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THSC Announces Effort

to Restore Parental Rights

Some years ago THSC was contacted by a home school mom in West Texas who was desperate for help in fighting a lawsuit against her family, which had been filed by her father.  The following is her story:

She was married to her second husband and had one child from the previous marriage and two by her current husband.  The family was of humble means and had chosen to homeschool because they were concerned about the negative influences of their children’s peers in the public school.  Her parents, however, did not agree with this decision and, in fact, believed that the parents were being “overprotective”; they were especially critical of decisions related to the oldest child.  During one time together with the family, the grandfather physically attacked the husband in front of the whole family.  As a result, the parents sought and received a restraining order to prohibit the grandfather from being with the family. 

The grandparents responded by filing suit under the Grandparent Access Statute.  The grandparents’ lawyer claimed that it was in the best interest of the children to have visitation with their grandfather. The children’s emotional well-being, he argued, would be significantly impaired because they were being homeschooled and did not have enough interaction with other children.  In spite of the history of assault upon the father, the judged ordered visitation for both grandparents.  The grandparents continued the legal action against the parents for years, seeking more and more control of the children.  At one point, they told the parents they would drop the lawsuit if they could have custody of the oldest child while the parents maintained custody of the younger two.  After many years of litigation, the parents finally yielded and allowed their oldest child to live with the grandparents.

In a similar case, a family in Houston had homeschooled for many years, against the strong dissent of the paternal grandparents.  The grandparents strongly disagreed with many of the views of the parents, including religious beliefs and educational decisions of the family, and the father told his parents at one point that if they continued to interfere and cause discord, they would not be allowed to visit the children.  Then the father suddenly became ill with cancer and died within six months. 

The grandparents began their attack almost immediately after their son’s death.  A CPS (Child Protective Services) caseworker later testified in court she was certain the grandparents had been responsible for a phony tip that the mother had made a death pact to kill herself and all her children so they could join the soul of the deceased husband and father.  The grandparents filed suit for visitation, and the mother unwisely took her children and moved out of the country, without notifying the authorities.  The grandparents then amended their suit from visitation to custody.  In the absence of the family, a judge gave a default judgment of custody to the grandparents who then spent $200,000 to find the family.  Armed soldiers forcibly removed the children, allowing the mother to accompany them, only to be arrested when she reentered the country.  The mother was indicted for interfering with child custody and jailed with bonds set totaling three million dollars.  She spent several months in jail, until the bond was lowered to $30,000.  A court-appointed attorney for the minor children said she had interviewed each child and was moved by how close they were to their mother and by their desire to be with her. The grandparents sought joint custody and wanted to make the educational decisions for the children.  After three and a half years of litigation, the mother finally regained sole custody of her children.  Unfortunately, not all such cases have this positive an ending.

These kinds of stories are not unusual.  In fact, recently a widow, whose husband was killed in the military overseas, was sued by the paternal grandparents within two weeks of her husband’s death.  Hundreds of families have lived through such nightmares.  Others continue.  The Texas Supreme Court has ruled in two such cases—in 2006 and 2007—in the parents’ favor.  In both cases, after the Supreme Court’s ruling, the local judge allowed the grandparents to simply file suit again.  These and many other parents face the stark choice of bankruptcy or yielding to the unreasonable demands of grandparents regarding the upbringing and education of their children.

In 1995 the Texas legislature amended the Family Code to allow grandparents to sue parents, or others who had custody, for access to their grandchildren.  This type of legislation has been adopted in virtually every state in the nation, driven by powerful senior citizen groups.  The purpose was to allow a means to have access for grandparents who were being kept from their grandchildren.  This change has had unintended consequences that are destroying Texas families and undermining the fundamental right of parents to direct the education and upbringing of their children.  The law was amended again in 2005 to allow grandparents to sue for actual possession, in addition to mere access.  The statute sets a lower standard of evidence required for access or possession than is required under other parts of the Family Code for custody.  That must change.  However, in the last legislative session, THSC Association supported HB 3971 by Bryan Hughes, which would have addressed many of these issues in the current law.  The bill did not pass. 

How do we restore parental rights in this area and stop this abuse?  We must change the law! 

The first step in changing this law is to make Texas home schoolers and all parents aware of the problem and how and why the law needs to be changed.  THSC will support the Texas Parental Rights Restoration Act (TPRRA) in the legislative session next year.  Please forward this information to others.  The TPRRA will be modeled on HB 3971 from last session.  For more information on this legislation and reasons that this law needs to be amended, read the talking points and the commentary.

The second step in changing the law is to speak now to your legislators (state representatives and state senators), while most of them are running campaigns for election or reelection.  If they have contested races in the primary or general election, they will very likely be much more responsive to any questions or concerns that you have.  In fact, when I asked a legislator earlier this week to co-sponsor the TPRRA, he told me that a home schooler had spoken to him a week before on the issue and that he would be glad to make that commitment.  I also received a call from another legislator whose home school constituents brought her a copy of the February issue of the THSC Review magazine with an article on the issue.  They convinced her to support the legislation.  Those candidates whom THSC PAC has endorsed and who have committed to co-sponsoring the TPRRA are noted on the PAC Web site.  If your legislators or candidates for state House or Senate have not made that commitment, call them and ask them to do so.  The more calls they get on this, the more seriously they will view the issue and the more likely they will be to sign on as supporters.

The third step in fixing this problem is to elect legislators sympathetic to our cause.  When candidates see and hear from many voters on this issue and have these same families support their campaigns and help them get elected, they will more likely be in favor of this issue before they even get to Austin.

The fourth step is to repeat this process during the general election in November, to finish electing to the Texas legislature candidates who believe that a parent’s right to direct the education and upbringing of their children is fundamental and must be protected.

Another step in this process will be participation in the interim committee study of this issue, which has been established for review in both the Texas House and Senate.  We will make parents aware of the hearings that are held and encourage people who have suffered such problems to give testimony.  These committees will make a recommendation to the legislature next year about changes to the law that should take place.  If you are not on the THSC PAC E-Newsletter list, please register for free regular updates on this and other issues of importance to the home school community of Texas. 

Next year THSC Association will lead the fight to gain support for the TPRRA at the legislature and in meetings and rallies across the state.  We will also sponsor a rally at the Capitol on this issue to show grassroots support to restore parental rights. 

Please pray for THSC Association and as we seek to use all the means at our disposal to restore parental rights.  Time is short before the primary, but we have already seen significant movement on the part of many legislators; you can help us turn the tide in favor of parental rights with your participation and support. 

With your help and God’s grace, we can restore parental rights in Texas in the next two years!

In your service,

Tim Lambert

PS  In addition to working on the TPRRA, we are also endorsing the effort by ParentalRights.org to amend the U.S. Constitution with language that would state unequivocally that a parent’s right to direct the education and upbringing of his/her child is a fundamental right under the Constitution.  This group has a five-year plan to amend the Constitution as a further protection of parental rights.  For more information on that effort, go to Parental Rights.org.