Parental Rights
20080129 14:44There is an attack on Parental Rights.
No matter what form of discipline we choose, we are criticised. Spank? Ooo! No no! Abuse! Don’t spank? What? You’re letting your child get away with everything? Where does your child go to school? What? He doesn’t? You homeschool? Are you crazy? You cannot possibly teach your child by yourself. I mean, seriously. What are you thinking? Enroll her in your nearest public or private school immediately! Instill a love for learning? Oh, that’s silly speak! It should be forced. Sheesh.
Check out these TRUE stories.
A thirteen-year-old boy in Washington State was removed from his parents after he complained to school counselors that his parents took him to church too often. His school counselors had encouraged him to call Child Protective Services with his complaint, which led to his subsequent removal and placement in foster care. It was only after the parents agreed to a judge’s requirement of less-frequent church attendance that they were able to recover their son.
In the early 1980s, a landmark parental rights case reached the Washington State Supreme Court. The case involved 13-year-old Sheila Marie Sumey, whose parents were alarmed when they found evidence of their daughter’s participation in illegal drug activity and escalating sexual involvement. Their response was to act immediately to cut off the negative influences in their daughter’s life by grounding her.
But when Sheila went to her school counselors complaining about her parent’s actions, she was advised that she could be liberated from her parents because there was “conflict between parent and child.” Listening to the advice she had received, Sheila notified Child Protective Services (CPS) about her situation. She was subsequently removed from her home and placed in foster care.
Her parents, desperate to get their daughter back, challenged the actions of the social workers in court. They lost. Even though the judge found that Sheila’s parents had enforced reasonable rules in a proper manner, the state law nevertheless gave CPS the authority to split apart the Sumey family and take Sheila away.
Absolutely ridiculous, right?
You’ve probably heard parents and nonparents rant on about how children should be considered equals. Oh yes, they should be treated with love and respect, but they should not have authority to do whatever they want. We are the parents. God has given us authority over our children. They do not have the capability to make wise choices for themselves. We have to guide them gently, and sometimes, not so gently. The government is attempting to take our rights as parents away.
What about this astonishing story?
A West Virginia mother was shocked when a local circuit judge and a family court judge ordered her to share custody of her four-year-old daughter with two of the girl’s babysitters. Referring to the sitters as “psychological co-parents,” the justices first awarded full custody to them, only permitting the mother to visit her daughter four times a week at McDonalds. Eventually she was granted primary custody, but forced to continue to share her daughter with the sitters.
When her case finally reached the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals in October 2007, the beleaguered mother was relieved to finally be granted full custody of her daughter.
In their October 25 opinion Supreme Court justices wrote that they were “deeply troubled by the utter disregard” for the mother’s rights. One justice referred to the mother’s right as the “paramount right in the world.”
Chief Justice Robin Davis summed up the case in one simple question.”Why does a natural parent have to prove fitness when she has never been found unfit?” he asked.
Crazy. Absolutely, nutty buddy!
“The precarious state of parental rights within our nation is reason enough for serious concern. With cases like these filling the courts, every parent should be concerned about the protection and preservation of their rights.
But another storm is rapidly forming on the horizon.
International law that seeks to empower the government to intrude upon the child-parent relationship is becoming an increasing threat. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), a seemingly harmless treaty with dangerous implications for American families, is approaching possible ratification by the United States.
If this treaty is made binding upon our country, the government would have the power to intervene in any child’s life to advance its definition of “the best interests of the child.” The scenarios that could occur—and are occurring—as a result of this dangerous notion are both manifold and frightening.
Under the UNCRC, instead of following due process, government agencies would have the power to override your parental choices at their whim because they determine what is in “the best interest of the child.”
In essence, the UNCRC applies the legal status of abusive parents to all parents. This means that the burden of proof falls on the parent to prove to the State that they are good parents—when it should fall upon the State to prove that their investigation is not without cause.” (ParentalRights.org)
Go to www.ParentalRights.org RIGHT now to sign the petition to protect our rights as parents, as the people who truly love and adore our children and want to raise them with morals, grace, and love! And, pass it on, of course!
Merikalyn wants to draw an E, so I show her how. I draw a lowercase e, and she laughs. “It looks like a curl.”
