heat, if I am out in weather hotter than 95/degrees I can get noise bleeds and migraines. So, I think whether or not her family should be accountable should depend on her specific physical reaction to being cold as well as whether she is high enough functioning to understand that the changes in living style were temporary and met to be fun as well as her ability to understand and act on instructions regarding how to get and stay warmer.
If my parents were exposing me to enough heat to cause me to have nosebleeds, especially if I were in a situation where I was unable to act on my own to cool down ( cannot move my chair over the terrain to get to the water source and wet my clothes for example), then it makes sense they should have to answer for there actions.
If on the other hand, I was only moderately hot, the water source was accessible by me ( solo) and I was simply choosing to act like my disability entitled me to have everyone wait on me ( many teens do this, just like many abled teen act entitled), then it would be a different matter
I believe the only time CPS (DCF in my state) should be able to take children away from a family is when there is clear and imminent danger to the child. Diaper rash or a little bit cold doesn’t qualify. Why is there no due process? It sounds like a court case to me. Sue the states a** off.