If you’re watching families be destroyed and saying nothing… are you really good?

Across courtrooms, case files, and foster homes, the phrase echoes: “There are good workers in the system.” It’s often said in defense of agencies under fire-offered up as a shield to soften the blow of documented abuses, wrongful removals, and broken families.

But the question we must ask-loudly, directly, and with unwavering clarity-is this: Where are the good ones when the bad ones are lying? When evidence is ignored? When children are ripped from homes under flimsy pretenses or cultural bias? When the process itself has become punishment?

Goodness is not silent. Integrity is not passive.

Inside the Room Where It Happens

We’ve heard from dozens of families across Alabama and beyond who recount eerily similar stories. Their children were taken not after violent incidents or criminal findings, but after anonymous calls, incomplete investigations, and subjective assessments wrapped in official language.

In these rooms sat workers-case managers, investigators, supervisors-who watched the unfolding injustice and said nothing. They filled in forms. They made scheduled visits. They noted compliance but didn’t challenge the removals.

And so we ask: If you’re doing your job, but your job is helping destroy families… what makes you good?

“She sat across from me. I begged her to just tell the truth. She knew we did everything they asked. She looked down at her clipboard and said, ‘I’m sorry, it’s out of my hands.’ That’s not a good worker. That’s a ghost in a badge.”
– A mother whose children were removed without evidence

The Cost of Complicity

Every time a CPS or DHR worker nods along with policy they know is flawed, they participate in harm. Every time a foster placement is approved without vetting, or a parent is labeled “noncompliant” despite following impossible demands, that harm grows deeper. Every time a parent’s voice is dismissed as anger or manipulation, the system tightens around them.

This is not child protection. This is compliance culture. And “good” workers who stay quiet are the scaffolding that holds that culture up.

A Call to the Ones Who Say They Care

We don’t want vague praise. We want names. We want actions. We want the so-called good ones to stand up-on the record, in the courtroom, at the policy table-and say:

• This removal was unnecessary.
• This investigation was biased.
• This parent is not a threat-they’re under attack.

Because if you’re good and you’re silent, the harm continues. And you are no longer just a witness. You are a participant.

To the Workers Who Are Ready to Speak

If you are a CPS or DHR worker who has witnessed wrongdoing, who knows the truth behind closed doors but has stayed silent out of fear, this is your chance.

You do not need to reveal your name.
You do not need to risk your safety.
But your voice matters.

We invite you to submit your experience anonymously. Share what you have seen. Share what keeps you up at night. Because behind every policy is a person, and some of those people are ready to break their silence.

Submit your story anonymously at:
https://familiesvsdhr.org/submit-a-story

Because the truth deserves a witness.

To every family hurt by those who hid behind job titles-this is for you.
To every worker who claimed to care but stayed quiet-this is about you.
To every child placed with strangers while the truth was ignored-this is because of you.

The next time someone says “There are good ones,” ask them to prove it.