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Two years ago, Temesiah and Rodney Jackson’s newborn baby, Mira, was taken away from them for three weeks in a nightmare scenario that attracted national media attention.
At the time, the Jackson family pediatricians reported their parents to Texas Child Protection Services and questioned Mira’s ability to properly care for serious yellowund levels using a midwife instead of going to the hospital. Mira was taken and fostered for three weeks before being brought back to her parents.
Now, alongside Texas’ American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the Jacksons announced they sued Texas Family Protection Services (DFPS) on Tuesday, challenging several policies that they claim to undermine due process rights and violate the state and the constitution.
“In my life and in my motherhood, I never thought this had happened,” Temesiah said Tuesday, 19th. “It will never end completely for us. She was taken from us for the first month of her life. But we absolutely look forward to holding DFPS accountable at least in some way.”
The legal complaint focuses on how Jackson was treated after Mira was returned from Foster Care. The DFPS investigated the family without proper hearing and then issued a formal designation stating that Mira’s parents had “reasons to believe” that they were engaged in medical neglect based on evidence.
This is the most serious of the five labels that cause DFPS after investigating child abuse or neglect. That “reason to believe” designation put Temesiah and Rodney Jackson on the state’s central information register regarding those accused of abuse and neglect.
Temesia said she felt embarrassed to be included in the abuse registry and worried about the future of her involvement in the community. Rodney frequently coaches two older sons’ sports teams and Temesia volunteers at his son’s school.
“They have to do background checks, so when it was time for me to redo our annual checks to be a volunteer at their school, I was saying that I had this designation from CPS, not that they were pulling that record,” she said.
According to ACLU Texas law fellow and attorney Charelle Lett, Jackson appealed the DFPS decision, reducing the agency’s decision in March 2024 to “unable to decide” whether child abuse or neglect occurred.
The “undetermined” classification may not seem so serious as it allows parents’ names to be removed from the abuse registry. However, Lett said on the 19th there is no appeal process for this class and that the DFP will maintain records of the case with the designation. “Reason to believe” can sue that the claim of ignorance has been dismissed or “excluded”, but “undetermined” levels cannot be dismissed. That lingering record of parents who engaged in abuse questioning whether they would be used against them by the DFP could potentially delete one of Jackson’s children again, Lett said.
“The “undetermined” doesn’t appear in the background check, but let’s say that one of the children went to school with a bruise and the school wanted to investigate it.
Temesia said her family should never join the abuse registry. The “undetermined” abuse label, she said, depicts a story that suggests they have done something wrong.
Family lawsuits challenge two DFPS policies. One is another DFPS rule that allows agents to give someone an abuse or neglect designation and place them in the central registry without proper hearing, and limits their ability to appeal classifications listed as “undetermined.”
Temesiah said that after the dust settled a bit after Mira’s return, she and Rodney wanted to find a way to support others in the state, “other families have to go through their children and take them without legitimate procedures.”
The public’s attention on the Jacksons incident two years ago has highlighted two systematic realities in the United States. The neglect of police black families through the child welfare system and the midwifery expertise by many doctors.
Federal law requires certain groups of experts, including doctors, teachers and social workers, to report alleged negligence or abuse of a child. The Jackson family doctors reported to CPS expressing concern that MILA has a bilirubin level of 21.7. Jackson’s family says the doctors knew about plans to treat Huang under the care of a licensed midwife and provided instructions on how to treat Mira if she doesn’t go to the hospital.
Ultimately, DFP moved forward by filing a petition to remove the child from her home, but the petition included the wrong parent’s name.
Experts previously said on the 19th that accusations of danger and neglect could disproportionately affect families of color and could be subject to bias.
A 2021 study from researchers at Rutgers and Duke University found that black children in the country’s 20 most popular counties saw consistently more contact with child protection services. In Texas’ largest county, Dallas Morning News reported that based on this data, about half of all black children were being investigated by CPS by the age of 18.
In the case of the Jackson family, their ordeal leaves many scars.
Temesiah and Mira developed over the past two years “augmented” Temesiah said. Pulling Mira out of her sight and getting others to take care of her was a challenge, she added. The Jacksons have also moved from their homes in the Dallas area. Because they didn’t feel safe.
“That was our first home. We bought a house together. It was a new construction home. It was meant to be as far as we could see. But once everything happened it didn’t feel like home anymore,” Temesiah said.
For now, they are still picking up pieces of their lives and taking things one day at a time.
“I don’t want this from any mother,” she said. “And I absolutely hope that DFP will make changes in this lawsuit.
Disclosure: ACLU Texas is a financial advocate for Texas Tribune, a non-profit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters have no role in Tribune journalism. Find the complete list of them here.
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