Why No One Speaks Out About Social Workers—And Why I Did

The Forbidden Complaint

Why No One Speaks Out About Social Workers—And Why I Did

Filed Under: Institutional Immunity / Bureaucratic Violence / Truth Against Silence

Author: Polly Chromatic | SWANK Black Paper Series

“If you’re complaining about a social worker, you must have something to hide.”

This is the unspoken law. Not written in statute—but enforced by culture, by fear, by silence.

And so almost no one speaks out.

Because to speak against a social worker is to risk being cast as dangerous, unwell, or unfit.

But I am speaking anyway.

I. The Cloak of Virtue

Social workers operate under a protective myth:

That they are here to help.

That they always act in the best interest of the child.

That they are neutral, benevolent, professional.

This myth makes them functionally untouchable.

The moment you speak up about harm, you’re framed as:

1. Unstable
2. Aggressive
3. Uncooperative
4. “A risk to your children”

II. Retaliation by Procedure

The punishment for complaining is never named.

But it arrives in the form of:

1. Escalated assessments
2. Surprise visits
3. Misquoted records
4. PLO threats
5. Lies on paper that become official

And the more you speak, the more they claim you’re unwell for speaking.

This is institutional gaslighting, and it works because it is so quiet, so procedural, so polite.

III. The Silence of Everyone Else

No one comes to help you.

1. Lawyers warn you not to go public.
2. Charities redirect you back to the same agencies that harmed you.
3. Friends disappear.
4. Even other parents stay quiet—because they’re too terrified to lose their children, too confused to articulate what’s happening, or too exhausted to resist.

This is how abuse becomes a system, not just an event.

IV. Why I’m Speaking Anyway

Because I have lost enough.

Because I will not trade truth for safety.

Because my children deserve a world where coercion in the name of care is not tolerated.

And because silence is what made this violence possible.

V. What This Means

This is not just my story.

This is a pattern.

A method.

A mechanism.

And I am documenting it for every parent too afraid to speak, for every family misrepresented, and for every child pulled away by a system that claimed to protect them.

This is no longer a secret.

This is a record.