Black newborn baby taken from mother who smoked weed at a family barbecue: report

A Black woman had her newborn baby removed from her care by children's services in New York City after she legally smoked cannabis, according to a report.

Chanetto Rivers has filed a lawsuit against the Administration for Children's Services, which she said directed the hospital where she delivered her son not to allow her to take her baby home -- although the agency isn't supposed to remove children because a parent used marijuana unless they found it had impaired the child, reported the New York Times.

“While ACS is tasked with protecting New York State’s interest in the welfare of children, ACS has long known — through the State’s own data — that Black families, like Ms. Rivers and [her son], face separation and surveillance by ACS at much higher levels than white families," the lawsuit alleges.

The suit claims the BronxCare Health System hospital where Rivers gave birth tested her and her baby for drugs without consent and reported the positive test to a state agency, which then triggered the ACS investigation and the instruction not to release the infant to his mother.

ACS told Rivers two days later it was filing a parent neglect case in family court and moving the baby, identified in court documents as TW, into foster care, which the suit alleges was a violation of state law.

"Rivers' forced separation from TW was particularly traumatic and damaging because he was a newborn, so Ms. Rivers and TW missed crucial moments of bonding, feeding, and skin-to-skin contact,” the lawsuit states.

The suit also alleges that the agency never explained a connection between the alleged cannabis use, which her lawyers say occurred at family barbecue hours before she arrived at the hospital, and Rivers' ability to care for her child, and alleges that ACS never claimed the baby was harmed by the exposure.

The New York Times reported that the ACS declined to answer questions, citing confidentiality laws.