Christian Family Ripped Apart
By: Angie Vineyard
The Charlotte World
Greer--- On Nov. 8 with virtually no warning, the Greenville Department of Social Services came into Bill and Debbie Rettew’s home, removed 15 of their 18 children and placed them in foster homes.
It’s a nightmare for any family. But even more so for the Rettews since all 15 children taken into DSS custody are special needs children.
Having given birth to Will and Autumn, now 32 and 24, the Rettews felt strongly that it was their Christian mission to care for children others might not want. So they became foster parents and eventually adopted multi-racial kids and children with medical problems. Every one of their adopted 18 have physical, emotional or mental disabilities.
The reasons the children were taken into DSS custody remain unclear since Family Court Judge Amy Sutherland placed a gag order on the Rettews and DSS officials, prohibiting them from discussing the case.
But friends and neighbors who know the Rettews are outraged.
Claire Godfrey, Director of Primetimers at Central Church of God in Charlotte met the Rettew clan four years ago after learning the children perform as a singing group in churches all over the country. Godfrey invited them twice to sing at Central and tell their remarkable story.
“They are just wonderful,” she exclaimed. “They are a beautiful family.”
Godfrey has visited their Greer home twice and said the children are “just so well-mannered and so well-trained and always look so neat and clean.”
She’s appalled at how anyone could take the children away.
“The house is clean and neat and sunny (with a) beautiful atmosphere,” said Godfrey, even more amazed that all the Rettew children are homeschooled. “They have trained their children so well. The older ones (help) take care of the younger ones. They know exactly what they’re supposed to do.”
Godfrey isn’t the only one eager to praise the Rettews. S.C. Attorney General Charlie Condon named Bill Rettew “Father of the Year” in 1999, at a time when the couple cared for as many as 24 special needs children.
And in 1998, Focus on the Family invited the family to meet Dr. James Dobson, the ministry’s founder and president, and sing on his weekly radio broadcast. The Rettews made the trek to Colorado but since their visit coincided with Dobson’s stroke, the children never sang on the air. They did, however, sing for the entire staff at the ministry’s welcome center.
On that same trip, the children sang at a fundraiser dinner for a crisis pregnancy center in Sioux City, Iowa, at Child Evangelism Fellowship headquarters in Warrenton, Mo. and for the Navajo Indians at a reservation in Arizona.
None of that surprises Robert Black, a Spartanburg journalist who’s known the Rettews for five years and had their children sing at his wedding.
"They’re such a wonderful family," he said, having been in their home several times and shared numerous meals.
What does surprise him, even shock him, is that DSS could take the children away and Judge Sutherland impose a gag order on DSS officials and the Rettews.
According to Black, Spartanburg County DSS Director Gaynelle C. West said that in all her years with Spartanburg County DSS, she "has never had a gag order placed on a hearing."
Black is well acquainted with DSS, having adopted two children and having served twice on the Spartanburg Foster Care Review Board, the second time as chairman.
"There’s some things that are not smelling right over here," said Black. "The judge, after the last hearing, she took herself off the case and then put herself on the case. I really think the judge had the wool pulled over her eyes."
Black suspects that beneath this mysterious mayhem is a DSS attorney with political ambitions.
"Looks like maybe she wants to be the next family court judge," he said.
Perhaps what most frustrates Black is the treatment of Anna Rettew. Born five years ago with essentially just brain-stem function, Anna was not expected to live. The hospital called the Rettews and asked if they would take her, to which they agreed and began six weeks of around the clock training before taking her into their home.
"That was five years ago," said Black. "She flourished with them. She was eating by mouth and has been eating by mouth until January (2001) until she got sick."
According to Black, DSS wanted to have a stomach tube surgically placed in Anna at age one. She did not have the surgery because, said Black, "You don’t do that procedure when someone is eating by mouth."
The Rettews had been feeding Anna with a tube that went into her nose and she had just seen her doctor the morning of Nov. 8, before DSS came to take her and her siblings away.
"When they took the child, they gave her that surgical operation, put in that feeding tube (and) almost lost her," said Black. "That invasive surgical procedure was performed on the little child without the parent’s permission!"
Support for the Rettews continues to grow, even prompting a bike rally two days before Christmas. More than 150 people, many of them members of Christian motorcycle organizations, gathered in Greenville to wave signs of support and voice prayers, eager for the family to be reunited. The Rettews did not attend because of the gag order.
David "Mouse" Koffler, a bike leader, has spent countless hours at the Rettew home.
"The one thing that never ceases to amaze me is the happiness and love that greets you when you walk through the door," said Koffler in a written statement.
"How can you go from Father of the Year, bestowed by the SC Attorney General, to neglectful father, bestowed by DSS?"
That’s a question many would like the answer to.