Petition Update: A Call for Collective Action

Every victim of the family-court system, every survivor of domestic violence, and every parent with disabilities has been affected by the same failures—silencing, disbelief, and a lack of accountability. These are not isolated experiences. They are systemic.

We must come together to change a family-court system that too often prioritizes power, money, and procedure over truth, safety, and due process. Survivors should not be punished for speaking out. Parents with disabilities should not be treated as unfit by default. Children should not lose safe, loving parents because allegations were accepted without evidence or investigation.

Real reform will only happen when our voices are united. Oversight, transparency, ADA compliance, evidence-based decisions, and accountability at every level—judges, attorneys, and institutions—are not optional. They are essential.

This is not about one case. It is about protecting families, children, and fundamental rights. Change will come when we stand together and demand a family-court system that serves justice instead of perpetuating harm.

We are someone’s mother or father, aunt or uncle, cousin, neighbor, or friend. No one should be treated with hostility or unfairness in family court because they are not wealthy, because they stayed home to raise children, because they lost a job, or because they lack power or connections.

In many situations, abusers prevent their partners from working—not to protect the family, but to maintain control or protect their own reputation. This creates financial dependence. Later, that forced lack of income is used against the survivor in family court to portray them as unstable or unfit. Economic control is a recognized form of domestic abuse, yet it is too often ignored by the legal system.

Abusers often have no problem taking from their victims for years—financially, emotionally, and physically—while benefiting from their labor, care, and support. But when a survivor speaks out, seeks help from law enforcement, or tries to enter a domestic-violence shelter, the family-court system is too often weaponized against them. With money, status, and legal representation, false narratives and unverified accusations are used to punish survivors and wrongfully separate children from a loving parent.

This is not in the best interest of children. It is not justice.

We must come together—survivors, parents with disabilities, families, and allies—to change the family-court system so it protects the vulnerable instead of rewarding abuse.

— Sally Vatte