Monday, June 30, 2014

National - According to Family Court - Field Trip to Bar Late at Night is Good for Child

File this under lack of Common Sense within the Family Court System -

As a parent if your four year old child came to you and told you she was scared of being in a situation your ex put her in what would you do? If your child was taken to an adult environment, a bar, late at night where there was loud music, alcohol and intoxicated adults involved. What would you do?  Would it make a difference if you were involved in a divorce and custody battle? It might.

Most parents would try to take some kind of protective action for their child. If a Guardian ad litem was involved – you would complain to them; after all, that is what they are put in place for. Clearly a child (no matter what the age) being put into an inappropriate adult situation is not in the child’s best interest. Nor does the child feel emotionally safe in these situations. Common sense would dictate that this child (or any child) should be protected and removed from this situation or environment.

The child in question told her father that she felt scared being in the bars to which she was taken by her mother. She witnessed fights and yelling, and her mom's boyfriend being pushed around. “Bad words” were often being said between people. When the father brought this to the Guardian ad litem's attention (the person who is supposed to be looking out for the best interest of this child) – the Guardian ad litem stated that the father simply did not trust that his four year old daughter was in good hands. The father, concerned for his daughters safety, continued to make his point and express his concern. His concern was not taken seriously by the Guardian ad litem. Instead of investigating whether or not the situation of a child’s late night visit to bars was good for the child, this Guardian ad litem continued to blame the father for trying to cause trouble.

How are we to believe, as this Guardian ad litem and the Judge would seem to be doing, that this little girl's 'best interest' was served by late night visits to bars that she found frightening? What about the child's emotional  safety? Is this kind of place a good moral environment for children? To say the least of what this child is learning from the experience? We would say that common sense was not used by the child’s mother nor by the Guardian ad litem for that matter. Sadly, this type of poor judgment is frequently seen with quite a number of Guardians ad litem in the State of Maine. Examples like this are the reason why there is now - and has been - a very real need for Guardian ad litem and Family Court reform.

NationalGALert is a grassroots organization dedicated to supporting parents who have been abused by the family court system. In addition we educate and promote reform through legislation - both here in Maine as well as nationally. We would encourage you to contact us at NationalGALalert@gmail.com and tell us your story. In addition we may be found on Facebook.

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3 comments:

  1. Anyone with a shred of common sense will understand that the above example would be unacceptable for a child to be exposed to. It is obvious that this GAL whom the parents have to trust will do what is fair is operating outside of her role.

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  2. An Guardian ad litem supervisor,"Crystal Marie View" was arrested June 22nd 2014 in Clay County Florida on Domestic Battery charges pleds "not guilty" today

    Would it be fair to ask for her removal/ replacement of all of her pending cases in family court untiil this criminal matter is determined??

    fathers in the family court system get treated like this more often than we know

    Positions such as this. "Guardian Ad lLitem supervisor" should be held at a higher standard

    We are talking about the safety and well being of children lives. and it's obvious her judgement is clouded.

    any thoughts???

    

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    Replies
    1. Yes it would be fair to ask for the removal of the GAL supervisor - that being said you are asking the court to remove one of their own. It will not happen - while the Judiciary can in theory apply justice fairly in most cases. It is almost impossible for it to police its own.

      GALs and any officer of the court have the power to do great harm as well as good. They are also poorly supervised and trained. Think of it this way - would you go to a doctor for heart surgery if you knew that doctor only had 30 hours of training? Who was not even tested after that training? Who has had no supervision at all? Of course not - yet GALs are doing what they want and the public has no idea if the GAL they are getting knows their stuff or is just a functional idiot. Unfortunately there is no quick fix to the huge problems we face in Family Courts.

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