"It has destroyed our lives," Nicole Calaway, the mother of two daughters who are now estranged because they both claim a transgender identity, told the Daily Signal in an interview Sunday.

Child Protective Services took custody of her then-15-year-old daughter, K.A., on July 18, 2024, one day after Calaway and K.A. terminated the services of K.A.'s therapist, Jennifer Forster. According to court documents, Forster filed the complaint that resulted in K.A.'s removal.

ODHS notified the Calaways that the agency considered them "responsible for the mental injury" of K.A. "Your adverse reactions to [K.A.] expressing their gender identity have caused serious harm to [K.A.'s] psychological functioning," ODHS caseworker Rachel Woods wrote in a Sept. 13 letter.

Calaway's older daughter had already moved out.

"I was so distraught, it felt like I was gutted," the mother said. "Both my daughters were gone. I took myself to the hospital and admitted myself for a week because I couldn't handle it."

The mother remains estranged from her daughters, and Oregon has ordered her not to contact K.A. Yet the state's findings haven't just affected her maternal relationship.

A Black Mark on the Parents' Records

The "mental injury" finding constitutes a child abuse ruling on Calaway's permanent record and on the record of her husband, David. The stigma of a state agency finding the two guilty of child abuse has followed them across state lines after their move to Florida in July 2025.

"In Oregon, if they were to do a background check, I could have lost my notary license, I still cannot—even here—volunteer with the Church, anything to do with children," the mother told the Daily Signal.

The stigma may be even worse for her husband. Months after the two moved to Florida, the Oregon Department of Human Services determined that David Calaway had "exhibited a pattern of inappropriate grooming behaviors to include making inappropriate sexual comments while [K.A.] was in his care." The husband vehemently contested the claims, saying he is innocent and was not given an opportunity to appeal. While the office made the determination in December 2025, he did not receive notification of it until May 12.

The husband told the Daily Signal that his employment has yet to be affected by the matter, but he highlighted this message from the notice: "This abuse finding could have an impact on David Calaway's ability to volunteer or to obtain or retain a professional license or certain types of employment."

"If I was being accused of sexual abuse, wouldn't there be a police record? Wouldn't I be arrested? Wouldn't I be in jail?" the husband asked.

"It's like we're guilty until proven innocent," the mother said.

The couple filed a lawsuit earlier this month, accusing the therapist, Forster, and ODHS agents of violating their rights under the First and 14th Amendments.

Dissent From Transgender Orthodoxyis 'Mental Injury'

The lawsuit states that ODHS had previously screened out one child abuse referral against the Calaways and found a second referral unfounded, both in 2023. K.A.'s father, Keith Allison, who sought custody of the daughter, claimed that K.A. was in immediate danger, but the court denied two of his motions in 2024.

"On essentially the same facts later used to remove K.A., a neutral court had twice declined to find immediate danger, and ODHS had already once found the mental-injury allegation unfounded," the lawsuit states.

On May 23, 2024, K.A. left school with a friend and did not notify her mother. She told school staff that she did not feel safe at home because her mother had showed her videos opposing transgender ideology the night before. School staff insisted she be taken to a stabilization center. Later, K.A. apologized to her mother and thanked her for helping her "acknowledge reality."

On July 17, Nicole Calaway and K.A. spoke on the phone with Forster, and terminated her services. Both K.A. and her mother accused the therapist of hiding information from the mother.

According to the lawsuit, Woods, the ODHS caseworker, recommended that Forster call the Child Protective Services hotline shortly after this call. Forster called the hotline the next morning and made many claims the lawsuit describes as false.

The therapist said that the mother had "presented as aggressive and angry," and that she said K.A. "would no longer have support." Forster would also write that the mother terminated counseling out of a "desire to manage client's mental health without counseling support."

The lawsuit claims these statements were false but gave ODHS a "fabricated appearance of urgency." On July 18, ODHS and law enforcement officers removed K.A. from the Calaways' home for "mental injury."

According to the lawsuit, ODHS concluded that Nicole Calaway's decision to show her daughter videos presenting arguments against transgender ideology harmed her daughter's psychological functioning. The Calaways dispute this, saying the agency treated disagreement with the ideology as child abuse.

"When did the truth become mental injury?" David Calaway asked in... Subscribe for free to Breaking Christian News here

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Tyler O'Neil is senior investigative reporter at the Daily Signal and the author of two books, "Making Hate Pay: The Corruption of the Southern Poverty Law Center" and "The Woketopus: The Dark Money Cabal Manipulating the Federal Government."

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