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See the TPRRA Talking Points and Commentary.

THSC Announces Effort

to Restore Parental Rights

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.

Read about some of the families negatively impacted by this law.

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

The first step in standing up for families and changing this law is to make Texas home schoolers and all parents aware of the problem. THSC Association considers the Texas Parental Rights Restoration Act (TPRRA) the solution and is calling for its support through House Bill 2084. Please spread this information! For further details on this legislation and reasons that this law must be amended, read the talking points and the commentary.

The second step is to ask your state representative to co-sponsor HB 2084 (sponsor: Rep. Phil King). When I asked a legislator recently to co-sponsor the TPRRA, he told me that a home schooler had spoken to him about the issue a week before and that he would be glad to make that commitment. They care what their constituents think! Call or meet with your state representative. Inform him of your support of HB 2084 and ask him to be a co-sponsor. The more calls they get, the more seriously they will view the issue and the more likely they will be to sign on as supporters. Then help THSC find co-sponsors by emailing about the feedback you get from your representative.

The third step is to gather all your friends, neighbors, and family members and go to the Capitol to the Rally for Parental Rights on April 7. Legislators must know Texas families will not stand for unwarranted government intrusion. The public must be informed of the problem and inspired to act.

Carpool!

Need a ride to Austin? Have an open seat or two in your vehicle? Email events@thsc.org with your name and the number of seats needed/available. THSC will work to help everyone who wants to come find a way there.

Please pray for THSC Association as we seek to use all the means at our disposal to stand up for families and fight for parental rights. With your help and God’s grace, we will restore and protect parental rights in Texas!

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.

Many Families Negatively Impacted by Grandparent Access Statute

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.

Read Tim Lambert's update on the parental rights battle:

Parental Rights - Never Give Up!