Claire and William Rembis with the youngest of their 11 children. Source: the Rembis family
by Health Impact News/MedicalKidnap.com Staff
The Rembis family in Texas is rejoicing and giving glory to God. Family court Judge Cyndi Wheless has ruled that the CPS case against them is dismissed. Their children are home, and there are no more “hoops” to jump through to prove that they are good parents for their 11 homeschooled children.
There was a court hearing on August 31, but the case remained open after the hearing, over concerns that CPS didn’t know what the “educational status” of the children was. Then, the judge issued a ruling, “after considering the testimony at trial of the investigator from Montague County and the testimony of the lawyers regarding the status of the kids being healthy and happy.”
Case dismissed.
Claire Rembis says that they got the news on Tuesday morning, and she is still stunned that the whole nightmare ordeal is over.
I feel free, but I am still shocked! Is this really closed? I feel vulnerable. The case is closed completely, but look what we had to go through.
Their whole nightmare ordeal began when Claire, formerly of Plano, Texas, had an acute attack of pancreatitis and had to be hospitalized for 3 days. Two church members from a church their oldest son had previously attended said that they stopped by the house to “help.” Instead, they decided to report the family to CPS because the 2 oldest boys, ages 16 and 14, were left in charge of their siblings while their father William took the baby (7 weeks old at the time) to visit Claire in the hospital.
See story here:
CPS Kidnaps 11 Children from Texas Homeschool Family
Rather than coming home to recuperate, the mother of 11 came home to have Child Protective Services drop in to take all of their children. The removal was reportedly illegal, and the children were returned after several days, but not without a heavy tapestry of strings attached. Many services were court-ordered, the sheer volume of which any parent would find intimidating.
Meanwhile, the family had to find a new place to live after an officer present during the seizure of the children made unfounded allegations to the landlord of their home about the family violating their lease.
Rembis Christmas photo. Source: the Rembis family
It is not an easy thing to find a suitable home on short notice that will accommodate such a large family, but the family says that God miraculously provided a wonderful home the very weekend that they had to be out of their old house. The new house is in a different county, which ended up being very good for the family.
New Allegations Surface – Possibly From an Insider for Harassment
About 2 weeks before the last court hearing, new allegations came to the surface. Claire says that she learned that some of the new allegations appeared to be a copy and paste of previous allegations which had already been demonstrated to be unfounded.
Others were completely absurd: it was alleged that she had KNIVES in a drawer in her kitchen. The kids could possibly get to them, CPS feared. But, the truth of the matter is that, while every other home in America probably does have knives in a kitchen drawer, the Rembis home does not. The knives are kept in a wooden block that is pushed to the back of the counter top, safely out of reach of little hands.
Claire and William were told that the new allegations appear to have come from someone with an agenda, in order to harass them. They report that they were also being harassed by their social worker Jennifer Matthews, who was allegedly given the choice to be fired or resign from CPS recently after she was removed from their case. She resigned.
Social worker Jennifer Matthews. Source: YouTube video of the Rembis children’s removal.
It is unknown who the new allegations came from, but a new investigator from the new county came to the new house to investigate the allegations.
CPS Subpoenas New Investigator – Not What They Expected
The hearing last week took place in Collin County, where the Rembis family used to live, with all of the former players. The anomaly was the new CPS investigator from Montague County, where the Rembis family currently resides. Claire reports that one of her supporters described the attorneys, Guardian Ad Litems, CPS workers, etc, as “all frothing at the mouth” as they brought accusation after allegation about the children’s education and so on. When the new investigator that CPS had subpoenaed got on the stand, William Rembis reports that he testified that all of the children denied any abuse or neglect in his conversations with him, and stated:
I have no concerns about this family.
Reportedly, the Family Services worker rolled her eyes, and an Attorney Ad Litem’s face turned red. The judge inquired how any of the concerns presented by CPS affect the safety of the children, when CPS workers themselves admitted that the children were happy and healthy.
Claire sent this message to her friends:
2 weeks ago someone called in a false report – new allegations. The investigator spent about 4 hours with our family, including private interviews with the kids. Of course the allegations were unfounded. CPS subpoenaed him to testify on their behalf. Little did they know that he spoke very highly of our family. My husband said that the CPS folks were giving him dirty looks while he was praising us! Turns out, that terrifying experience for us turned into a blessing in the end! Finally, a CPS investigator that wasn’t corrupt. A county that isn’t corrupt.
However, as previously reported, the case was not dismissed, pending “educational assessments” and another weight check of baby Enoch. The homeschooling of the children was being challenged as a basis for keeping the family in the CPS system.
Claire says that she was overjoyed to learn this week that Judge Wheless decided to dismiss the case.
CPS Harm Remains: Children are Traumatized
Though they are thankful that the case is over, the trauma that the family has experienced is not. The children have reportedly lost some of their innocence. They no longer have the security of the childlike faith that their daddy can protect them from anything, because they saw that, against the monster of Child Protective Services, their strong daddy was powerless.
Source: the Rembis family
The fears of the children are triggered by simple things like the ringing of the doorbell. They are afraid of the police now. Their parents have taught them that the police are the good guys, but the children no longer trust that. They are fearful that any police officer they see works with CPS and will take them away from their parents.
Some of the children have been having nightmares, and cry out in the night from dreams “that I was in the foster home.” They come to their parents room in the middle of the night, scared.
They are also terrified whenever they see anyone out in public that reminds them of Jennifer Matthews. She is the person that Claire reports her children fear most. Jennifer was the one who was banging on the door to take them away, and who was looking into their bedroom windows. When the children see someone who looks like the social worker, they immediately think that the person is a bad person.
Cinderella never had problems with anxiety before, but now she is reportedly panicking and having tummy aches, asking for her parents to pray for her because she is so afraid.
Claire – the System Needs to Be Changed
One thing that Claire says that she takes away from all the ordeal that they have been through is the recognition that the judges rely on the people within the system – the Guardian Ad Litems, social workers, attorneys, etc. – to give them good information. Also, many times the attorneys fail to present information that is needed to tell their clients’ side of the story. In the first hearing with the Rembis family, their side was only given about 20 minutes for testimony, while the CPS side took up most of the day.
I realize that these judges are only going to hear what these workers or investigators tell them. If they are only hearing from corrupt workers, then that affects their rulings. She [Judge Wheless] was doing the best she could with the information she had. The most incredible, fair judge still has to rule with the information they have, and some of these people [social workers, GALs] lie under oath.
It was good that we have the judge that we have.
She says that the judge rebuked the social workers for investigating calls that were clearly harassment calls, asking why they even brought the allegations to court when it was obvious that they knew that the calls were harassment. This is reportedly not in accordance with protocol, but they did it. Claire continues:
It is really important that now we find ways to change the system.
Not afraid to work to change the system. Source: the Rembis family
“We Saw Miracles”
Now that they have experienced something they say that no family should ever have to go through, Claire says that she wants to help other families. She believes strongly in the power of prayer, and credits God with bringing the victory to her family.
The stuff in the Bible – you don’t really think you’re going to see that stuff today. But we’ve been seeing miracles – like parting-the-sea miracles. God’s still doing it!
See, God used that terrifying ordeal FOR GOOD! His promises are true. God is not a liar. The Bible is TRUTH.
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