Oregon officials weighing another foster care case
Sunday, April 13, 2008 3:49 AM PDT
HILLSBORO (AP) — Oregon officials are weighing another case of a child whose foster parents fear she could be sent to live in Mexico. The child is 23-month-old Faith Cephus. Her parents are in prison and may lose their parental rights. Her paternal grandparents are foster parents who want to adopt her. If the courts take away the parents’ rights, then the Oregon Department of Human Services would have to determine where to place her. Faith’s mother has two other children in Oregon by another father. He, too, is in prison, and his parents live in Mexico City. Faith’s grandparents, Luz and Maurice Cephus of Hillsboro, worry that all the children could be sent to live in Mexico City.
‘‘Her being our blood granddaughter, we thought it was a shoo-in,’’ Maurice Cephus told the KATU News. ‘‘We have a home here. We have an ample amount of space for her. We love her. She’s our son’s daughter.’’
State officials say that in placement decisions, there’s a presumption that siblings should stay together, but other factors in their relationship could change that presumption.
The case is reminiscent of that of 2-year-old Gabriel Allred, the foster child of Steve and Angela Brandt of Toledo since he was 4 months old.
His biological parents lost their rights because of drug convictions, and state child welfare officials recommended that he be sent to Mexico to live with his paternal grandmother.
But after a public outcry last year, the Brandts and the paternal grandmother signed a mediated agreement that allowed the couple to adopt the boy.
Spokesman Greg Parker of the Department of Human Services said the cases of Gabriel and Faith are not identical because the status of the Faith’s parents has not yet been decided.
A number of court dates lie ahead, he said.
‘‘Should siblings remain together? What weight do we give biological grandparents?’’ Parker said, describing some of the questions involved in such a case.
‘‘So it’s a tough decision, but it’s a decision that we have to make every day, and we start with what’s best for the child. Right now it’s a little premature to talk about that.’’
The child’s mother, Margaux Stamps, told the station she’d like to see the children remain in the United States.
She said she understands that her older children by a former boyfriend, now also in foster care and still in touch with Faith, may have nowhere to go but to their Mexican grandparents. But, she said, the Cephuses would provide a better home.
Stamps, 26, is at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility at Wilsonville and has served 11 months at on a criminal mistreatment conviction. She is not allowed to have contact with the children.
