Lexington County DSS Injustice

It is with great pain that I am writing to you. First, let me give you some background information of what has transpired. My sister has been friends with a woman for 16 years, this friendship started when they met in church as young pre-teens. The young woman later entered the military, got married, and had a son. The only person she could imagine naming the God-Mother was my sister. My sister has been in the mom and child’s life since the beginning. She was at his Christening, was there for the mom and child when the mom went through a divorce and the child’s father was sent to prison. He and his mom have had to move in with her twice after being homeless with nowhere to go. My sister has provided clothing for him, given Christmas gifts when he had none, birthday gifts when he had none, and has watched him on several occasions while his mom had to go to mandatory drill for the military. When my sister had to work overtime and could not watch him, the child’s mom would contact other members of our family to watch him; once, she even dropped the child off at my brother’s college dorm room to watch him. In March 2014 my little sister received a phone call from this woman back in our hometown of Kansas City, MO stating that her PTSD was very severe after serving 2 tours in Iraq and that she had been physically, mentally, and verbally abusive to her son and that she felt like she wanted to hurt her son and could not care for him any longer. My little sister who is 29, single, with no kids, ran into my room (she had recently moved in with me here in South Carolina) frantically and said I have to save my God Son. So without hesitation, I agreed to him coming. My sister went as far as paying for the child a plane ticket to get him here as fast as possible. The moment the child arrived my sister's heart lit up. The child was a very polite and imaginative child. After arriving we noticed that his clothes were too small, he needed a haircut, new shoes, and looked like he hadn’t taken a bath in quite some time. He had several crusted over sores on his body that we were told by his mom was severe eczema. We immediately brought him a new bed, toys, clothes, got a haircut, and skin cream. My sister even tried to put him on her insurance at work to no avail, because she did not have temporary nor full custody of the child. So we spoke with his mom regarding temporary custody so that we could get him the health care he needed and enroll him in school. My sister was able to take him to the physician to get his shots (which he had not had since he was 2 years old and he was now 5 years old) at the free health clinic in which (there was no abuse found) so that he could be enrolled in daycare. Soon after enrolling him in daycare we noticed that the child was great around adults, but was unable to socialize with children, often hitting them severely, and even falling out in the floor and hitting himself. On one occasion the child tried to push another student off of a 4ft stage. On another occasion the child told a little girl she was acting like a “b@@@@”. We put him in swimming (again no abuse allegations) and basketball at the YMCA and he thrived, but only because we "adults" were watching as soon as we would turn our back he was violent again. There was an incident in which we took the child and enrolled him into the children’s choir at church. We left for 20 min, when we came back the child had already kicked another child in the growing, punched one in the stomach, and told the choir director he didn’t have to listen to her, wasn’t going to listen to her, and she could do what she wanted but he didn’t have to follow her. On another occasion while working with the child on homework that he was struggling with; he started punching himself in the face and hitting himself on the forehead continuing to say stupid, stupid, stupid. These are just 2 examples. My sister sought to obtain some sort of behavioral and psychological help for the child, but with no insurance for him there was no place to turn to. The temporary custody hearing was signed by a judge in Lexington County, SC in September and the child was able to enroll into school where again his social issues with kids came out. From the beginning of daycare in April to mid-August he had over 10 writes ups. When kindergarten started from August to Oct. 13th he had more than 21 write ups and 8 in school suspensions. My sister was very active in getting him Medicaid. The child was even seen during this time by an Urgent Care for a constant cough. The physician also checked his skin and recommended a skin cream. My sister also started doing research to have him seen by a psychiatrist, but the waiting list was months long. She tried calling VA to see if he could be seen since both his parents had been in the military, but was told it was only for the "soldiers". She tried EVERYTHING including behavior modification techniques and occasionally spanking. When spanking did no...