ShaMay’s Report on Andre Chorney and the Household

.......Andre Tyson Chorney was born on September 23^rd, 2010 around 10:30p.m. through emergency caesarean at Surrey Memorial Hospital. He was a small baby, weighing in at 6 pounds 7 ounces. When we arrived at the hospital – my-self, my little sister (Teasha), and my mom (Judy), got our first glimpse of Andre. He was the most beautiful baby in the world and we automatically knew he was going to be perfect in every way, and we were right. Ciera was exhausted from birthing, so I stayed with her in the hospital for 2 days to help with the baby. During the 2 days, I never left Ciera’s and the baby’s side. I would hold Andre, feed him with the bottle, calm him down when he cried, help Ciera breast feed him, and just provide that moral support as she was a new mother and she needed an extra pair of hands. After the 2 days, Ceira was in better shape from her birthing and was more mobile and able to move around, so I left the hospital and went home. Ceira remained in the hospital for 1 week to sleep in Andre’s recovery room as he was not yet allowed to be discharged from the hospital because they were weaning him off Methadone, regulating his temperature and breathing, and monitoring how he responds to the environment. Ciera came home on September 30^th, 2010 and Andre came home 1 week after Ciera on October 7^th, 2010. He remained in the hospital for 2 weeks.

.......After Ciera and Andre both came home, Ciera’s social workers and a support worker from the Family Preservation programat at the time wanted Austin and Ciera to live together with the baby. Before that, the social worker wanted Austin and Ciera to live on their own with the baby, but my mom urged them not to allow that as Ciera is incapable of caring for herself let alone with a baby and especially with the presence of Austin. As well, Ciera has an abusive relationship with Austin in which she is very easily manipulated and derailed back into her old ways because of him. The only times Ciera has ever done well is when she is with her family, living at home with us, and when Austin is not around. The support worker recognized this, but she still wanted them to live together despite the fact that Austin has an abusive relationship with Ciera where he pimped her, stole from her, beaten and choked her while she was not and was pregnant, encouraged her to do drugs, put her in environments where she became vulnerable, and had no intentions of treating Ciera as his “girlfriend”, or a human being for that matter. Both support worker & social workers told my mom “it was in the past” and that “they were in love”, and therefore they should live together when she knew Austin would continue with his actions even though he now had a child. My mom tried to plead and advise all professional parties involved that Austin live somewhere else and not in our home with Ciera, but they resisted and forcibly encouraged Austin reside in our home.