A Christian household tenting in Florida was the goal of false stories of kid abuse, and now their accusers are being investigated by the state.
JD and Britney Lott, two Texas navy veterans, and their eight kids have been tenting and posting on social media with greater than 600,000 followers once they have been contacted by the Florida Division of Kids and Households (DCF). The household defined the scenario in a two-part Instagram collection and included screenshots of the messages they obtained.
Their story started just a few weeks after Britney gave beginning to their eighth daughter, Florida Voice reported. Britney informed the outlet that she obtained a message on-line claiming her baby was affected by “extreme jaundice, extreme sunburn and lethargy.” Britney deletes the message and blocks the sender.
However, in accordance with the household’s Instagram publish, it “wasn’t only one individual.”
“It seems that it is an entire group of anti-Christian teams – working collectively – on Reddit who made this loopy story about us,” Lotts stated.
On the finish of April, the household left Florida after tenting at Topsail Hill Protect State Park once they obtained a message from DCF that they have been below investigation. Lotts instantly knew the place the accusations got here from: an anti-Christian Reddit group that had been focusing on the household for years. The group has accused the Lotts of a “revolving door” of false accusations for the reason that beginning of their youngest baby.
“Researching the varied illnesses and issues our new child might have requires a degree of fascination. Does he must have severe well being issues to really feel justified? At what level will we settle for that this isn’t about his well being however their need to hurt us?” Tons stated on Instagram.
Lotts stated they imagine a member of the Reddit group discovered the place they have been staying and known as out the false report.
The Reddit group, FundieSnarkUncesored, has over 200,000 members and describes itself as a bunch devoted to criticizing “fundamentalist Christianity and excessive Christian views.”
In now-deleted screenshots supplied to The Each day Wire, the group posted images of screenshots from the household’s social media posts and claimed they confirmed baby abuse. In a photograph of the couple’s new child child, members of the Reddit group claimed that the new child “had such a severely burnt face on the seaside with no solar safety,” with no proof apart from a photograph of a barely red-faced new child.
One other screenshot, taken days earlier than the household reported it, confirmed one consumer saying they’d “recognized their present location and I am reporting it to the FL abuse hotline,” with different members cheering their choice.
Screenshot by way of Household Freedom Mission
A publish from a month in the past confirmed members discussing methods to report the household, together with discovering their location and saying “a number of” members had already reported the household. Quite a few screenshots present members asking the place households are to allow them to be reported.
Screenshot by way of Household Freedom Mission
When DCF contacted the household, it cited a verbal touch upon a photograph of the household as the idea for its investigation, utilizing the identical phrases of “jaundice, lethargy and sunburn,” in accordance with a household liberty lawsuit abstract. Mission (FFP), which helps heaps.
DCF contacted the household on April 30 — simply after they left Florida — and demanded a welfare examine on the kids, in any other case they’d “search a nationwide custody order.”
Screenshot by way of Household Freedom Mission
JD spoke with the caseworker and requested for time to search out an legal professional, in accordance with FFP. The case employee informed the accused father that if the kids weren’t out there for visitation by the tip of the day, they’d be faraway from the household. The household contacted the Texas Dwelling College Coalition and FFP, they discovered an legal professional who organized for the kids to go to an pressing care facility in Georgia so a physician might look at the kids. That physician, together with a Georgia police officer, discovered no issues with the kids and reported them to DCF, and reportedly expressed outrage on the false allegations being handled as horrifying by DCF.
DCF then knowledgeable the household that they’d closed the case in opposition to them.
Members of the Reddit group nonetheless talk about submitting stories with kids’s companies and proceed to publish photos of the couple’s child, claiming some are improper.
The household’s legal professional, Lynn Salvatore, informed Voice of Florida that such a scenario is “common.”
“What amazes me is the period of time and power these folks spend on Reddit focusing on this household and different households is thoughts boggling. If they might simply use that power for one thing productive, that may be superb, the world can be a greater place,” Salvatore informed the outlet.
JD informed the outlet that it was “sickening” {that a} group would “use the federal government to make a concerted effort to hurt our household.”
“The query is, are we actually free? Are we free as People, as a result of if we will not say on-line ‘I imagine within the Lord and I imagine in Jesus Christ’, then am I free? I would not, until I might say that with out taking my kids, it isn’t a free nation anymore,” added Britney.
Florida’s DCF informed The Each day Wire that “all allegations of abuse, neglect or abandonment are required to be investigated to make sure the security of youngsters. Beneath Part 39.202 of the Florida Statutes, any details about this investigation is strictly confidential, making certain the privateness and security of all concerned.”
“False stories are made to legislation enforcement companies for felony investigations and prosecutions. Submitting a false report is a felony with authorized penalties as described in 39.205, FS, and can be a drain on division assets devoted to defending kids from abuse and exploitation,” it added.
DCF confirmed to The Each day Wire that the division referred the false stories to legislation enforcement and that legislation enforcement is investigating.
Brian Griffin, communications director for Gov. Ron DeSantis’ workplace, informed The Each day Wire that “utilizing authorities companies to create false stories or harass others is unacceptable and might be referred to legislation enforcement for investigation and in the end prosecution.”
