Friday, June 6, 2014

CA Protective Parents Association- Update on Washington DC events

June 2014

2014 CPPA newsletter June

Dear Friends,

The events in Washington DC in May went extremely well. Here is a brief update:

On May 7, an elegant reception was held in the Capitol Visitors' Center to honor public officials who have shown outstanding leadership in efforts to save children from abuse and violence and to address the profound societal costs of child abuse. It was put on by The Domestic Violence Legal Empowerment and Appeals Project, Child Justice, Courageous Kids Network, and Hogan Lovells law firm, sponsored by the Cummings Foundation, and supported by Boston University's College of Communications. The honorees included Judge Susan Carbon, former Director of U.S. Department of Justice Office of Violence Against Women; Garland Waller and Barry Nolan, producers of the award winning documentary No Way Out But One; Kelly Rutherford, internationally renowned actress and activist, plus Congress members honored for their work on domestic violence and efforts to improve the Hague Convention to address the issue of battered mothers fleeing because family court decisions do not protect abused children of divorce. A short montage from No Way Out But One http://nowayoutbutone.com/ was shown, along with three Public Service Announcements (PSAs) made by the Hothouse Production campaign called Ignorance is This focused on family court and created by Garland Waller's students.

These PSAs can be sent to your local television stations.

Ignorance is Institutional #https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iC5BecsQnE0
Ignorance is Inconceivable #https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZiJ8n50DYk
Ignorance is Irresponsible #https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89OnAXpnRLE
http://www.yotube.com/user/theignorancecampaign.

On May 8, there was a coalition business meeting at Hogan Lovells law firm. Three groups met during lunch to begin a year-long focus on top priorities decided upon in previous meetings.

On May 9, the National Coalition to End Domestic Violence (NCADV) held a training at George Washington University Law School for Domestic Violence advocates and members of the public, to address the need for experts in the domestic violence field to understand and testify on domestic violence and custody issues. NCADV Executive Director Rita Smith, Domestic Violence author and advocate Barry Goldstein, Kathleen Russell from Center for Judicial Excellence and Meera Fox from Child Abuse Solutions, Inc. conducted training for approximately 100 attendees.

Barry Goldstein and the NCADV are working with New York based Stop Abuse CampaignBattered Mothers Custody Conference and many others to implement the Quincy Solution, a method to reduce adult and child domestic violence homicides based on proven practices and updated with current research and technology. The modern version of the Quincy Solution must include custody courts through passage of the Safe Child Act to ensure courts give the highest priority to safety of children when making custody and visitation decisions.  
http://stopabusecampaign.com/feature/quincy-solution. 

Barry Goldstein has written a book about the Quincy Solution and plans to travel to communities to teach about its benefits. He will be available to train advocates about using new research to help protective mothers and their children, and explain how the United States can save $500,000,000,000.00 annually, mostly from reduced health care costs.  

To help support passage of the Safe Child Act and implement the Quincy Solution, go to http://stopabusecampaign.com/issues/safe-homes-for-children.

On May 10, The Battered Mothers and Kids conference was held at George Washington University Law School. This was a mini-Battered Mothers Custody Conference. BMCC organizer Mo Hannah took the year off but made a special guest speaking appearance.  The day-long event called Mothering Under Duress began with a prayer and moving talk by Rev. Beverly Schneider from Immanuel's Church in Silver Springs, MD.  Toby Kleinman was unable to attend at the last moment, and Anne Grant from the Parenting Project stepped in to show a short video on Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) consisting of simple tapping on acupuncture meridians. The video was in Spanish narrated by a first grade male teacher who found this technique astounding helpful to calm down a classroom of wriggly first graders. It has been used successfully with returning war veterans and child trauma victims to reduce PTSD symptoms. It works, but no one knows exactly why. More information can be found at http://eft.mercola.com/

Joy Silberg, PhD from the Leadership Council was the keynote speaker and presented research on turned around cases in which children were first placed with the abuser, and later returned to their safe mothers. In some cases, the perpetrator was caught harming other children. In other cases, an honest evaluation was provided. In some, the appellate court reversed the lower court decision.  The most gripping slides were of children's responses to what help them survive these ordeals. Most responded that their mothers love and belief was crucial.

Mo Hannah, PhD, professor at Siena College, spoke movingly about how she coped with the loss of her daughter, and strategies she used to survive.

Barry Goldstein spoke on the Quincy Solution and how it will save lives and money. See above.

A panel of mothers gave their heartfelt experience on how they managed to mother their children through nearly a decade of supervised visits, in some cases, while the children lived with abusers. There was an emphasis on how to prepare for the sudden return of children who are very different from the children they lost.

Anne Stevenson spoke about the money trail and the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts (AFCC) trade association that brings judges, attorneys and evaluators together to form the triad that removes resources and children from protective mothers.  (The AFCC, which is now international, began in 1963 in California to provide "continuing, specialized education for judicial officers, attorneys, and mental health professionals working with family court issues". http://www.afcc-ca.org/ )

Lobbying training was held at the end of the day, and talking points for the Congressional lobby day were provided. The focus for this year is the misuse of federal funding that harms the very children it was designed to help.

On May 11, the fifth Mothers Day demonstration at the White House began at 11:00 am with a silent vigil by Mothers of Lost Children and their advocates. They stood in a long line facing the White House with big banners describing the atrocities being committed against children. Hera McLeod took the megaphone and spoke about her son Prince who was drowned on the fourth unsupervised visit with his father.http://cappuccinoqueen.com/?page_id=17  She addressed the President and First Lady, asking them to intervene in this social justice issue. Other mothers and advocates took the megaphone and spoke out, some in tears, some in anger, some in despair. Then the mothers and advocates began the long march began around the White House, with chants, songs, call and response to bring public attention to this grave situation.
Mothers Day 2014 http://youtu.be/vR5LUNPkUtw
http://stopabusecampaign.com/feature/bring-back-our-kids

On May 12, Mothers of Lost Children and advocates lobbied Congressional Oversight and Investigations subcommittee members to convert Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Healthy Marriage Promotion and Responsible Fatherhood funding into Positive, Non-Violent Parenting funding.  Currently $150,000,000.00 of your taxpayer dollars are going every year to help people stay married, to media campaigns and counseling for fathers, and to bring felons back into their families to help prevent recidivism. Clearly, children should not be responsible for rehabilitation of hardened criminals.

A Congressional briefing was held on Safety First for Abused Children of Divorce and Separation. Eileen King moderated the briefing; Courageous Kid Jack spoke on his ideas for solutions which are to treat children who report crimes by a parent the same as by any other person, and protect the young victim witness; Meera Fox from Child Abuse Solutions, Inc. spoke on research data and training for court personnel; and Barry Goldstein discussed establishing federal guidelines to states to provide safety first for abused children of divorce.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

Good news!

Did you know you can apply for services under the Healthy Marriage and Responsible Fatherhood programs even if you are a mother?  Page 19 if the 2008 GAO audit of the Healthy Marriage Promotion and Responsible Fatherhood grant program explains that the grants are open to mothers also.

You can find federally funded fatherhood programs near you at http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/oro/healthy-marriage-and-responsible-fatherhood .  It would be interesting to apply for services and, if you are turned down. send their written response to us!

______________________________________________________________________________________________

Has any California mother lost custody specifically because of the friendly parent provision? Please let us know.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________

Great news!

SB 924 Civil Statute of Limitations and SB 926 Criminal Statute of Limitations both passed out of the California Senate and are on the way to the Assembly. Action item in California! Please help move these bills forward to extend the statute of limitation for sexual abuse survivors to give more time for criminal and civil remedies.

The Catholic Church is objecting to SB 924 for obvious reasons.

Please go to the following link and lend your support for these excellent bills http://stopabusecampaign.com/feature/california-progress

One other action you can take is to write letters of support and send them to Kenton.Stanhope@sen.ca.gov.
Here are templates to tailor and use.


<Organization/Assoc. Letter Head >
(If you are an individual supporter, please put your address below your name)

<Date>

California State Legislature
State Capitol
Sacramento, CA 95814

RE: Support SB 924-Civil Statute of Limitations: Childhood Sexual Abuse

Dear Elected Official,

On behalf of <Org./Assoc>, I am writing to urge your support for SB 924. This bill would amend the civil statute of limitations period for a victim of childhood sexual abuse to sue their abuser or entity that aided and abetted the abuse.

SB 924would change the current age cut-off from 26 years of age to 40. This change would be applied prospectively-moving forward-to both public and private entities.

Well documented medical literature, which has developed since the time the statute of limitations for civil claims was last extended, demonstrates that psychological injuries stemming from sex abuse emerge later in life, well past the age of 26. Therefore, there is a real medical need to have the statute extended. Victims routinely need decades to arrive at the psychological place where they can come forward. Abbreviated statutes of limitations mean there will be no justice at all. Moreover, perpetrators and their enablers remain cloaked in secrecy, which leads to perpetuated cycles of abuse; as the years pass, perpetrators and enablers remain unidentified, and more and more children fall prey.

Thank you for supporting SB 924 and allowing a longer time period for survivors of childhood sexual abuse to seek justice.

Sincerely,
<Signature>

<Name>
<Title>


<Organization/Assoc. Letter Head >
(If you are an individual supporter, please put your address below your name)

<Date>

California State Legislature
State Capitol
Sacramento, CA 95814

RE: Support SB 926-Criminal Statute of Limitations: Childhood Sexual Abuse

Dear Elected Official,
On behalf of <Org./Assoc>, I am writing to urge your support for SB 926. This bill would relax the statute of limitations for the most egregious crimes of childhood sexual abuse. Specifically, it would amend California Penal Code 801.1 by increasing the time these crimes may be prosecuted criminally-from age 28 to 40 of the victim.

Well documented medical literature demonstrates a high percentage of victims of childhood sexual abuse suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).  The disorder can cause memory loss or impairment, especially in childhood sexual abuse victims. The memory loss can seriously effect when the victim is able to report, if ever. Studies show that the victims that do report their abuse do so later in their life when their memories have become clearer and they are emotionally ready to do so, a complex process that may take them well into their 40's and 50's.

This bill is a modest proposal to adjust the criminal statute of limitations. Age 40 will give victims more time to overcome the hardships of coming forward and reporting these crimes to the authorities. SB 926is a preventative measure. It will get sexual predators off the streets and stop them from abusing more children, as well as giving closure to those who have already suffered the abuse.

Thank you for your support of SB 926.

Sincerely,
<Signature>

<Name>
<Title>
_________________________________________________________________________________________

For your viewing pleasure

Florida judge accused of punching attorneyhttp://www.kntu.com/2014/06/03/florida-judge-accused-of-punching-attorney/


"There is a revolving door at the courthouse, and it is preceded by a red carpet walkway for people of influence" says former prosecutor Wendy Murphy, who for decades has worked on criminal cases in the same Massachusetts courts that repeatedly let Remy off the hook and rewarded him for committing violent crimes.
Murphy says that the Remy case is a poignant example of why so many abused women and children end up dead even after the so-called "protective" arm of the state steps in, and questions the deadly effect that perverse federal funding incentives are having on the justice system's handling of such cases.
http://www.commdiginews.com/politics-2/former-prosecutor-questions-integrity-of-courts-federal-funding-used-to-punish-crime-victims-reward-violent-offenders-18529


In Connecticut, a victim of a family violence incident has the right, to file an affidavit or a warrant for the arrest of the actor in such an incident regardless of whether the peace officer investigating the incident determines that cause exists for an arrest. In other words, if a cop and prosecutor refuse to arrest a perpetrator, the victim can file his or her own request for the arrest of the perpetrator. It is unclear exactly how that would work, however. General Statutes § 46b-38b (d)(2), http://www.cga.ct.gov/2011/pub/chap815e.htm


Songwriter Peter Love sings Let My Children Go!
https://myspace.com/peterlovesoc/music/song/let-my-children-go-36804361-38731681

___________________________________________________________________________________




Heading

Subheading
Place your own text here. Metafile high record infrared data patch encapsulated, proxy, transmission, harmonic. Cascading coordinated patch broadband distributed sampling connectivity recognition analog, element. Encapsulated data, arrray cache developer element. Record, fragmentation sampling remote phaselock ethernet services, sampling reflective. Optional Link


Example Image - 150 x 100 pixels
Subheading
Replace this with your own text. Distributed silicon recursive internet debugged phaselock logistically logarithmic log. Developer, port sampling, sequential logistically digital. Includes recursive, plasma infrared processor silicon pulse resistor coordinated phase, includes debugged read-only for. Inversion read-only recognition frequency, cache prompt phase record element transponder indeterminate. System logistically coordinated. Optional Link


Feature Heading
Replace this with your own text. Distributed silicon recursive internet debugged phaselock logistically logarithmic log. Developer, port sampling, sequential logistically digital. Includes recursive, plasma infrared processor silicon pulse resistor coordinated phase, includes debugged read-only for. Inversion read-only recognition frequency, cache prompt phase record element transponder indeterminate. System logistically coordinated disk potentiometer, high, normalizing led, procedural pulse infrared deviation with cascading.
Replace this with your own text. Distributed silicon recursive internet debugged phaselock logistically logarithmic log. Developer, port sampling, sequential logistically digital. Includes recursive, plasma infrared processor silicon pulse resistor coordinated phase, includes debugged read-only for. Inversion read-only recognition frequency, cache prompt phase record element transponder indeterminate. System logistically coordinated disk potentiometer, high, normalizing led, procedural pulse infrared deviation with cascading. Optional Link

Sincerely,


Name
Position
Company

CA Protective Parents Association | | cppa001@aol.com | http://www.protectiveparents.com
P. O. Box 15284
Sacramento, CA 95851

Text | Optional Link



Copyright © 20XX. All Rights Reserved.


CA Protective Parents Association | P. O. Box 15284 | Sacramento | CA | 95851

No comments:

Post a Comment