DYFS

Well, you might never think that you and Dyfs would ever lock horns but I"m here to tell you that it could very well happen to your.

I was in my basement apartment minding my own business when my 21-year old son comes into the room and tells me that Dyfs is upstairs and wants to speak to me. My 14 year old daughter also comes in with her face downtrodden. My son tells me that my daughter has fabricated this story that I hit her in the face while drunk. I call her a moron and ask her to leave.

Backtrack: I see my daughter about one week earlier and ask her how she got that bruise on her face. She tells me that it was a pimple that she squeezed a bit too hard. I tell her to tell me the truth for the bruise looked like a black eye. I tell her that no man should ever hit a woman--I thought that maybe a boyfriend hit her.

A few days later, the mother of my daughter's girlfriend comes by to ask my son Andre what's up with the bruise. My son tells this woman that I am incapable of hitting anyone in the family. The woman, who, according to my son walked as if she were inebriated, proceeds to call the H.S. to tell them that she had heard from her daughter that I had hit my daughter while in a drunken stupor.

The school calls dyfs and they come, interview, and decide that I will not be prosecuted for my daughter and family members testify on my behalf. However, it is Dyfs 'policy' that whenever alcohol ingestion and violence are even remotely associated, the perpetrator should take a drug test. I agreed to take the test but after days had gone by, I realized that I was the victim and that I should not give in to their 'policy.'

I told them that the governement had no right to lead innocent people by the nose just because of some 'policy.' The social worker told me that they would have to seek a court order. I told them that I would see them in court.

My background: Eight children with one wife. No history of abuse. History of coming to their aid when the school system jeopardized their future. No teetotaler but not one whose anger increases with alcohol consumption. On the contrary, I mellow out with alcohol.

I await the trial in front of a judge.

Angel

PS My daughter was examined by a doctor who said that the bruise was self-inflicted. She is now in therapy.