Court removes McClain County judge from custody case
source: http://www.newsok.com/court-removes-judge-from-custody-case/article/3428191?custom_click=lea...
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- regjoeschmo
- added this
Mychal Cox, 22, has been battling for nearly three years to regain physical custody of her oldest son, Mason, right. Cox said nobody has questioned her fitness to be a parent to her youngest son, Carter, 2.
Associate District Judge Charles Gray used an expansive interpretation of grandparent visitation laws to give the paternal grandparents of a 4-year-old boy physical custody of the child five days a week while limiting the mother to two days.
"Five days per week of ‘visitation’ is a custody determination, not a determination of reasonable grandparent visitation,” the Supreme Court said in a unanimous opinion.
"What began with the intention of protecting the best interests of the child has become a de facto guardianship with no end in sight.”
The Supreme Court criticized Judge Gray for repeatedly failing to determine whether the mother, Mychal Cox, was a fit parent after she completed a court-recommended improvement plan and sought the restoration of her parental rights in early 2007.
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viva_canuks
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"The moral fitness of the parties ... was indirectly addressed during these proceedings wherein testimony was presented by the mother that she does not attend church, has had a second child out of wedlock and is cohabitating with an individual not her husband. ... The moral fitness factor as regards grandparents was proven to be that the grandfather is a pastor of a church and the child attends regularly with the grandparents and the grandparents maintain a marital relationship wherein the child has resided most of his life.”
How many parents would be deemed "unfit" if THIS was the criteria used to assess ability to parent????
I know we do not have the whole story here, but from what I could gather, this custody/ visitation arrangement is based on moral standings and NOT her fitness to provide the necessities of life (as she is not in question for raising her 2 year old).
This whole thing seems asinine. Except for cases that warrant additional guardians (in lieu of parents), I do not think grandparents should have ANY rights or input on the way that a child is raised. As sad as it may be, if a parent is choosing to keep the child away from the grandparents, it is their right as a parent just as much as it is there right to keep their child away from any other person out there.
- 2 years ago
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viva_canuks
