My position is that unless the father is actually shown to be undeserving of having kids - i.e. if he would have them removed (and then I question why they would have been fine with both parents), he has as much right to custody as the mother. Do you know if the kids react the same way when the Father is dropping them off (i.e. have trauma just changing between separated parents)? Look, I don't know your situation, maybe the guy is completely horrible. The courts can only do what the courts can do - there's no 0 trauma solution here. I don't think it's right, nor would necessarily be appreciated down the road by anyone for one parent to inherently lose all parental rights and interactions and custody because of a divorce.
For this article - well, I agree that the systems don't work well - the government just doesn't want to deal with protecting anyone, even from themselves. I've seen in first hand with my now passed mentally ill veteran uncle. The VA wanted to claim anything to not have to treat him or do anything. The local cops, adult protective, whoever wanted to believe because he had condiments and maybe one canned chili can he was fine and feeding himself etc when he hadn't left the house in weeks, looked like a concentration camp victim, and was for some reason pooping in bags in the living room. "Oh, he's an adult, he can be a little quirky". "We can't make him get a psych eval". "We know he threatened and kicked out the home health nurse, and hasn't had his meds in 6 months, but he's an adult and can choose to live that way". "Oh, he's claiming the house has smoke coming out of the walls and a bunch of wires just appeared out of them overnight" he told the fire marshal, when it was obvious the wires had been there for decades (coax connections now unused)...
Of course, all this is complete bullshit to anyone not strongly motivated to get out and not have to do anything. And here I'll bet everyone ignored all the family as "just hysterical" or they're "out to get the person". It's not possible they're trying to do all they can to make things better, no - they're just making crap up for their own gain. I've given up thinking it'll ever get better, especially if the VA is involved - but TBH - we all cry for a second on the news, change the channel and want low taxes and not to have a nanny state. Except when we personally have to deal with this crap or hear a tragic article like this.