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Cherokee County Children Illegally Removed From Homes, AP Reports

photo of brian hogan on the front steps of his home
Kathy Kmonicek
/
AP Photo

According to a report by The Associated Press, the Cherokee Department of Social Services has been systematically and illegally removing children from their homes for years. The actions may have started more than a decade ago and affect at least 100 families.

Parents in the poverty and drug-stricken county were pressured into signing custody and visitation agreements which effectively gave away care of their children. In some instances, parents did not fully understanding what they were agreeing to. Since the story broke, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services has stepped in and temporarily assumed control of the local DSS.

Host Frank Stasio speaks with Associated Press investigative reporters Holbrook Mohr and Mitch Weiss about why the illegal action started and how the families have been impacted.
 

Laura Pellicer is a digital reporter with WUNC’s small but intrepid digital news team.
Longtime NPR correspondent Frank Stasio was named permanent host of The State of Things in June 2006. A native of Buffalo, Frank has been in radio since the age of 19. He began his public radio career at WOI in Ames, Iowa, where he was a magazine show anchor and the station's News Director.