An Atlanta mother of five is suing the state of Tennessee’s Department of Children’s Services after she says they illegally detained her family, then took her five children and put them in foster care for almost two months.
Bianca Clayborne filed a federal lawsuit against Tennessee DCS for taking her five children from her while they were driving to a funeral.
According to court documents, Clayborne’s children, who were ages four months to seven years old, were taken from her while the family drove on the highway on Feb. 17, 2023.
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Records say the family road trip “turned into a nightmare” while they passed through Tennessee, on their way to Chicago.
“Tennessee Highway Patrol Troopers pulled her car over and kept her whole family in custody for two-and-a-half hours in near-freezing temperatures,” and cited her for having a small amount of marijuana, the court filing says.
Then, the troopers “illegally refused to let her and her children leave,” and took the whole family via police caravan to a Coffee County Jail to bring them to DCS, the document says.