CPPA February 2016 Newsletter

California Protective Parents Association Newsletter Dear Friends, CA Protective Parents Association would love you to Like our Facebook page!  LEGISLATION Center for Judicial Excellence and CPPA are working together toward the goal of giving younger children a voice in family courts regarding their wishes for custody and visitation, if they wish to speak to the judge. California Family Code section 3042 allows children age 14 and older to speak directly to the judge. The process has worked well for teenagers for the past 6 years. Now we believe children age 7 and above should have that same right.  Stay tuned for more details!  STUDY ON CALIFORNIA FAMILY COURT Michelle Mercurio is a doctoral student at Saybrook University in California.  She is doing a study on the California family court system about the experiences of protective mothers of abused children, as part of her Psychology Dissertation course.   Her survey should take at least an hour. It includes an optional follow-up phone call.  She will need at least 15 participants for the study.  If you are interested in taking the survey, you have to be female, 18-years-old or older, and previously had or have a California family law case with an abused child.  You do not need to finish the survey, and you may skip questions.  You also do not need to participate in the optional follow-up phone call.  Thank you for your participation.  The study will remain open for a couple of weeks.  Please click HERE to take the survey! PETITION FOR CHILD PHYSICAL AND SEXUAL SAFETY This petition is about child physical and sexual safety. The California Constitution states in part that all citizens have a right to seek and obtain safety. Yet children are treated as property, not as human beings and citizens, and their safety is compromised. This is the most important social justice and human rights issue of our times. That's why I created a petition to The California State House, The California State Senate, Governor Jerry Brown, and The United States House of Representatives, which says: "We call upon the state of California to ensure that child physical and sexual safety is the first and highest priority in all custody and visitation decisions. Currently, children who report abuse are frequently taken from safe mothers and given to their violent and/or incestuous fathers by family/divorce court judges. This must stop." Click HERE to add your name! ARTICLE Thank you for contacting the Boston Globe after the release of Spotlight, the movie about the Globe team that broke the story of the systematic coverup of pedophile priests by the Catholic church. The first of a series of articles was published on January 30. The authors understand system "failure" (which is often system "success" for perpetrators.) It is not a perfect article (for example, we all know guardians ad litem are the kiss of death), but it is a good start. If you have a Massachusetts case, you could contact the authors to discuss the local issues. Please applaud their efforts and let them know that GALs are not the answer! Source: Boston Globe State Fumbled for Answers While Girl Was in Limbo By Nestor Ramos and Evan Allen  GLOBE STAFF  JANUARY 30, 2016 The bad stuff hurt too much, the girl said, so she took trips in her head. She imagined she was playing in the park, not lying on the basement floor or standing naked in the bathroom where, she said, her father touched her. He told her not to tell anyone, she said, but she told anyway. She told her mother, who went to the police. She told her therapist, who wrote a letter. She told the people who supervised her visits with her mother, who filed reports. "I tried to tell anyone who would listen, but no one believed me," said the girl, then 7, during a trauma evaluation conducted last spring. The Globe is withholding her name to protect her identity. To read the rest of the story, click here.  CA Protective Parents Association | | cppa001@aol.com | http://www.protectiveparents.com P. O. Box 15284 Sacramento, CA 95851 www.protectiveparents.com

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

California Protective Parents Assoication Newsletter

California Protective Parents Association Newsletter Dear Friends, Filmmaker Rachel Meyrick is starting us off well in 2016. She URGENTLY needs 30 second video clips from you for her upcoming documentary. The Deadline is ThisSunday, Jan. 24th! Here is a note from Rachel to you: Hi Ladies! I am a UK filmmaker working on a film called "What doesn't kill me"www.whatdoesntkillme.com about child custody and domestic violence. Some of you may know me already so a big HELLO to everyone. I am editing the film and it is really going to make some waves. I have some great interviews with the likes of Barry Goldstein, Jennifer Collins, Tammy Wilson, Joan Meier, Phyllis Chesler, the Loudon twins, and many more. The film sheds light on the two choices that battered mothers have: to stay or to go. I cannot afford to go to the BMCC in May this year but would really like some help from you guys. I would like anyone who can to sit in front of their webcam or have a friend video you from a phone (make sure phones are held horizontal, not vertical, with no radio or TV noise on in the background) and state the following whilst looking into camera: My name is ___ from ___ county in ____ state I lost custody of my child(ren) to their abusive father _____ months ago. I last saw my child/children ____ days ago. The clips should be no more than 30 seconds. They can then be emailed directly to me:  rachelmeyrick@mac.com. If you do not want to be recognized, please state very clearly within your email - I will then blur you and re-voice your words.    Should I get enough clips, my intention is to create a compilation section of the film in which multiple moms from multiple states are all saying similar things. I have some interviews with protector moms but I want the audience to be utterly overwhelmed with the amount of protector moms out there who are without their kids. Once I have you in the edit, I will be emailing you a release form to sign and send back to me (this just gives me your permission to use the footage in the film) I will need everything on or before 24th January, so please do not delay!   I really appreciate your time hope you are all well and safe.   Huge respect, love, light and peace, Rachel Meyrick www.rachelmeyrick.com +44 7960 861 368 +441225 319 484   A Note From Mo Hannah & Liliane Miller About the 2016 BMCC The BMCC is an annual conference addressing and seeking remedies for the legal, psychological, financial, and social traumas suffered by battered mothers who seek protection from an abusive ex-partner in family/divorce courts across the nation and the world. The next Battered Mothers Custody Conference (the BMCC XII) is titled Reflect, Recharge, and Regroup. It is scheduled for Mothers' Day weekend, May 6th at 10 a.m. through May 8th at noon, at the Radisson Hotel, 205 Wolf Road, Albany, New York. The half-day schedule on Sunday is designed to enable participants to spend time with their families on Mothers' Day. It also will allow participants to leave the conference on Sunday afternoon to go to Washington, DC for the Mothers of Lost Children's activities, which begin on Monday May 9th. We plan to demonstrate at the White House and lobby Congress. If there are enough people interested, we can rent a van to go from Albany to DC. www.batteredmotherscustodyconference.org The Survivorship Ritual Abuse and Child Abuse Conference - May 2016 A Note from SurvivorShip to you Dear Friends, We will be having our annual conference on May 7 - 8, 2016 at the Executive Inn & Suite - Oakland, CA 94606.  Information about the conference can be found at:  https://survivorship.org/survivorship-ritual-abuse-and-child-abuse-2016-conference/ Speakers will include: Wendy Hoffman, Dr. Alison Miller, Dr. Steve Frankel, Neil Brick, Dr. Randy Noblitt, Pam Perskin and others.  Hotel reservations include complimentary parking, complimentary deluxe continental breakfast and free shuttles to and from the Oakland airport. We will be offering two free lunches to all attendees. We expect this year to be another excellent conference, and we are offering free registration scholarship to accepted applicants. More information is at the conference website: https://survivorship.org/survivorship-ritual-abuse-and-child-abuse-2016-conference/. Questions about the conference can be emailed to: conference2016@survivorship.org. CJE Video Exposes Children Being Taken From Safe Parents Center for Judicial Excellence www.centerforjudicialexcellence.org has made a wonderful brief video explaining the social justice issue of children being taken from safe parents (usually mothers) and given to abusers. Check it out-  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9PGN1Ue3Xs  Please Sign A Protective Mother's Change.org Petition A protective mother asks us to sign this Change.org petition below, so please take a moment to add your name in support! https://www.change.org/p/r-seth-williams-i-respectfully-request-that-you-release-all-records-relating-to-my-brothers-murder   CA Protective Parents Association | | cppa001@aol.com | http://www.protectiveparents.com P. O. Box 15284 Sacramento, CA 95851 www.protectiveparents.com