Grandparents Rights Passes Senate

Senate Bill No. 262 passed the Senate a couple of weeks ago with some amendments by Sen. Tim Owens that pretty much gutted it. Sen. Faust-Goudeau was able to put much of it back on the Senate floor. She's a Saint.
The House Judiciary will hold a hearing on this Bill Wed. Mar. 7th. I will be there to testify.
The Ark City Pedphile was scheduled to have a hearing that same day but it has been postponed to April 10th. We will be there.

We get a hearing

Senate Bill No. 262 is scheduled for a hearing next Tuesday 2-7-12. I emailed Rep. Lance Kinzer Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and ask him to schedue a hearing for HB2539 and he said he was too busy and would wait until it cleared the senate. I already see this doesn't have the same urgency as Right to Life.
I was on KWCH News Wed. night and was able to make a few points. Melissa Sheffler was the reporter who interviewed me. She is very good at what she does. She had a photographer with her named Casey and he does things with a camera I didn't know a camera would do. Thanks Melissa and Casey. I will testify on Tuesday and will write more after that.

New Bills

The Senate Bill on Grandparents Rights has been moved to the Federal and State Affairs committee. We hope to get a hearing soon.
The House of Representives has introduced an identical Bill. That is HB 2539 and has been assigned to the House Judiciary committee. They have introduced several more Bills related to Grandparents rights. We can only hope they approach this with the same vigor they showed the Right to Life issue in the last session.
We attended Rick Pendland's hearing in Ark City last Thursday. He is scheduled for a preliminary hear Mar.7th. We plan to attend.

New Grandparents Law

I haven't written anything for a long time because not much has happened.The oldest boy graduated from high school last May and is struggling trying to find his way. We help him all we can. The little boy is 12 now and in middle school making good grades but is living with his dad in a hell hole. We went to a lawyer to try to get custody and he said we didn't have a chance because Grandparents don't have rights. Things have come alive the last few months.
I think I told you I had been elected to the Silver Haired Legislature. Last May I was elected Speaker. Last Sept. SHL passed a Bill requesting the State Legislature pass a law giving Grandparents rights to their Grandchildren when they are taken from their parents.
Last Sept. the teacher that Youthville wanted to have custody of the boys before us was locked up in the Cowley County jail for child molestation and is awaiting trial. We try to attend anytime he is in court.
On January 11, 2012 Senator Oletha Faust - Goudeau, "Sometimes known as The Saint" introduced Senate Bill 262 in The Kansas State Senate giving Grandparents standing in court. That Bill has been assigned to the Senate Ways and Means Committee chaired By Senator Carolyn McGinn and we have great hopes it will be passed in this session.
I wil try to keep you updated as the Bill works it's way through the legislature. I will also let you know how the predator's trial proceeds.

The therapist again

The boys and their mother had an appointment with their dads "therapist" this afternoon. Their mother didn't have a ride so we agreed to furnish transportation. On the way to pick her up we had a call from the oldest boy and he said his dad wanted to know if we could bring them home. I don't talk on the phone whem I'm driving so grandma answered the phone and told him we would be glad to take them home. When they got in their session the oldest boy said grandma and grandpa are taking us home. The "therapist" told their mother she would report her to Youthville and she would get in trouble for letting the boys have contact with their grandparents not ordered by the court. The oldest boy said, " Mom had nothing to do with it. Dad made me call grandma and grandpa and asked them to take us home". Her response was, " Well if dad says it's OK then there is no problem". This woman has taken a family that need help and destroyed what was left. As bad as I dislike dealing with lawyers it appears there is no way to avoid litigation. Someone is going to have to pay for counseling to fix the mess she has made and it might as well be her. We can only hope the judge can see what she is doing and stop it.

Another case plan meeting

Last Wednesday, March 4th, we attended another case plan meeting. They call it a conference but I have been to a conference or two and that isn't one. The faces keep changing. The court service officer wasn't there but our grandsons dad's "therapist" was there for the first time and both of those were disappointing. The court service officer has been the only person in those meeting who cares about the boys except us. We were in a different room than before and instead of a conferance table there was a lot of little tables with only room for 2 or 3 people at each table. The boys dad and his "therapist" sat at one table. I couldn't tell if they were holding hands or not. This is the same "therapist" we filed a complaint against with the Behavioral Sciences Board last year. This is the same "therapist" that the boys mother was ordered to see with the boys where she told the boys that if they left their dad's home again they would not be going back to live with grandma and grandpa. Now she is going to give a report to the court. Don't you know that will be unbiased.
The youngest boy came over and sat by me before the meeting and said he was tired. I asked him what time he went to bed last night and he said, "I don't care". He laid his head down on the table during most of the meeting. The oldest boy turned 16 last month and asked the case manager if he could attend the next court hearing and she said she would check.
The "therapist" said the boys needed to spend time with other family members. This person doesn't know anything about our family and when I said the boys would love to see the rest of our family but they live in Augusta and El Dorado and with the 6 hrs. we get them twice a month there isn't time. That came as a shock to them. These are the people who were supposed to look for family the boys could be placed with before they went to that "foster home" and they didn't even know about that group.
The case manager said Youthville would be withdrawing from the case the 17th of April. They have taken all of the taxpayers money allowed for one company. it will then shift to SRS. This can't be all bad.
On another matter we had asked the counselor that we saw with the boys in order to get to see them again if she would send us a copy of her report to the court. She asked the court if that was OK and 2 of the of the 6 lawyers involved objected so they said no. That cost us $750 and we can't even get a report.

Youthville - The Secret Society

I had asked by way of our state representive for the records that the Behavorial Sciences Board had received from Youthville and the so called family therapist that they used to dismiss our complaint. I had a call this morning from the special investigator and he said he couldn't give them to me because the are Youthville's private records. That dog won't hunt. The only reason for Youthville's existence is to do work for the state. The state is the tax payers and except for the moneyYouthville can beg from private companies all their income comes from the tax payers. Therefore, all of Youthvile's records are owned by the citizens of Kansas. Why would a church organization want to keep the records of how they have treated our grandchildren a secret?