Safe Child Act section The Need to be Heard by Barry Goldstein

by Barry Goldstein

Last month my article was about legislation needed to stop custody courts from routinely sending children into the custody of dangerous abusers. My meeting with a state legislator led to her request that I prepare a proposal that would be the basis of legislation to reform the broken system. I would like to thank Toby Kleinman for her assistance in drafting this proposal. Immediately below will be my proposal for a Safe Child Act and I will then discuss why I think this would make a difference. You are most welcome to post or otherwise use this proposal and this article in support of efforts to reform the system. In fact I hope many people will take the proposal for a Safe Child Act and ask their legislators to sponsor it. 

Safe Child Act 

Purpose: Improve the Safety of Children involved in Child Custody Cases  



The Need to be Heard 

Many protective mothers and their supporters are appropriately angry at the mistreatment they have received. I think I have some understanding of this feeling as I was similarly mistreated by the court system which suspended my law license in retaliation for exposing an abusive judge. Attacks on the offending court professionals, however justified, may feel good but do not help the cause of reforming the broken system. Those with the power to support reforms will not be convinced by such attacks. In other words, the name calling does not help our children. 

The focus of my proposal is to make safety of children the first priority for custody and visitation decisions. I particularly like this formulation because it would be hard for legislators or judges to disagree that safety should be the first priority. Indeed their major objection might be their belief that it already is. In practice the ideological view that both parents should be treated the same (regardless of past parenting) has been given a much higher priority and implemented in a way that frequently separate children from their mothers who are usually their primary attachment figures. Focusing on safety reframes the discussion in many useful ways. 

One of the best strategies for supporting protective mothers is focusing on the children. Abusers seek to frame mothers’ attempts at protecting their children as if it was only a reflection of her anger at him. In the infamous Shockome case the court treated statements by the mother that the children should eat healthy meals, dress appropriately for the weather and avoid adult oriented programming as if this was proof of alienation. It was considered an attack on the father who engaged in all these harmful parenting practices. A safety first requirement would make the mother’s concerns important because they concern the health and safety of the children while the father’s complaint had no safety component. 

Most states have laws or case law that sets forth factors to be considered in determining custody. As protective mothers are usually focused on abuse cases it is worth remembering that most cases do not involve domestic violence or child abuse which is why they usually settle much more easily. Most of the factors are reasonable and would be appropriate to consider when no safety risks are involved. Every state has laws requiring the courts to consider domestic violence and the purpose was to safeguard the safety of children. Unfortunately few states specifically require safety to be the first priority and the standard flawed practices have emphasized less important issues and prevented court professionals from recognizing when children are at risk. In many ways this proposal would simply require what the legislatures thought they were creating when they passed their domestic violence laws.