⚖️ SWANK Dispatch: When the Law Is Clear but the Social Workers Pretend It Isn’t
🗓️ 15 July 2020
Filed Under: legal noncompliance, homeschool discrimination, child trauma, ignored statutory rights, medical abuse, Attorney General outreach, safeguarding hypocrisy, institutional harassment
“You can’t claim to protect children while ignoring the laws that do.”
— A Mother Who Has Read the Ordinance
To the Honourable Archive,
Three and a half years. That’s how long I endured harassment under the guise of safeguarding. The truth? It began when I chose to homeschool — legally, with full approval. But instead of respect, I received retaliation.
By 15 July 2020, I had exhausted polite routes. My letters to Ashley Adams-Forbes were ignored. My request to the Complaints Commissioner was met with silence. So I wrote to Rhondalee Braithwaite-Knowles, the Attorney General of the Turks and Caicos Islands — not for favour, but for the enforcement of law.
📚 I. The Legal Requirement They Pretended Not to Know
According to the Children (Care and Protection) Ordinance, 2015, a report must be provided to the parent of any child under investigation — unless a legitimate safety risk or criminal investigation precludes it.
I received nothing.
No report.
No explanation.
No lawful justification.
Just ongoing interference and unexplained intrusions into our private life.
🧠 II. The Consequences Were Not Administrative — They Were Traumatic
• My children were harmed by a doctor at the National Hospital — a violation directly facilitated by the system allegedly meant to protect them.
• They were subjected to emotional and psychological abuse from social work practices.
• They were never told why. And neither was I.
How can one teach one’s children to trust institutions when the institutions refuse to explain themselves?
⚠️ III. Polite Requests Were Ignored. Legal Duties Were Not Fulfilled.
The response to my formal concern was:
🫥 Silence from the Complaints Commissioner
🫥 No report from the Department of Social Development
🫥 Ongoing surveillance without grounds
Is it incompetence? Or just impunity?
⚖️ Final Plea to Power:
“I would also like to ask you to please use your power as Attorney General to ensure that the Department of Social Development follow the Turks and Caicos Law.”
This was not a request for favour.
It was a demand for lawful governance.
Whether or not she responded, the record now stands.