In February 2023, Tennessee’s Department of Children’s Services (DCS) removed five children from their home after a traffic stop, after authorities found five grams of cannabis in the car. The move was met with uproar from the NAACP and state lawmakers, but nearly two months later, the children have now returned home, according to a Tennessee Lookout report.
According to the family’s attorney, Courtney Teasley, the children were returned home on April 13, and the family is planning a celebration in their hometown.
“We will follow up with a press conference and celebration in Nashville in about a week or so after the family has gotten to enjoy time together and reclaim so much unnecessary lost time,” Teasley told the Lookout, though she declined to comment further on what events led to the reunion.
The incident took place Feb. 17. Biance Clayborne and Deonte Williams were on their way to a family funeral in Chicago from their home in Georgia when they were stopped by state troopers for driving with “dark tint and traveling in the left lane while not actively passing.”
After an officer said he smelled cannabis in the car, a search of the family’s car revealed five grams of cannabis, a misdemeanor offense in Tennessee. The Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP) arrested Williams for possession, and while Clayborne was cited, she was told she was free to leave with her children, per THP.
As she waited to post bond for Williams at the Coffee County Justice Center, all five children—ages 7, 5, 3, 2 and a nursing 4-month-old baby—were taken from their mother and put into foster care. They were initially split between three different homes before being taken in by a family friend in Nashville who served as a temporary foster parent.
The family is Black. According to the DCS petition obtained by Tennessee Lookout, the DCS believed that the children were neglected and that there was no “less drastic” alternative aside from removing the children from their custody.
As the couple fought to get their kids back, they were asked to submit to urine drug screens, where Clayborne tested negative for THC and Williams tested positive. They were then asked to submit fast-turnaround hair follicle tests, which a Coffee County administrator told the Lookout are inadmissible in court because they are known to produce false positives. The tests came back positive for methamphetamines, fentanyl and oxycodone for both parents ,who each denied using the drugs.
The DCS ultimately used the results of the instant test to file an amended claim against the couple for severe child abuse.
As the weeks went on, with the children still separated from their family, the case gained widespread attention and condemnation, as the Tennessee NAACP, Democratic lawmakers and more called for the children’s immediate return. A month after the incident, Sen. London Lamar called it “ridiculous” and an “overuse of power.”
“DCS, Coffee County, y’all need to do the right thing before the situation gets worse, and we have a nation of people coming to the rescue of this Black family,” Lamar said. “Give them their children back. It’s borderline discrimination, because if this was any other family, as their attorney said, we don’t even think this would be the outcome.”
The DCS maintains that many of the agency’s front-line workers are from Black communities, with agency spokesperson Alex Denis claiming, “The case managers that are working this case, they do come from diverse backgrounds,” a month ago.
In Tennessee, medical and recreational cannabis are both illegal. The state does allow certain CBD oils with no more than 0.9% THC for limited medicinal uses, like treating epilepsy, cancer, Parkinson’s, ALS, AIDS and more, with a physician prescription, but the state has yet to make a provision for the legal sale of these products in Tennessee.
A recent push to legalize medical cannabis statewide, through SB 1104, was ultimately rejected.
