Our legal system, starting at the Supreme Court down to the local court level is not designed to protect our children. The laws put into effect that created the Family and Child protective services across the country didn’t address proper investigation and checks and balances needed to keep the power from landing in the hands of a few.
Nothing that has been implemented listens to the children or those who speak for them. We have a crisis in the care and protection of our children and much of the blame for it lies within the government law makers and judges.
There are two basic concepts that override our children’s needs. One, is that the natural parents have more rights to keep the children, called parental presumption. This is much stronger for the birth mother than for the biological father. The problem with this presumption is that not all biological parents should be raising their prodigy.
We currently have an epidemic of substance abuse in this country and a high percentage of these abusers are parents. There is a large body of research that demonstrates children raised in addicts’ homes are neglected, abused physically and emotional, tend to drop out of school, have more teen pregnancies, and most become addicts early in their lives.
The recovery rates for addicts is extremely poor especially when stressed. There is no system in place to watch over these children replaced with biological parents. Something has to happen to the children before any action is taken, too often permanent damage or death. Why would the courts feel that grandparents, aunts or even foster parents couldn’t love and care for a child better than an impaired biological parent?
The second concept that hurts our children is that the process to decide the care of the child is held in a court room in front of a judge, so all the formal rules apply. That basically means the lawyer with the best story right or wrong especially if they represent the mother, will win custody for the children. Placing the children back into a situation they had been removed from for their safety. The formality and rules of the court don’t allow for the truth to be presented many times.
Yes, there maybe some good parents who get mixed up in this messy system. But until the citizens of this country start putting our children’s safety and emotional well being first, too many children will get hurt.