Wednesday, November 16, 2005

PBS - Children's Stories Under Fire - and is Typical

The recent airing of the PBS documentary about Abuse appear to have backfired on the backers of the production and programming - as the latest court documents and testimony which becomes public record has shown.

Yet - the arguments needlessly continue from both sides against the other in an attempt to dis-credit each special interest groups' side in the matter.

To be balanced - it would appear that both the mother and the father due to the adversarial process we have put into place - have created the negative enviornment for the child - here is an short segment of one sides claims (see if you can pick up on what I mean):

Claim #5) Sadia individually and through Fatima has repeatedly described Scott Loeliger as an abusive husband and an abusive father. These claims have never been substantiated. Despite all the fury and accusations from Sadia and from Sadia through Fatima, neither one of them actually claims that Scott ever physically abused them. The entirety of their claims, even if we were to believe them, is "verbal" and "emotional" abuse. Sadia and Sadia through Fatima claim that Scott is a monster.

Claim #4) In addition to the documents and statements of Arellano and various social workers, therapists, and neutral professionals which detail the mother's - Sadia's - violence and abuse, we also posted a letter from Sara, Sadia's then 15 year-old niece. Sara lived under Sadia's care along with Fatima and her younger sister, and also provided extensive evidence of Sadia's violence and child abuse. In a long, heartbreaking letter written to her father in Kenya, Sara says she feared for her life from Sadia's abuse and tells her father that Sadia "isn't what you think she is." The letter can be read here.

Claim #3) In Sadia's new statement here she claims that the Tulare County Juvenile Court "made its findings despite the fact that both Fatima and I denied, and continue to deny that it [the abuse] actually happened."

A Marriage, Family, Child Therapist who has done investigations for Shasta County Child Protective Services reported "She [Fatima] told me she did not want to go home because she was afraid her mother was going to hit her. She said her mother hits her a lot." To learn more and read the document, click here.

Mary K. McDonald, Ph.D., a licensed psychologist who was Fatima's therapist between March of 1993 and December of 1994, reported "I am extremely concerned regarding recent reports that I have received from Fatima Loeliger that lead me to question whether this child is being abused in the care of her mother. On two separate occasions this child reported to me that she was burned 'with a match' my her mother, Sadia Ali Loeliger." To learn more and read the document, click here.

Randi Gottlieb Robinson of the Tehama County Department of Social Services in Red Bluff, California, testified as to the abuse Fatima reported to her at Sadia's Tulare County juvenile court trial for child abuse.

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This is what is being shown by both sides - needlessly - and in the current system the victims are the children involved. Isn't time we created a system whereby, the parents had EQUAL BALENCED LAW that stopped the fighting, and the violence - currently - and clearly shown by this PBS documentary.

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Both sides are / have clearly been making the case for the other. And who are the "WINNERS" in these legal contests? Those involved in escalating these arguements for pure profit - and those who are not trying to find any solutions by changing the system - but want to - instead - continue the personal injury(ies) of abusing the parent(s) and the child(ren) legally involved - in every one of these cases.

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Why do we have eyes yet cannot or refuse to see this is happening and do nothing - is amazing to me - and to so many others in - or who have gone thru - the current system and who agree?

Why do we have ears yet cannot hear the cries of our children being created by this industry who are clearly attempting to profit from those people who do not have it to spend fighting with the other parent - needlessly?
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SRene
www.ParentsWhoCare.us
Stop - the Fighting and Selfishness -
Start - Sharing and Loving your child(ren) today - and everyday we can!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

AB 862, introduced by Assemblywoman Karen Bass (D-Los Angeles), adds a section to the Penal Code which would require that upon incarceration, every inmate under the authority of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation receive materials assisting them in lowering their child support obligations. Currently inmates—many of them mothers incarcerated for non-violent drug offenses—rack up thousands of dollars in child support arrearages while they are incarcerated. The vast majority of these arrearages are not owed to custodial parents, but instead to the state to reimburse welfare and foster care costs.

Everybody loses under the current system. The state tries in vain to beat huge arrearages—sometimes $20,000 or more—out of dead broke, unskilled, and uneducated ex-offenders. Because interest and penalties accrue rapidly, many former prisoners struggle under a staggering debt they could never hope to pay off. Some return to jail because of nonpayment of child support. Others are re-incarcerated after turning to illegal activity to support themselves, because at their low wage legal jobs 40 or 50% of their paychecks are garnished to pay their arrearages and current support. For ex-offenders interested in and capable of playing a meaningful role in their children’s lives, these debts often make such a role impossible.

In all cases, the costs of the crimes committed and of re-incarcerating the ex-offenders vastly outweigh the puny sums the state collects in back child support. According to former California State Controller Kathleen Connell, the average annual cost of state-level incarceration in California is $21,000 per prisoner. By contrast, AB 862's total cost to the state is only $80,000 a year.

The current system is also unfair to ex-offenders. Child support is based on income and the ability to pay. Incarcerated parents have neither. Prisoners pay for their crimes with their time behind bars and should not be subject to other punishments which are artificially extended beyond their sentences.

The only way inmates with child support obligations can avoid this problem is by getting downward modifications or complete abatements upon entering prison. This is because the federal Bradley Amendment bars judges from retroactively modifying or forgiving child support arrearages, even when they determine that the arrearage occurred because of the obligor’s inability to pay. AB 862 helps insure that these arrearages don't accrue.