I don’t know if that’s the most anyone has sued a city for, but I’m sure it makes the top ten list.

Your heart has to go out to this woman. The Staten Island mother of two, according to the silive.com website (Staten Island Live), is suing the New York City and the Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) for the 15 figure amount because she believes her rights were violated when ACS removed her two boys from her home back in 2008.

She’s spent the last four years trying to get them back. Apparently, the boys were removed when they were 10 and 12 because their mother was deemed mentally unstable and refused to get treatment. The court-filed papers, according to the website, say she suffered from hallucinations and was neglectful of them by leaving them for long periods of time unattended when she was working.

Calling the allegations “lies,” she has decided to take action into her own hands and is representing herself in federal court.

What adds more fuel to her case is the fact an appellate court reversed the 2008 ruling that allowed the city to put the boys in foster care. The court found that ACS didn’t have enough cause to remove the children, who were good students and well adjusted, from their home. But because a new petition was filed on behalf of ACS to keep the boys in foster care, she is still without her sons despite the ruling to let them come home.

This brings to light a fundamental question, in my humble opinion, about the rights of the mentally ill, especially when it comes to parenting and of course, the role of the city to protect children. To read the entire story, click here.