Flash backward:

Minnesota court finds that Husband physically abused Wife.

Husband and Wife’s seven year old girl reveals to therapist that she is being physically abused by her father and that she doesn’t feel safe with him.

Girl reports the same thing to court-appointed investigators / advocates for her.

Ample artwork by both children seems to support their accounts of abuse and cries for help.

Outcome of that Minnesota child custody case?

The girl and her older brother are placed in the custody of her father.

The Court concluded that the abused Wife was unstable and had coached the children, and that the children were better off with the abusive Husband.

Flash forward:

The seven year old is now twenty-three years old. Now able to choose, she lives with Wife.

She maintains that she told the truth during the custody trial

- and the legal system turned a deaf ear to her and her brother.

Grown up now, she wants to advocate for abused children and children’s rights in family court cases that, too often, are all about the parents and the parents’ rights - at the expense of their children.

Experts agree that all an abuser has to do to gain custody of harmless children in many courtrooms is utter the words “parental alienation syndrome” in the same breath with the other parent’s name.

And the abused parent who tries to protect their children from the abusive parent is labeled the poor parent whose visitation should be restricted.

Read more in this Minneapolis City Pages composition: Reporter’s Notebook: Jennifer Collins speaks about her family’s case.

Original post by Janet Langjahr

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