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In re M.S.11/1/2005
An unpublished opinion of the North Carolina Court of Appeals does not constitute controlling legal authority. Citation is disfavored, but may be permitted in accordance with the provisions of Rule 30(e)(3) of the North Carolina Rules of Appellate Procedure.
Respondent-mother appeals from an order terminating her parental rights in the minor child, M.S. We affirm.
The record establishes the following facts: M.S. was born on 10 January 1997 in Wilkes County, North Carolina. In October 1999 the Wilkes County Department of Social Services (DSS) began working with respondent's family after receiving a report that M.S.'s twelve-year-old sister, S.N.S., was being improperly supervised by respondent, and was sexually active with a seventeen-year-old boyfriend.
In an order entered 5 May 2000 following a hearing held 10 April 2000, M.S. and S.N.S. were adjudged neglected juveniles. The court found that respondent's husband, father of the juveniles, had sexually abused their eldest daughter, the older sister of M.S. andS.N.S. This sister then sexually abused her younger brother, who in turn became sexually active with S.N.S. M.S. was never sexually abused. Respondent testified at the neglect hearing that she was only recently aware of the sexual abuse, and that she had been separated from her husband for approximately one and a half years. The trial court found that the children were being raised in an environment "characterized by sexual abuse and improper supervision", and that even after learning of S.N.S.'s sexual activity, respondent continued to allow S.N.S. to spend time with older males.
At a permanency planning hearing held in March and April 2001, the court found that although respondent completed parenting classes with DSS, she failed to show "meaningful progress" in being able to protect and care for her children, and that she failed to apply what she had learned in the classes to her interactions with her children. The trial court made termination of parental rights and adoption the permanent plan for M.S. and S.N.S. in an order entered 11 July 2001. This permanency planning order was affirmed by this Court in an opinion filed 4 March 2003. In Re S.N.S. and M.S., 156 N.C. App. 427, 577 S.E.2d 718 (2003) (unpublished opinion). In a petition executed 31 July 2003, DSS sought termination of the parental rights of mother and father in M.S.
In its order on the petition to terminate parental rights, the trial court made numerous findings of fact. In the present appeal, respondent challenges findings 10, 13, 15, 16, and the underlined portions of 12 and 14: 7. The child has not been in the mother's home for over four (4) years.
8. The father of the child has had virtually no contact with her for many years.
10. The mother has not shown appropriate care and concern for the child, sending only a couple of gifts since the Permanency Planning hearing. Although the mother claimed a problem in getting gifts to the child, the Court notes that the child's sister S.N.S. was able to provide the child with gifts without apparent problems.
11. On or about April 10, 2000, the undersigned found [M.S.] to be a neglected juvenile. Said Order is referred to for more complete reference regarding the circumstances giving rise to such adjudication[.] . . .
12. In July, 2001, following extensive hearings before the undersigned, an Order was entered approving adoption as a Permanent Plan for the above- referenced child. In this Order, the undersigned found that although the mother's psychological evaluation indicated that the mother had "adequate intellectual skills for parenting," she has not been able to demonstrate h
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