The Erosion of Parental Rights and Its Bearing at the State Legislature

There is a legal term, fundamental right.  An example would be the freedom of speech.  This is written in the constitution under the First Amendment but some are not written there.  Some have been determined with court decisions over time.  This has been so regarding Parental Rights until a court decision in 1982 and has been eroding ever since.  This is why we need this to be a constitutional amendment.  Here are some examples.  If you really want to know more and be proactive, click the 36 minute clip below.  You can visit www.parentalrights.org to sign a petition for a proposed parental rights amendment to the U.S. Constitution also.

  Some examples eroding parental rights:

 1982 – A 13 year old boy complained to a school official about his parents making him go to church 3x a week.  The school official called a social worker who unilaterally made the decision to take the boy from school on a Friday and put him into a foster home.  The child did not ask for this.  There was no notification to the parents until after the fact.  The child remained in foster care until the court date that following Tuesday.  It was determined that the church was fine and the parents were not abusive in any way other than being inconsiderate of their son’s wishes.  The judge determined the boy was to only go to church once a week.  If the parents did not agree, their son would remain in foster care.

 2005 – David and Tonia Parker – Their kindergartner came home with a book called “My Two Dads” as part of a sex education curriculum for this level.  No notification was given to the parents.  When David repeatedly consulted the Principal to have their son opted out of this part concerning the book, David was eventually arrested for parental neglect and truancy.

 2006 – My own story – My daughter was going to enter the 6^th grade and was going to be taking health class.  I requested several times a written copy of the curriculum or at least a syllabus of the course to review its content.  This was in June.  I was resisted and none was going to be given by the teacher and the administration was unable to obtain a written curriculum or syllabus of the course, until October.  I had to pay over $140 for it to get also.  It was a disorganized mess of magazine articles, internet articles, personal notations and statistics.  There was no list of specific homework assignments, books to read, projects, movie list or any clear outline of subjects and the order they were going to be taught.  Through the efforts of other concerned parents, we did learn of some questionable material that had been taught at the 6^th and 8^th grade level with no parental notification for the past four or more years.  An example is the movie, “Bang Bang You’re Dead”.  This stirred up a hornet’s nest  where one episode shows a boy forcing another boy at gun point into a barrel of water, closing the lid, and unloading the clip in his revolver showing blood and water spewing out of the fresh bullet holes in the barrel.  It was this kid’s form of justice and method to stop bullying.  Over 125 parents showed up at the next board meeting where normally you’re lucky to see a handful. 

 What I started to learn was that once a child is dropped off to the doors of some public schools, the parental rights of that child begin to evaporate having no or little say over what the child will be taught or exposed to.

 2009 – Sid Daughty case – A child was having some chest pain and health issues.  The doctor wanted a drug test done which the parents agreed to.  What they found out later was that the parents of the 13 yr old could not get the results of those drug tests without the son’s permission.  This is actually true according to Federal Law.   Currently, a medical facility at or referred to by schools could give your 13 yr old child birth control provisions and not be required to tell the parent(s).  The school does have to get your permission to administer an aspirin though.

3/2011 – “In March of this year, 8-year-old Jacob Stieler was diagnosed with Ewing Sarcoma, a dangerous bone cancer. His parents took him to a highly-rated children’s oncology center in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Jacob had surgery to remove the tumor, which was followed by several rounds of chemotherapy. The treatment was incredibly difficult, and Jacob’s mom, Erin, told me that when she looked her son in the eyes, she knew in her heart that he simply could not survive many more rounds of these drugs.

Erin and Ken, Jacob’s mom and dad, joined by hundreds of others, prayed for Jacob and his complete recovery.

After all of these rounds of chemotherapy were completed, there was a PET scan done to check on the status of the cancer. There was no evidence of cancer detected in Jacob’s body.  The doctors wanted to give Jacob several more rounds of chemotherapy and radiation, despite the clean PET scan. When asked why they wanted to keep giving Jacob these incredibly dangerous drugs, the doctors replied that this was “the standard of care” for his illness.

Jacob’s parents begged the doctors to make an individual diagnosis, rather than simply following unbending standards. But the doctors were steadfast. All children with this cancer needed multiple rounds of these drugs—regardless of PET scan results, the doctors contended.

Jacob’s parents did extensive study of the side effects of the five different chemotherapy drugs that the doctor wanted to administer. None were FDA approved for usage on children.  And they believed that the risk of the drugs was far greater than the risk of recurrent cancer, since Jacob had a clean PET scan. They said no to the doctors. No more chemotherapy treatment for now.

But the doctors would not take no for an answer. They called child protective services in Jacob’s county and asked the agency to file charges against the family for medical neglect.

After looking into the matter, both the local CPS agency and the local prosecuting attorney refused to file charges. They believed that the parents were making reasonable decisions for Jacob.

The doctors still would not take no for an answer. They called higher authorities in the state level CPS agency. The doctors had to make several calls before they finally found someone who would agree with them.

As a result of all of these calls, the local CPS agency was pressured into filing medical neglect charges against the parents.

The local prosecutor still refused to take a case against the family, so the state level CPS officials hired an independent private lawyer to serve as the prosecutor against Ken and Erin Stieler.

A jury trial is scheduled for early January to determine if the doctors will be given the authority to take over the medical decision-making for Jacob.

The doctor said during the deposition that she thinks that she should make the call—for every child in this situation.” HSLDA 11/29/11 email newsletter by Michael Farris

Karl Marx said you must destroy the family unit and power in order for socialism to thrive. 

 For more examples of the state usurping the rights of parents, go to my 5/11/11 post.

There is a treaty at the UN called the Convention Rights of a Child or the UNCRC.  Any treaty ratified by the Senate supersedes any state laws of the United States.  President Clinton approved this treaty.  The U.S. is the only country in the UN that has not yet ratified this treaty.  What is happening though, some states aren’t going to wait around and are passing state law with exact statements of the UNCRC treaty that dictate how our children are to be raised.  We need people in the NYS legislature that will not allow this to happen.  If elected ( or not), I would fight against this erosion of parental rights.