Posted by lamamitamala 
Category: 
Earlier this month I wrote about how one mami is being kept from her daughter by a justice system that claims to think of the best interest of the child. As the next court date approaches and a mother and her supportive family struggle to garner support and attention from the community and media, many have asked for some background on the story of Anyisah.
Many people have emailed us asking, “How did Anyisah end up in family court system?”
Answer:
* Angeline separated from Aniysah’s father because he was physically, verbally, and emotionally abusive. Angeline has documentation of his abuse and the court orders forcing him to take anti-battering classes. Judge Fernando Camacho issued an Order of Protection for the father to stay away from Angeline and Aniysah, May of 2005.
* Even though Angeline separated from Aniysah’s father, he continued to harass and terrorize Angeline and Aniysah by fabricating lies to Child Protective Services (CPS) and filing for full custody of Aniysah. June 2005 — October 2006 Judge Morgenstern issued several Orders of Protection for the father to stay from Angeline.
* Judge Morgenstern granted the father unsupervised visits on the weekend with Aniysah at the father’s mother’s house. However, just as the unsupervised weekend visits begin, Aniysah begins to display unusual behaviors. She told the social worker that someone named “grandpa” touched her inappropriately. Aniysah developed a rash between her legs and Angeline takes her daughter to the doctor and the doctor reports the rash to CPS as a possible issue of child abuse. At this point, the doctor at the emergency room reported on the possibility of Aniysah being abused while in her father’s care.
What happens next is how women of color are violated not just by their familial situations but then by a court system that is supposed to protect women and children. Multiple victimization and multiple discoveries of new ways of survival and resistance.
Please stay tuned here for actions you can take to help reunite a mother and daughter.
Via / Document the Silence
Tags: Where's Aniyseh? —
August 11th, 2009 at 6:29 pm
The fuck? The gov’t. figured out that letting Anyisah’s father back into her life was getting her abused, and so they took her away from both parents instead of revoking his visits? The fuck??
August 16th, 2009 at 10:51 am
when I posted this story (after I had read about it on hermanaresist.com) – I added some personal reflections on times that I , or my friends, have had run ins with Child Protection Services – to create more awareness of the kinds of things that happen, for those who haven’t experienced it themselves.
I had CPS visit my house once, was threatened once, and have had at least two friends in this situation. HOnestly one of my first reactions when my daughter turned 18 was “thank goodness, no one can take her away from me now” I would say this affected feelings in my writing as well – Knowing how vulnerable parenting is did make me feel afraid my own writing could be used against me and made me feel lot better about publishing my book after she was grown.
As all low income and mothers of color now, the right to family is not a right for everyone alike, and there has been so many stories, our own and others, of being threatened or caught up in a system that is supposed to protect children but often unfairly targets low income and people of color, while at the same time, letting real abuses go by without helping.
Child Protection Services, Adoption Agencies, The courts, medical centers, Doctors reporting you on hospitals, etc. (Also if you are reliant on any social services as well you can be policed in a different way and scrutinized as you try to gain resources for your child.) In my own experiences as a young single low income white mother I have been reported on by CPR for rejecting some western medicine practices and some tests, as well as having a midwife, which was illegal in colorado at that time. I have also been threatened by a neighbor, that she would call CPS on us, because she did not like something that happened at another neighbors house, that had nothing to do with me. I know the vulnerability and the fear of these kinds of threats. I had a friend who was nursing a toddler, and didn’t “look right” to the nurses when she went into the emergancy room to get ashma medicine as she was having attack, not being the picture of what a mother is supposed to look like – and CPR was sent to her house to look into her kitchen and return to make sure she had more food. Its humiliating. Also I have had a friend who was told her toddler needed to have her own bedroom, or she would be taken away and this would be called abuse – after the police were involved when her daughter was in her father’s care (who she was separated from and not fond of for his abusive behavior, was trying to have little to do with him). More recently I heard the story of a young radical (white hippy in a hippy Oregon town) fathers case when the doctors viewed his daughters accidental fall with suspicion. His parents were able to pay for lawyers – while not everyone has the access to this kind of thing.
these (my personal stories I am sharing with you) are predominately white folks stories, poor whites and alternative parenting, punk parents. I know it is much worse for communities of color, and you can see our white privelege in these stories in how mostly we were afraid, and judged, but didn’t have our children taken from us due to resources or being let by after being checked out for whatever reason. (my friend had to borrow money to put more food in her kitchen in order to pass their inspection)
What I think it is, is biases and institutionalized racism and classism, as well as the burocracy and burn out, leads to having children being caught up in a system and taken away from their parents when their parents love them and never abused them, they never were in danger. In certain ways, being poor, or being a person of color, as well as other issues like being a gender non-conforming person, can be a crime in this country. Its more complex than I can state in a quick commentary on this case (and also how this is used in a political way against activists, the many many nuances and how some children – children of color – are not given the same treatment as others), but I wanted to share also personal stories with an issue that often comes up and people feel ashamed about: like “what did you do for this to happen” but it happens way more frequently then many people know.