Malicious adults use drugs, alcohol to abuse kids
Sleeping pills, cough syrup, laxatives harm 160 children a year, study says
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by JoNel Aleccia
Health writer
msnbc.com
updated 7/22/2010 8:46:16 AM ET
:
Parents and caregivers who slip young, healthy children doses of common drugs — including painkillers, sedatives and laxatives — are fueling a dangerous but hidden form of child abuse, new research finds.
About 160 kids are hurt in the United States each year — and at least two die — after being forced to ingest antidepressants, cough and cold medicines, even drugs to treat high blood pressure. Many are given alcohol, marijuana or cocaine, according to the first large-scale study of the issue published in the Journal of Pediatrics.
“We believe that the malicious use of pharmaceuticals may be an under-recognized form and or component of child maltreatment,” said Dr. Shan Yin, who led the study conducted at the Rocky Mountain Poison and Drug Center in Denver.
Yin, a medical toxicologist, analyzed more than 21.4 million calls to the National Poison Data System between 2000 and 2008. When he looked at cases of drug and alcohol poisoning coded as “malicious” in children younger than 7, Shin found 1,439 cases of kids who’d been exposed. Some 172 children were seriously injured and 18 died.
They included a 4-month-old girl killed in 2003 when a babysitter gave her a full bottle of decongestant, and a 5-year-old girl who died in 2006 after her mother gave her antidepressants and muscle relaxants.
“I just don’t know what goes on in the minds of people who try to harm their child,” said Yin, an emergency room doctor who has treated cases of abuse.
Parents may be angry, frustrated
Poison center records don’t include motives for the poisonings, said Yin. But he speculates that known causes for child abuse — punishment, frustration with the demands of parenting — may play a role in drug-induced harm.
“There’s a very wide spectrum, from frank homicides to people who are not trying to hurt their children,” he said. “Maybe they want them to go to sleep for an hour so they can go to sleep or go shopping.”
In some cases, an adult’s warped sense of amusement at seeing a child intoxicated could be the motivation.
“I think somebody might think it’s funny,” Yin said.
Sedatives were used in more than half the cases Yin studied, often in combination with other drugs. Pain relievers were found in 176 kids; laxatives were used in 67. The average age of the victims was 2, which is consistent with other types of child abuse.
While the number of documented malicious drug-abuse cases was small, Yin says his research is likely just a snapshot of a much larger problem. Abuse via malicious drug or alcohol abuse is not captured by current definitions of child maltreatment, which include physical, sexual and emotional use and neglect.
When it does occur, not all cases are reported to the nation’s poison centers, Yin said.
Clayton County Police Department
This undated photo released by the Clayton County Police Department shows William Allen Cunningham, who has been sentenced to 100 years in prison for poisoning his two children. Prosecutors said Cunningham laced his children's soup with prescription drugs and lighter fluid in a scheme to extort money from Campbell's Soup Co. in 2006. The children, then ages 18 months and 3-years, were sickened but survived.
For instance, the poison center data didn’t include the case of William Allen Cunningham, a Georgia man who in 2006 poisoned his 3-year-old son and 18-month-old daughter by feeding them canned soup laced with hot peppers and lighter fluid and later with prescription antidepressants. Cunningham then tried to extort money from the Campbell Soup Co. by claiming the soup was tainted when he bought it.
He was sentenced to 100 years in prison last year, according to news reports.
Links to physical abuse
Poisoning likely is occurring in conjunction with other kinds of child abuse, including the nearly 150,000 cases of physical abuse reported each year, Yin said. He’d like to see comprehensive drug screening for children who show up in emergency departments with suspicious injuries.
Child abuse caused by poisoning is a rare but recognized harm, said Jim Hmurovich, president and chief executive of Prevent Child Abuse America, an advocacy agency. While he had yet to review the new study, Hmurovich said it points to the need for better child abuse prevention efforts.
“I don’t think it’s right at any time to give unprescribed medicine to a child,” he said. “Did the parent do it out of frustration? Did they do it at their wits’ end? If that’s the case, we need to be even more aggressive in terms of parent education.”
Yin said he hopes his study makes people think twice about using drugs to calm children.
“For parents, there’s a spectrum. I personally know friends who have given children Benadryl on a plane,” he said. “But any time you give a child a non-prescribed medication, you run the risk of harming the child.”
© 2010 msnbc.com Reprints
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38347257/from/toolbar
Isabella Brooke Knightly and Austin Gamez-Knightly
In Memory of my Loving Husband, William F. Knightly Jr. Murdered by ILLEGAL Palliative Care at a Nashua, NH Hospital
Friday, July 23, 2010
Former Foster Dad Sentenced for Sex Abuse
Former Foster Dad Sentenced for Sex Abuse
July 22, 2010
By Dan Corcoran
EUGENE, Ore. -- It is sentencing day for a local man who admits to sexually abusing three of his own foster children.
Joshua Thomas Friar will spend nearly 20 years in prison for what the victims' families call the ultimate abuse of trust.
It wasn't until Friar's sentencing Thursday that KEZI learned just how disturbing some of his actions were. Friar was entrusted to care for three young boys, only to betray that trust in so many ways.
"There could be no more intimate place where you could be in contact with a child than in a family setting behind closed doors," said Assistant District Attorney Eric Hasselman.
Behind closed courtroom doors is where Friar admitted to sexually abusing three of his foster children. That admission that has landed the 26-year-old behind bars for 220 months.
"We've looked at this case as being one that's particularly disturbing," said Hasselman.
Prosecutors say Friar was an employee at Jasper Mountain Treatment Facility working with young and often troubled children. That's where he met one of his victims, a 13-year-old boy who needed a home.
With Department of Human Services out of resources, Friar stepped up to be a foster parent. At that time, there were no red flags.
"There weren't any warnings that came up in a background check, anything would cause them to think that he was a danger to work around children," said Hasselman.
Over the next several months, two other boys, ages 9 and 11, were also placed in Friar's Springfield home.
It wasn't until November 2009, after the children had moved in with new foster families around Oregon, that any of boys spoke up about inappropriate contact.
Over the course of 18 months, Friar now admits to abusing the boys. Prosecutors say he violated the law in every conceivable sexual manner. Faced with a daunting legal battle ahead, Friar pleaded guilty to 6 of 28 counts of sexual abuse.
"People that are otherwise pillars of the community, but behind closed doors are committing criminal acts against children," said Hasselman.
The victims are all in therapy and trying to move forward. Friar did speak out in court Thursday. He did offer what he called his deepest apologies for breaking the trust of children that he loved. He said he'll work now on giving back to society instead of taking from it.
http://kezi.com/news/local/182308
July 22, 2010
By Dan Corcoran
EUGENE, Ore. -- It is sentencing day for a local man who admits to sexually abusing three of his own foster children.
Joshua Thomas Friar will spend nearly 20 years in prison for what the victims' families call the ultimate abuse of trust.
It wasn't until Friar's sentencing Thursday that KEZI learned just how disturbing some of his actions were. Friar was entrusted to care for three young boys, only to betray that trust in so many ways.
"There could be no more intimate place where you could be in contact with a child than in a family setting behind closed doors," said Assistant District Attorney Eric Hasselman.
Behind closed courtroom doors is where Friar admitted to sexually abusing three of his foster children. That admission that has landed the 26-year-old behind bars for 220 months.
"We've looked at this case as being one that's particularly disturbing," said Hasselman.
Prosecutors say Friar was an employee at Jasper Mountain Treatment Facility working with young and often troubled children. That's where he met one of his victims, a 13-year-old boy who needed a home.
With Department of Human Services out of resources, Friar stepped up to be a foster parent. At that time, there were no red flags.
"There weren't any warnings that came up in a background check, anything would cause them to think that he was a danger to work around children," said Hasselman.
Over the next several months, two other boys, ages 9 and 11, were also placed in Friar's Springfield home.
It wasn't until November 2009, after the children had moved in with new foster families around Oregon, that any of boys spoke up about inappropriate contact.
Over the course of 18 months, Friar now admits to abusing the boys. Prosecutors say he violated the law in every conceivable sexual manner. Faced with a daunting legal battle ahead, Friar pleaded guilty to 6 of 28 counts of sexual abuse.
"People that are otherwise pillars of the community, but behind closed doors are committing criminal acts against children," said Hasselman.
The victims are all in therapy and trying to move forward. Friar did speak out in court Thursday. He did offer what he called his deepest apologies for breaking the trust of children that he loved. He said he'll work now on giving back to society instead of taking from it.
http://kezi.com/news/local/182308
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Mothers For Justice - Social Services LIE to Adoptive Parent
http://givemykidsback.blogspot.com/2010/07/mothers-for-justice-social-services-lie.html
Thanks all you Christian Obama Voters! Tax funded baby killing
Thanks all you Christian Obama Voters! Tax funded baby killing (Updated)
Wednesday, July 14, 2010 • 4:43 pm
So now the United States Government, and that means us, funds baby murder. How does it feel, Obama voters, to know your votes have resulted in this holocaust? But hey, at least Obama has stopped the war, saved the economy, and rescued all the poor people...oh...wait...nevermind
(CNSNews.com) - If you want proof that President Obama's Executive Order on taxpayer-funded abortion was a sham, look no further than Pennsylvania, says House Republican Leader John Boehner (Ohio).
Boehner and other Republicans point to reports that the Health and Human Services Department is giving Pennsylvania $160 million to set up a new high-risk insurance pool that will cover any abortion that is legal in the state.
"The fact that the high-risk pool insurance program in Pennsylvania will use federal taxpayer dollars to fund abortions is unconscionable," Boehner said in a statement on Tuesday...more
Here's the release from National Right to Life Inc.
H.H.S. Approves Pennsylvania Plan
to Use Federal Funds to Subsidize Coverage of
Nearly All Abortions in New “High-Risk Pool” Program
WASHINGTON (July 13, 2010) – The Obama Administration will give Pennsylvania $160 million to set up a new “high-risk” insurance program under a provision of the federal health care legislation enacted in March — and has quietly approved a plan submitted by an appointee of Governor Edward Rendell (D) under which the new program will cover any abortion that is legal in Pennsylvania.
The high-risk pool program is one of the new programs created by the sweeping health care legislation (the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act) that President Obama signed into law on March 23. The law authorizes $5 billion in federal funds for the program, which will cover as many as 400,000 people when it is implemented nationwide.
“The Obama Administration will give Pennsylvania $160 million in federal tax funds, which we’ve discovered will pay for insurance plans that cover any legal abortion,” said Douglas Johnson, legislative director for the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the federation of right-to-life organizations in all 50 states. “This is just the first proof of the phoniness of President Obama’s assurances that federal funds would not subsidize abortion — but it will not be the last.”
An earlier version of the health care legislation, passed by the House of Representatives in November 2009, contained a provision (the Stupak-Pitts Amendment) that would have prevented federal funds from subsidizing abortion or insurance coverage of abortion in any of the programs created by the bill, including the high-risk pool program. But President Obama opposed that pro-life provision, and it was not included in the bill later approved by both houses and signed into law. An executive order signed by the President on March 24, 2010 did not contain effective barriers to federal funding of abortion, and did not even mention the high-risk pool program.
“President Obama successfully opposed including language in the bill to prevent federal subsidies for abortions, and now the Administration is quietly advancing its abortion-expanding agenda through administrative decisions such as this, which they hope will escape broad public attention,” Johnson said.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) has emphasized that the high-risk pool program is a federal program and that the states will not incur any cost. On May 11, 2010, in a letter to Democratic and Republican congressional leaders on implementation of the new law, DHHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius wrote that “states may choose whether and how they participate in the program, which is funded entirely by the federal government.”
Details of the high-risk pool plans for most states are not yet available. But on June 28, Pennsylvania Insurance Commissioner Joel Ario (a member of the appointed cabinet of Governor Edward Rendell, a Democrat) issued a press release announcing that the federal Department of Health and Human Services had approved his agency’s proposal for implementing the new program in Pennsylvania. “The state will receive $160 million to set up the program, which will provide coverage to as many as 5,600 people between now and 2014,” according to the release. “The plan’s benefit package will include preventive care, physician services, diagnostic testing, hospitalization, mental health services, prescription medications and much more, with subsidized premiums of $283 a month.”
Examination of the detailed Pennsylvania plan, reveals that the “much more” will include insurance coverage of any legal abortion.
The section on abortion (see page 14) asserts that “elective abortions are not covered.” However, that statement proves to be a red herring, because the operative language does not define “elective.” Rather, the proposal specifies that the coverage “includes only abortions and contraceptives that satisfy the requirements of” several specific statutes, the most pertinent of which is 18 Pa. C.S. § 3204, which says that an abortion is legal in Pennsylvania (consistent with Roe v. Wade) if a single physician believes that it is “necessary” based on “all factors (physical, emotional, psychological, familial and the woman’s age) relevant to the well-being of the woman.” Indeed, the cited statute provides only a single circumstance in which an abortion prior to 24 weeks is NOT permitted under the Pennsylvania statute: “No abortion which is sought solely because of the sex of the unborn child shall be deemed a necessary abortion.”
As a result, “Under the Rendell-Sebelius plan, federal funds will subsidize coverage of abortion performed for any reason, except sex selection,” said NRLC’s Johnson. “The Pennsylvania proposal conspicuously lacks language that would prevent funding of abortions performed as a method of birth control or for any other reason, except sex selection — and the Obama Administration has now approved this.”
A group of Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives who initially withheld support from the federal health care bill, because of concerns about pro-abortion effects, cited President Obama’s March 24 executive order in justifying their votes to pass the bill over objections from NRLC and other pro-life groups, which argued that the executive order did not contain effective barriers to federal subsidies for abortion. As USA Todayreported on March 25, “Both sides in the abortion debate came to a rare agreement on Wednesday: The executive order on abortion signed by President Obama, they said, was basically meaningless. ‘A transparent political fig leaf,’ according to the National Right to Life Committee’s Douglas Johnson. ‘A symbolic gesture,’ said Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards.”
And here is the Pennsylvania plan (PDF)
http://www.standfirminfaith.com/?/sf/page/26363
Wednesday, July 14, 2010 • 4:43 pm
So now the United States Government, and that means us, funds baby murder. How does it feel, Obama voters, to know your votes have resulted in this holocaust? But hey, at least Obama has stopped the war, saved the economy, and rescued all the poor people...oh...wait...nevermind
(CNSNews.com) - If you want proof that President Obama's Executive Order on taxpayer-funded abortion was a sham, look no further than Pennsylvania, says House Republican Leader John Boehner (Ohio).
Boehner and other Republicans point to reports that the Health and Human Services Department is giving Pennsylvania $160 million to set up a new high-risk insurance pool that will cover any abortion that is legal in the state.
"The fact that the high-risk pool insurance program in Pennsylvania will use federal taxpayer dollars to fund abortions is unconscionable," Boehner said in a statement on Tuesday...more
Here's the release from National Right to Life Inc.
H.H.S. Approves Pennsylvania Plan
to Use Federal Funds to Subsidize Coverage of
Nearly All Abortions in New “High-Risk Pool” Program
WASHINGTON (July 13, 2010) – The Obama Administration will give Pennsylvania $160 million to set up a new “high-risk” insurance program under a provision of the federal health care legislation enacted in March — and has quietly approved a plan submitted by an appointee of Governor Edward Rendell (D) under which the new program will cover any abortion that is legal in Pennsylvania.
The high-risk pool program is one of the new programs created by the sweeping health care legislation (the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act) that President Obama signed into law on March 23. The law authorizes $5 billion in federal funds for the program, which will cover as many as 400,000 people when it is implemented nationwide.
“The Obama Administration will give Pennsylvania $160 million in federal tax funds, which we’ve discovered will pay for insurance plans that cover any legal abortion,” said Douglas Johnson, legislative director for the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the federation of right-to-life organizations in all 50 states. “This is just the first proof of the phoniness of President Obama’s assurances that federal funds would not subsidize abortion — but it will not be the last.”
An earlier version of the health care legislation, passed by the House of Representatives in November 2009, contained a provision (the Stupak-Pitts Amendment) that would have prevented federal funds from subsidizing abortion or insurance coverage of abortion in any of the programs created by the bill, including the high-risk pool program. But President Obama opposed that pro-life provision, and it was not included in the bill later approved by both houses and signed into law. An executive order signed by the President on March 24, 2010 did not contain effective barriers to federal funding of abortion, and did not even mention the high-risk pool program.
“President Obama successfully opposed including language in the bill to prevent federal subsidies for abortions, and now the Administration is quietly advancing its abortion-expanding agenda through administrative decisions such as this, which they hope will escape broad public attention,” Johnson said.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) has emphasized that the high-risk pool program is a federal program and that the states will not incur any cost. On May 11, 2010, in a letter to Democratic and Republican congressional leaders on implementation of the new law, DHHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius wrote that “states may choose whether and how they participate in the program, which is funded entirely by the federal government.”
Details of the high-risk pool plans for most states are not yet available. But on June 28, Pennsylvania Insurance Commissioner Joel Ario (a member of the appointed cabinet of Governor Edward Rendell, a Democrat) issued a press release announcing that the federal Department of Health and Human Services had approved his agency’s proposal for implementing the new program in Pennsylvania. “The state will receive $160 million to set up the program, which will provide coverage to as many as 5,600 people between now and 2014,” according to the release. “The plan’s benefit package will include preventive care, physician services, diagnostic testing, hospitalization, mental health services, prescription medications and much more, with subsidized premiums of $283 a month.”
Examination of the detailed Pennsylvania plan, reveals that the “much more” will include insurance coverage of any legal abortion.
The section on abortion (see page 14) asserts that “elective abortions are not covered.” However, that statement proves to be a red herring, because the operative language does not define “elective.” Rather, the proposal specifies that the coverage “includes only abortions and contraceptives that satisfy the requirements of” several specific statutes, the most pertinent of which is 18 Pa. C.S. § 3204, which says that an abortion is legal in Pennsylvania (consistent with Roe v. Wade) if a single physician believes that it is “necessary” based on “all factors (physical, emotional, psychological, familial and the woman’s age) relevant to the well-being of the woman.” Indeed, the cited statute provides only a single circumstance in which an abortion prior to 24 weeks is NOT permitted under the Pennsylvania statute: “No abortion which is sought solely because of the sex of the unborn child shall be deemed a necessary abortion.”
As a result, “Under the Rendell-Sebelius plan, federal funds will subsidize coverage of abortion performed for any reason, except sex selection,” said NRLC’s Johnson. “The Pennsylvania proposal conspicuously lacks language that would prevent funding of abortions performed as a method of birth control or for any other reason, except sex selection — and the Obama Administration has now approved this.”
A group of Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives who initially withheld support from the federal health care bill, because of concerns about pro-abortion effects, cited President Obama’s March 24 executive order in justifying their votes to pass the bill over objections from NRLC and other pro-life groups, which argued that the executive order did not contain effective barriers to federal subsidies for abortion. As USA Todayreported on March 25, “Both sides in the abortion debate came to a rare agreement on Wednesday: The executive order on abortion signed by President Obama, they said, was basically meaningless. ‘A transparent political fig leaf,’ according to the National Right to Life Committee’s Douglas Johnson. ‘A symbolic gesture,’ said Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards.”
And here is the Pennsylvania plan (PDF)
http://www.standfirminfaith.com/?/sf/page/26363
Foster care abuse and neglect up in Fulton and DeKalb
Foster care abuse and neglect up in Fulton and DeKalb
By Craig Schneider
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Foster children in Fulton and DeKalb counties are being abused and neglected at the highest rate in four years, according to a report released Thursday by federal monitors of these child welfare systems.
Grim stats for Fulton, DeKalb foster kids
The report on the last six months of 2009 also found that the caseloads of state child welfare workers in these state-run county systems "increased substantially" during that period, and that the agency fell short in providing medical and dental care to foster kids.
Federal appointed monitors James Dimas and Sarah Morrison revealed some of the worst performance by the state Division of Family and Children Services since the monitors began reviewing the system.
The pair were appointed by a federal judge to review the performance of the Fulton and DeKalb foster care systems after Georgia settled a lawsuit in 2005 that called for reforms. The lawsuit was filed by the advocacy group Children's Rights Inc.
"This is the worst yet," said Ira Lustbader, associate director of the group. "You've got a real safety problem."
The report found that 25 of the 2,142 children in those foster care systems were abused or neglected while in the care of the state.
"By definition, children in foster care have already experienced some form of maltreatment in the home from which they were removed," the report said. "It is unacceptable that any such child should again experience maltreatment in the foster care setting."
The rate of abuse and neglect, 1.17 percent, is more than three times higher than the national standard, Lustbader said. The target rate is that low because there is little tolerance for such mistreatment of children in the state's care. He also said the rate is considered a "tip of the iceberg" indicator that often points to more abuses that are not reported.
DFCS spokeswoman Dena Smith said: "Fixing a child welfare system is a long-distance run. There are going to be ebbs and flows."
The report pointed to some areas in which the DFCS continued to make progress, including placing children in foster care closer to their families, reducing overcrowding in foster homes and ensuring that foster homes are appropriately licensed.
The monitors noted that numerous abuse and neglect incidents occurred in group homes and institutions, many of which are publicly funded but operated by private firms. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution had detailed the monitors' concerns regarding state oversight of these facilities in January.
An AJC investigation in April revealed numerous problems and inadequate oversight of Georgia's growing system of publicly funded but privately operated foster care facilities.
Normer Adams, executive director of the Georgia Association of Homes and Services for Children, a lobbying group for private foster homes, said several of the instances do not fit the common definition of abuse or neglect in that they included foster children running away from a facility or minor issues with facilities. He also said the oversight has not been lax.
Lustbader complained that caseloads for at least a third of DFCS caseworkers are above the standard of 12 to 17 cases per worker, with some workers assigned 30 to 40 cases.
The report noted, "This is the state's poorest performance in this area to date."
http://www.ajc.com/news/foster-care-abuse-and-576712.html
By Craig Schneider
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Foster children in Fulton and DeKalb counties are being abused and neglected at the highest rate in four years, according to a report released Thursday by federal monitors of these child welfare systems.
Grim stats for Fulton, DeKalb foster kids
The report on the last six months of 2009 also found that the caseloads of state child welfare workers in these state-run county systems "increased substantially" during that period, and that the agency fell short in providing medical and dental care to foster kids.
Federal appointed monitors James Dimas and Sarah Morrison revealed some of the worst performance by the state Division of Family and Children Services since the monitors began reviewing the system.
The pair were appointed by a federal judge to review the performance of the Fulton and DeKalb foster care systems after Georgia settled a lawsuit in 2005 that called for reforms. The lawsuit was filed by the advocacy group Children's Rights Inc.
"This is the worst yet," said Ira Lustbader, associate director of the group. "You've got a real safety problem."
The report found that 25 of the 2,142 children in those foster care systems were abused or neglected while in the care of the state.
"By definition, children in foster care have already experienced some form of maltreatment in the home from which they were removed," the report said. "It is unacceptable that any such child should again experience maltreatment in the foster care setting."
The rate of abuse and neglect, 1.17 percent, is more than three times higher than the national standard, Lustbader said. The target rate is that low because there is little tolerance for such mistreatment of children in the state's care. He also said the rate is considered a "tip of the iceberg" indicator that often points to more abuses that are not reported.
DFCS spokeswoman Dena Smith said: "Fixing a child welfare system is a long-distance run. There are going to be ebbs and flows."
The report pointed to some areas in which the DFCS continued to make progress, including placing children in foster care closer to their families, reducing overcrowding in foster homes and ensuring that foster homes are appropriately licensed.
The monitors noted that numerous abuse and neglect incidents occurred in group homes and institutions, many of which are publicly funded but operated by private firms. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution had detailed the monitors' concerns regarding state oversight of these facilities in January.
An AJC investigation in April revealed numerous problems and inadequate oversight of Georgia's growing system of publicly funded but privately operated foster care facilities.
Normer Adams, executive director of the Georgia Association of Homes and Services for Children, a lobbying group for private foster homes, said several of the instances do not fit the common definition of abuse or neglect in that they included foster children running away from a facility or minor issues with facilities. He also said the oversight has not been lax.
Lustbader complained that caseloads for at least a third of DFCS caseworkers are above the standard of 12 to 17 cases per worker, with some workers assigned 30 to 40 cases.
The report noted, "This is the state's poorest performance in this area to date."
http://www.ajc.com/news/foster-care-abuse-and-576712.html
A Letter from A mother... a survivor of Domestic Violence
Laura Edmondson July 22 at 8:46am
This week in DC there is a festival or Rally for Parental Alienation Awareness. I would really like to know how much you know about this issue, because it is very serious.
"They" complain that we spend too much tax money on welfare and prisons, drug rehab programs and the list goes on. The funny thing is that I am struggeling to understand is that when someone goes to counceling, drug rehab, stand on the welfare line or ends up in prison... hands down the root cause of the emotional issues that lead to this circumstance are a lack of relationship or dysfunctional relationship with both parents.
Please tell me how it makes sense that a parent that WANTS to be a part of thier childs life has to fight to have the RIGHT???? Then go to a lawyer to spend money to wait for months to see the judge. When they do see the judge, the predatory parent gets WARNED. If they don't listen, the process starts all over. Time and money that can never be replaced.
In the mean time the predatory parent, knowingly or unknowingly is manipulating the child to disrespect not only AUTHORITY, but a part of themselves. How many issues would be resolved for these individuals if they had the ASSUMPTION law, that inculded equal rights for both parents? Why should I have lose time with my children, spend money that I could be spending on my children on an attourney and then have a lifetime of challenges for my children when I want to be a participating parent? Shoudln't it be the other way around? When I go to get my kids, their placement parent has the right to say NO to the police, and has the right to press charges on me for harrassment and trespassing if I don't accept that answer. THIS IS GROSSLY UNJUST. Shouldn't the predatory parent be arrested for the long term damages they are implementing on my child.
The womens right movement has done some great things for women. The fathers rights movement has done some great things for fathers, but the womens rights movements put out some obsticles for the real success of the fathers. However, it isn't really about the Mothers or the Fathers rights. Don't these kids, have the right to know thier own blood, thier own heritage, to understand for themselves rather then what they are told that they are who they are? When a parent speaks poorly of the other parent, or acts as if the other parent shouldn't have the right to be a part of thier lives... not only is incredibly selfish, controlling and a form of domestic ABUSE (violence is something diffferent, but those laws are another topic) it is TELLING THIER CHILD THAT HALF OF THIER EXISTANCE was and is unnacceptable. That is the ultimate in emotional child abuse. PLEASE help our kids, help our FUTURE. Help OUR country, our ecomony, our prisons, our welfare system to refom and respond to this email!
Sincerely,
A mother... a survivor of Domestic Violence, and a woman living with domestic abuse knowing that her children are living with it as well... and there is nothing the law will do at this moment to help them. But this isn't about me... IT IS ABOUT ALL OF US.
--------------------
This week in DC there is a festival or Rally for Parental Alienation Awareness. I would really like to know how much you know about this issue, because it is very serious.
"They" complain that we spend too much tax money on welfare and prisons, drug rehab programs and the list goes on. The funny thing is that I am struggeling to understand is that when someone goes to counceling, drug rehab, stand on the welfare line or ends up in prison... hands down the root cause of the emotional issues that lead to this circumstance are a lack of relationship or dysfunctional relationship with both parents.
Please tell me how it makes sense that a parent that WANTS to be a part of thier childs life has to fight to have the RIGHT???? Then go to a lawyer to spend money to wait for months to see the judge. When they do see the judge, the predatory parent gets WARNED. If they don't listen, the process starts all over. Time and money that can never be replaced.
In the mean time the predatory parent, knowingly or unknowingly is manipulating the child to disrespect not only AUTHORITY, but a part of themselves. How many issues would be resolved for these individuals if they had the ASSUMPTION law, that inculded equal rights for both parents? Why should I have lose time with my children, spend money that I could be spending on my children on an attourney and then have a lifetime of challenges for my children when I want to be a participating parent? Shoudln't it be the other way around? When I go to get my kids, their placement parent has the right to say NO to the police, and has the right to press charges on me for harrassment and trespassing if I don't accept that answer. THIS IS GROSSLY UNJUST. Shouldn't the predatory parent be arrested for the long term damages they are implementing on my child.
The womens right movement has done some great things for women. The fathers rights movement has done some great things for fathers, but the womens rights movements put out some obsticles for the real success of the fathers. However, it isn't really about the Mothers or the Fathers rights. Don't these kids, have the right to know thier own blood, thier own heritage, to understand for themselves rather then what they are told that they are who they are? When a parent speaks poorly of the other parent, or acts as if the other parent shouldn't have the right to be a part of thier lives... not only is incredibly selfish, controlling and a form of domestic ABUSE (violence is something diffferent, but those laws are another topic) it is TELLING THIER CHILD THAT HALF OF THIER EXISTANCE was and is unnacceptable. That is the ultimate in emotional child abuse. PLEASE help our kids, help our FUTURE. Help OUR country, our ecomony, our prisons, our welfare system to refom and respond to this email!
Sincerely,
A mother... a survivor of Domestic Violence, and a woman living with domestic abuse knowing that her children are living with it as well... and there is nothing the law will do at this moment to help them. But this isn't about me... IT IS ABOUT ALL OF US.
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