Family Courts have long treated children like second-class citizens, placing parental “rights” above the desires and developmental needs of children.  In recent decades, their routine practices, such as the forcible transfer of children from competent primary caregivers to the custody of alleged abusers, often ignoring children’s explicit objections, amount to a policy of torture. In the United States, three-quarters of abused children in contested custody cases end up with the abusing parent, usually the one with greater financial means. 

The vast literature on Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) confirms that the neurological, physiological, and psychological impact of acute childhood traumas like forcible separation from the loving parent and court-sanctioned imprisonment with the abusing one rises to the level of severe pain or suffering—and thus torture—under international law.

Indeed, this may be one of the worst forms of torture, which can result in enduring damage if subjected to toxic stress at crucial developmental stages.

Toxic stress is a response that can occur when a child experiences strong, frequent, and prolonged adversity, such as living with a parent who mistreats them.  Separation from primary supports—who in essence serve as a buffer from the adverse effects of toxic stress—worsens the long-term damage.

The Family Court practice of routinely and casually ripping even nursing infants away from the caregiver they are attached to, to consign them to chronic neglect and exposure to violence, in the name of “parental rights,” forebodes lifelong physical and psychological problems.

Therefore, the Family Court norm of separating abused children from their primary caregivers to deliver them to abusers is the cause of intense suffering in both the children and their caregiving parents, but especially in children, and amounts to court-sanctioned torture.  As expected, hundreds of such children transferred by Family Courts in the United States either kill themselves or are killed by the abusing parent, year after year, reaching epidemic proportions.

As a person who has experienced firsthand the disheartening scenario where judges did not review crucial paperwork in a child custody case, I am compelled to launch this petition. I spent countless hours and thousands of dollars preparing documentation that judges admitted they did not even glance over. Their decisions seemed to be made off of a template with no considerations for the unique aspects of each individual case. It's time this changed. 

Our legal system consistently prioritizes parental rights over the welfare of the child, a deeply flawed approach that often results in children being placed in potentially harmful situations. This petition demands a critical review of this approach and firm accountability for judges who knowingly place children in dangerous scenarios.

In 2020, nearly 690,000 children were victims of abuse and neglect in the United States, some of whom could possibly have been saved with better judicial accountability and decision making (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services). Yet, parental rights continue to overpower due diligence to child welfare.

Every child's case is different and should be treated as such. Overgeneralization and lack of careful examination in each case should not be the norm. It's high time we place the child’s welfare as the top priority in our judicial system, not secondary to parental rights.

We must demand legislation and policies that hold judges accountable for their decisions in child custody cases. It's time to advocate for children's safety and well-being over everything else. Please sign this petition to signal your support for child protection, judicial accountability, and the overhaul of the current system favoring parental rights over the child's best interest.

I know I am not alone. I can only imagine that people have similar and worse examples than I have. Power is in numbers. It is time to start looking at Family court as a way to PROTECT our children. It is our job as a society to protect our most precious assets.