When Child Custody Laws Lack Common Sense, Does "The System" Itself Become a Form of Child Abuse? (Orange, California)

Still more evidence of where xtreme fathers' rights have taken us in this country. A convicted felon birth father with a history of domestic violence and child endangerment is able to harrass the adoptive mother (chosen by the mother who gave birth to the girl). Of course he wants custody. And his legal fees are all being paid by the States of Ohio and California. Sickening. Your tax dollars at work, folks.

From SheBlogs.org.

http://www.sheblogs.org/2010/06/when-child-custody-laws-lack-common-sense-does-the-system-itself-become-a-form-of-child-abuse/

When Child Custody Laws Lack Common Sense, Does “The System” Itself Become A Form Of Child Abuse?
June 30, 2010 by Editor

SheBlogs has been contacted by this organization and asked to share their release with our bloggers. They encourage all bloggers who agree with their cause to blog about Vanessa and her mother’s struggle to keep her, as well as encouraging your readers to share their thoughts with the involved courts by reading for further detail below and visiting http://www.operationvanessa.com/.

Single, Middle-Class Southern California Mom on Verge of Losing Adoptive Daughter to Foster Care and Possibly Convicted Felon Birth Father in Ohio

ORANGE, Calif. (June 22, 2010) – - A two-year-old little girl named Vanessa will likely be torn from her home this week in Orange County, CA from the only mother and loving family she has ever known because the courts in California and Ohio have recklessly decided that, until her adoption is finalized, she should be placed in foster care in Ohio. Vanessa’s human and civil rights are being violated, and the resulting attachment disorder that is almost guaranteed to follow this tragic separation will be a life-long, disabling and cruel punishment for an adorable, innocent toddler who will end up in the foster care system, a system that is severely broken and will likely ruin this child’s life.

“After careful observation of Vanessa’s attachment to Stacey as her mother, it would be incredibly disruptive and cruel to remove Vanessa from her home, even on a temporary basis,” said Arla S. Wallace, Ph.D, a clinical psychologist who has specialized in Reactive Attachment Disorder for over 25 years and studied with London’s Dr. John Bowlby, who first recognized and named the disorder. “To do so would most certainly create the conditions in which Reactive Attachment Disorder is known to develop, a serious disorder from which she would most likely never recover.”

How did the system become so broken?

The Ohio Court does this despite the fact that Vanessa was placed for adoption at birth with Stacey D. (a small business owner from Southern California). Although the California Court has ruled that it has jurisdiction over the adoption it has been unwilling to hear the case because the Ohio Court only sees the case as a child custody case in which children are the property of their biological parents. . Since birth, little Vanessa has lived in Southern California, safe and happy with the only mother she has known and an extended family of loving grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins.

Vanessa’s adoptive mother desired to have a child. After many years and multiple medical treatments, her desire to have a baby was not to become a reality. Stacey’s wish for a child was fulfilled when Vanessa was born in Dayton, Ohio, and Stacey became Vanessa’s guardian when the baby was just 24 hours old. Vanessa’s birth mother signed a document under penalty of perjury stating that she did not know who the birth father was. But one showed up at the hospital, which DNA tests later confirmed, was the biological father. The birth mother had told the biological father she was keeping the baby, but told Stacey she was giving the baby to her.

The birth father has four other children (none of which he has custody of), a child endangerment charge on his record, and has been imprisoned for domestic violence, once pulling the birth mother around the house SO hard by the hair that the police found bloody clumps of hair all over the floor when they arrived. The Ohio Court sees the case as a foster care case in which it has to choose between the birth parents or a foster or other relative placement. While the foster care system is no place for this child, placement with her birth father might even be worse.

When Stacey filed a petition of adoption for Vanessa on July 1, 2008, all she wanted was to give Vanessa the love, security and stable, supportive family network that she herself enjoyed. Since then, Stacey has been engaged in stressful and expensive (to the point of nearly wiping out all her income and potentially losing her home) litigation with the birth father, a convicted felon who resides in Ohio and whose legal fees are being paid by the State of Ohio and the State of California.

Stacey (a Caucasian single mother) is being challenged by the birth father, who is of African-American descent (toddler Vanessa is of bi-racial background while Stacey’s extended family includes children and marriages of bi-racial background as well).

“I ask all decent people from both California and Ohio to help me in this cause, not only to ensure Vanessa stays permanently with the only loving family she has ever known, but to bring situations like this to the attention of the public for all adoptive parents who are fighting a fight like this,” said Stacey. “I’m frightened for my daughter and have cried endlessly at the thought of her being taken away from me and placed with complete strangers – how would you feel? In this instance the law has lost its common sense and regard for human decency . . . children are not a commodity that you put in a warehouse until a decision is made as to where to place them!”
Stacey states that even though this case has been gut wrenching, the decision to adopt Vanessa is still the best decision she has ever made in her life and plans to commit the rest of her life to adoption reform, making it easier, faster and more affordable so that no one suffers needlessly the way she and her daughter have.

To help little Vanessa remain in California with her mother and family, please send your thoughts to the California and Ohio courts. Information can be found on www.operationvanessa.com.

# # #

Important Links:

Website: http://www.operationvanessa.com/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/operationvanessa
Twitter: Utilize hashtag #SaveVanessa in any tweets

Media Contact:
Michele Johnsen
Operation Vanessa
Phone: 818-618-1314
Email: michele.johnsen@socal.rr.com

Read more: http://www.sheblogs.org/2010/06/when-child-custody-laws-lack-common-sense-does-the-system-itself-become-a-form-of-child-abuse/#ixzz0sMVLkrDv