Two children from Ontario testify about the embarrassment and humiliation they endured as a result of taxpayer funded Children's Aid agency workers interviewing them at their schools.

Schools should not allow Children's Aid Society workers to interview children at their schools as this causes psychological harm to the children. In some cases this causes children to lose respect for their school and to have a fear of teachers and attending school. Children should come to know that schools are a place that is safe for them to go to get an education, not to be grilled and interrogated by Children's Aid Society workers. When children grown into adults, we want their experience at school to be a good one, not one of horrible memories of being taken into a room at school and interrogated by CAS workers and treated differently by teachers and staff.

There clearly are other alternatives which Children's Aid Society workers can employ to speak to children privately which will cause much less harm to children. CAS workers can simply have parents bring children into the CAS offices where they can be interviewed with the knowledge of the parents and in a more open manner and less confrontational manner.

There is no reason for CAS workers to go behind the backs of the parents and using schools as their partner in crime, conduct these secret and highly unethical interviews with children.

We want to teach our children to be open and honest when it comes to solving a problems throughout thier lives, yet CAS workers use unaccountable and underhanded methods when it comes to interviewing children at schools without the parent's knowledge or consent. Some CAS workers have told children not to say anything about the interview to the parents and parents are often told that if they ask the children about what happened during the interview, that the children will be taken away from their parents.

CAS workers know very well that all they have to do is to contact parents at their homes and advise them that the parents must bring their child into CAS offices for an interview and parent would likely comply. CAS workers have the lawful rights to seize a child immediately if parents do not cooperate. Secret interviews behind the backs of the parents are SIMPLY NOT NECESSARY!

CAS workers should also video or audio record their interviews with children to help ensure that interviews are conducted in a transparent and accountable manner.