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Press Release - September 12 ,
2005 Contact:
Dr. Mo Hannah
For Immediate Release
A powerful new PBS documentary,
Breaking the Silence: Children’s Stories, premiers on October 20, 2005
(contact your local channel for exact dates and times, which may vary in your
area). This compelling new documentary chronicles the impact of domestic
violence on children and the systemic failure of family courts across the
country to protect them from their abusers.
Galvanized by the upcoming film
premier, activists from all over the country have joined forces to publicize the
documentary and
to raise public awareness of the issues it addresses with a kick-off
campaign beginning on September 28, 2005 and continuing through October, which
is Domestic Violence Awareness Month.
Activists will distribute flyers about "Breaking the Silence: Children's
Stories" and related information in front of family courts in every state and US
territory to encourage the public to watch the documentary when it airs in
October.
Growing numbers of protective,
non-offending, loving, and fit mothers are losing custody of their children to
their or their children’s abusers. Women who seek to exit
bad or even dangerous relationships are often met with retaliatory suits for
child custody. Many women who try to leave an abusive
partner find that the family court system can become a place where the abuser is
enabled and even facilitated in further victimizing her and her children.
The American Judges Association
reports that one of the most common reasons for resuming a relationship with an
abusive partner is the fear that the abuser will act on threats of taking the
children. In fact, studies show that batterers have been able to convince
authorities that the victim is unfit or undeserving of sole custody in
approximately 70% of challenged cases.
Little known among the general public is
the fact that, for almost two decades now, a controversial theory called "
Parental Alienation Syndrome" (PAS) has been used as a
courtroom tactic to silence abused children and their mothers.
This so-called syndrome is not based on systematic research, is not
recognized by mental health professionals, is not viewed as a psychiatric
diagnosis, and has been rejected by valid scientists and ethical practitioners.
Nevertheless, PAS continues to be routinely used in courts across the country,
resulting in the removal of children from loving, safe, and fit mothers to
fathers who batter the mother, abuse the child, and/or have a substance abuse or
criminal history. Often, the mother is given only supervised
visitation; in many cases, she loses all contact with her child.
Although this travesty has been occurring
with greater and greater frequency, the average person believes that when such
cases do occur, there must have been something wrong with the mother to cause
such a tragic result. A standard tactic used by abusers is to demonize the
victim; all too often, the courts have helped such abusers by punishing the
mother--labeling her as "hysterical" or an "alienator"-- for seeking legal
protection for her children.
Breaking
the Silence: Children's Stories reflects the thousands of cases in which
this has occurred across the country, and amply demonstrates the pattern of
mistakes the court system has made to create these tragedies.
For more information on the issues and the
location, dates and times of state events, contact:
Mo Therese Hannah, Ph.D.
Conference Chair –
Battered Women, Abused Children, and Child
Custody: A National Crisis, III: Unity--and Action!
Associate Professor of Psychology - Siena College
518-783-0699 / 518-210-2487
more information:
http://www.batteredmotherscustodyconference.org/
If you have a story
of a loved one that has lost the fight against Domestic Violence, please
share
it with us. We would like to continue sharing the
stories in hope that others will see just what Domestic Violence is, a travesty
that must end.
If you are a
Non-Custodial Mother, and would like support, or can share your case file,
please contact
us. You are NOT alone.......
If you are a Victim
or Survivor of Domestic Violence, and you have not received the help that you
needed, or did not gain justice through the courts, please,
let us
know. We must work together to bring about a change,
and the only way to do that is to show the problem.
Enough is ENOUGH!
Together, we CAN and WILL make a difference!
A victim's first scream is
for help: a victim's second scream is for justice."-
Carol Anika Theill
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