posted
I thought since quite a few hatrackers are in Utah that I'd pass along this information about a family fighting the state to keep control of their child's medical decisions.
Here is a letter from the President of the Utah Eagle Forum.
Dear Eagle Forum friends and Utah Families supporters,
I received a call this morning from Michelle Jensen, wife of Tracy Jensen, who is Daren Jensen's brother. As most of you know, Daren Jensen is the father of Parker Jensen who is in hiding with his mother to prevent the state from picking Parker up after a judge ordered the state to take custody of him. Parker was treated for cancer and the state wants to force him to receive chemotherapy. The parents have questions about the diagnosis and want to seek a second opinion. As often happens, doctors, DCFS workers and the judge feel they are more knowledgeable and more qualified to make decisions for Parker than his parents. Daren has been arrested and is out of jail on $50,000 bail. The Jensens need our help! Many of us have already been making telephone calls to the powers that be in this state, and we need to continue to do that. These calls need to go to the governor, house and senate leadership, your own legislators, Attorney General Mark Shurtleff, Salt Lake County prosecutors, Idaho Governor Dirk Kempthorne and any other people who you may think would have some influence to help the Jensens.
Do not be fooled by media reports about the negotiations currently going on between the family and the state. There are two sides to all stories and the Jensens have not yet told their story. There is a lot that needs to happen before the Jensens can come back to the State of Utah and exercise their parental rights to direct the medical care of their own son, and the state has not been willing to go there.
The family is planning a very big rally on Thursday, September 4, at 11:00 a.m. on the steps of the Utah Capitol. We need to make sure that there are hundreds, even thousands of people there. You need to be there! No excuses! Ask for the time off at work, take your children out of school (this is about the children), change any appointment that you may have for that day. If the Jensens cannot exercise their parental rights, neither can you. Not only will the Utah media be at the rally, but there will also be national media there. The national media is already involved. Tracy Jensen was on Good Morning America this week, and we will see even more national media as the family tells their side of the story. As you know, helping innocent families who lose control of the up-bringing of their children to the State of Utah has been a high priority for Utah Eagle Forum and is the reason that Utah Families exists. We must do all that we can to stop the "Nanny State" and put an end to the anti- parent agenda of DCFS and all the agencies and the courts that work with them. This will only happen with your help.
The Jensen family is in the process of setting up a website for the purpose of hearing from families, or friends of families, who have been falsely accused of child abuse or neglect by DCFS. They want these families to tell their stories to show that what is happening to the Jensens is happening and can happen to other families, not just in Utah, but anywhere parental rights are being abused. The name of their website will be, My Child, My Choice; in fact, that is their rallying cry and will be the name they will use in their fight for parental rights. For now you can send your stories about DCFS abuses to mychildmychoice@hotmail.com.
We also need to help the Jensen family financially. They plan to have buttons and banners and anything else that is necessary for the rally. I am sure this family is stretched to the limit financially as they have taken on the state of Utah with all of its hordes of attorneys and case workers, as well as an endless supply of tax payer money. When families are falsely accused by the state of neglect or abuse it is their responsibility to come up with the money to hire attorneys, etc. to fight the giant bureaucracy. If the Jensens win this fight for parental rights, it will help all families in this state and may prevent some other family from having to go through the same thing and spend thousands of dollars of their own money. Put a check in the mail today. Everyone can afford $10 to defend your right to rear your children in the way you feel best and in the way the Lord directs you. If you can send more than $10 please do so. Send all that you can and then go to all of your friends and neighbors and ask them to do the same. Daren Jensen is not able to work while he is out of the state defending and protecting his family. The bills however, continue to arrive in the mail box. Those of us who have the privilege of working and coming home to our families every night are so blessed, and we need to help this family who has been forced out of Utah and away from those things that we all cherish and take for granted.
I have received many phone calls and emails from people asking what they can do to help the Jensens. Here is what you can do:
1. Contact all elected officials and bureaucrats you can think of who can help the Jensens.
2. Attend the rally on Thursday at 11:00 a.m. at the Capitol, in support of the Jensens. Make posters and signs stating your message. Bumper stickers would be nice. If you know anyone who could help by supplying bumper stickers to pass out at the rally, please call me and I will discuss it with the Jensens. Maybe one that says, "My Child, My Choice. Support Parental Rights."
3. Send your donations payable to Tracy Jensen (Daren Jensen's brother) to:
Tracy Jensen
9873 N. Meadow Lane
Highland, UT. 84003
4. Send or email your stories of false allegations of abuse or neglect against innocent families by the State of Utah or any other state to mychildmychoice@hotmail.com or Tracy Jensen at the above address.
5. Make copies of this email and give it to all of your friends and neighbors. Forward this email to everyone that you have an email address for, in or out of Utah.
Utah Eagle Forum and Utah Families abhors child abuse and will do all that we can to prevent any child from being sexually or physically abused. We also will do all that we can to prevent the State of Utah from abusing children by falsely charging their parents with child abuse or neglect, thereby sending the children to foster homes and away from the homes and the parents they love. There is nothing more terrifying to children than 5 or 6 policemen coming into their home and taking them away when they know that they have good parents who love them. This is real child abuse and must be stopped.
Thank you for all of your support and help. I look forward to seeing you at the rally on Thursday.
Gayle Ruzicka
(801)756-2499
(801)368-2990 cell
(801)756-2499 fax
dgruzicka@msn.com
P.S. Tomorrow I will be on Take Two on Channel, 2 at 5:30. I will be talking about parental rights in Utah or the lack thereof and DCFS involvement in our families. Richard Anderson the head of DCFS will be on with me. They will be taking calls, so please call and support the rights of parents to care for their own children.
Posts: 1132 | Registered: A Long Time Ago!
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posted
I think the state was jumping the gun a little bit. If they had gotten a second opinion that said he needed the chemo and they still refused that treatment, then the state might be justified.
Posts: 4089 | Registered: Apr 2003
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A couple things come to mind after googling this:
1) Somehow the family knows that he's in remission. How? Do they have a doctor treating him somewhere? What does that doctor say about PJ's sarcoma?
I also note that Barbara Jensen's father is a chiropractor and supposedly alternative medicine practitioner. I hope that the family isn't using HIM as a medical reference. . .
2) Utah is acting very stupidly. To not allow a second opinion? What's it going to hurt? What are they thinking, slapping a kidnapping charge on the parents? It is quite obvious that they AREN'T thinking.
I can't iterate how much this case sickens me, and what's worse, I feel like both sides are trying to cover their collective keisters. The state has a gag order on their folks, and the family's actions DO seem a little shady.
Although, faced with the authoritarian response the state seems to have issued against PJ Jensen (thou MUST undergo chemo! No second opinion!) I'd 'kidnap' my child as well.
Posts: 14554 | Registered: Dec 1999
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