M.B. v. Tidball

M.B. is a fourteen-year-old boy in the foster care custody of CD (Children’s Division of DSS), currently placed in a residential facility, though as of the time of filing he was temporarily placed in a psychiatric hospital. M.B.’s case is brought by his adult Next Friend, Ericka Eggemeyer. Over at least the past three years that M.B. has been in Missouri foster care, CD has failed in its obligation to provide for his safety and well-being with respect to how psychotropic medications are being administered. CD has allowed M.B. to be placed on more than six psychotropic drugs at once, failed M.B. and his caregivers with updated medical and mental health records, failed to maintain a consistent informed consent process to ensure individual attention to his treatment, and failed to institute an effective mechanism for reviewing dangerous prescription practices. As a result, he has been harmed and put at further risk of harm.

Plaintiffs E.S., age three, and Z.S., age two, are siblings whose cases are brought by their adult Next Friends, A.S. and S.H. respectively. They are both in the foster care custody of CD. CD has allowed E.S. and Z.S. to be placed on psychotropic medications as toddlers in the absence of any effective mechanism for reviewing this troubling prescription practice. As a result, they have been harmed and put at further risk of harm.