Christian Family Battling State for Custody of Children, Other Basic Parental Rights
By Angie Vineyard CHARLOTTE, NC (AgapePress) - After battling the Department of Social Services in court for an entire year, a Christian couple has finally been given full custody of their oldest son. A hearing judge for the clerk of Mecklenburg County (North Carolina) Superior Court ruled on February 19 that 18-year-old Spencer should immediately go home with his parents, Jack and Kathy Stratton. Whatley is not involved with the case, but attended the hearing because of her interest in the way DSS handled its procedures. She believes that while this case was unusual, it is an example of why Christians need to be vigilant in dealings with departments of social services around the Carolinas. “I just thank God that the Strattons finally got a Christian lawyer and that people were watching this case,” she said. Otherwise, she believes, things might not have turned out as they did for the Strattons. The Nightmare While in DSS custody, Spencer has been attending Metro School, a public school dedicated entirely to helping children with special needs. His physical and mental state are such that a judge has found him to be incompetent and therefore needing a legal guardian. At the end of the hearing, guardianship was awarded to Kathy Stratton. “I was cautiously optimistic,” said Kathy, who didn’t believe until the very last minute of the trial that she and her husband would be reunited with Spencer. “It was obvious that DSS had a plan to keep us from our children.” Questionable Tactics Whatley is convinced that because the Strattons are an interracial couple with little money, they’ve been unfairly judged. Kathy is African-American and Jack is Caucasian. “They’re being discriminated against because they’re poor,” said Whatley. “This is a family that does not want to take government assistance [and] that is being held against them. This is ludicrous!” Whatley said that one example of either DSS’s obvious bias or their lack of professionalism involved the condition of the Strattons’ home. After DSS made an initial visit in December 2000, the Strattons moved their children to a log cabin in Gaston County, where they stayed for six weeks before social workers found them. When DSS came to take the children away, they noted in their report that an extension cord ran from the house next door into the Strattons’ window and therefore the Strattons had no electricity. In reality, the Strattons did have electricity. A neighbor had asked to use the Stratton’s electricity to plug up his power saw. “I thought that was just horrible,” said Whatley. “They had electricity. Yet this entire time, it has stayed in the [court] record that they had no electricity. They never investigated to find out that they did have [it]. It was taking facts that fit what they wanted to believe. They didn’t want to hear the truth.” Whatley said that until Michael Schmidt of the Patrick Henry Christian Legal Alliance -- the North Carolina affiliate of the Alliance Defense Fund -- took their case last November, the Strattons have suffered from poor court-appointed representation and have never had an opportunity to put evidence in court. “There’s so much prejudicial information recorded and accepted by the court,” she said. Questionable Evidence One of DSS’s allegations was that Jack Stratton had sexually and physically abused his children and therefore should not be granted custody. Yet when social worker Susan Miller testified, the social worker initially did not say anything at all about sexual or physical abuse. “I was really surprised by that,” said Ridge. “If that had been my job and that was a major concern to me as to why I didn’t want the kids to go back [with their parents], I would have made that a priority and she didn’t make it a priority. It was just the last thing she threw in.” But the reason it was “the last thing she threw in” was because there was no real evidence of any abuse. When Miller finally did make her allegation in open court, she admitted that the only thing that led her to believe Jack Stratton could have sexually and physically abused his children was a drawing that one of the children had made after being taken into DSS custody. “In my opinion it was one of the most shocking moments of testimony that I have ever witnessed in all of my years of being in trial court,” said Schmidt, an attorney for the Strattons. “For a so-called professional to get up and make an allegation of enormity and seriousness based upon a drawing of a child when that child has been in foster care and has been around who knows what,” said Schmidt. “I was appalled.” Social worker Susan Miller did not return phone calls. Nor would other DSS officials speak on the record, but they suggested that this concern over possible sexual abuse was the reason that the hearings had been kept closed to the public, despite repeated attempts by The Charlotte World to have the hearings opened. Schmidt refused to talk about the Strattons’ nine other children and would only speak about Spencer since he has reached the age of majority. This Is Progress? “If this is progress,” said Joan Stratton, “I don’t want any part of it.” DSS attorney Tyrone Wade would not speak about the case since it was so closely connected with the Strattons’ nine other children. “There are different rules that apply in adult proceedings and juvenile proceedings,” he said. “I think the judge did what he had to do.” “They’re just trying to defend their position,” said Whatley of DSS. “They’re not going to say ‘We were wrong.’ If they took these children and said they were wrong, they might have a lawsuit on their hands. They’ve missed birthdays, holidays. You can’t put a price tag on that.” Schmidt said the February 19 ruling was “very significant” and it should “be a very dramatic indicator that the children should all be back in the home of the parents.” But he added that the fight for the other nine children was an uphill battle “because it’s a fight aligned against an entire system of government employees that essentially work together and who have lost their objectivity because of their hostility toward the parents.”
March 12, 2002
“It was like God shining light in [the courtroom],” said Aana Lisa Whatley, who heads up the North Carolina-based McDowell Street Center for Family Law.
The Stratton nightmare began more than a year ago, when the Mecklenburg County DSS took custody of all ten of the Stratton’s natural-born children, alleging that the children did not receive adequate care, supervision, and discipline, and their environment was injurious to their welfare. The Strattons have appeared numerous times before Judge Libby Miller to answer those charges in juvenile court. But not until Spencer aged out of the juvenile court jurisdiction in January and his case went before a different judge, have the Strattons seen any progress in trying to get custody of their children.
Kathy isn’t the only one that thinks all objectivity had been lost in the case. “This is the most bizarre thing I’ve ever seen in my life,” said Whatley, who works with DSS on occasion through her non-profit law firm. “Most of the time when DSS is involved, there is drug abuse, alcohol abuse (or) domestic violence. But when you have an intact family with a long-term marriage and loving parents, we’ve never seen this situation where they’re trying to take the children away from their parents.”
Tina Ridge, an attorney who works with Whatley at the McDowell Street Center for Family Law who also attended the hearing, was amazed at one social worker’s testimony.
A key element of the DSS case against the Stratton’s parents was the assertion that Spencer had made great progress since being taken from his parents, and by implication that the Strattons had been neglecting Spencer’s development. But Spencer’s own grandmother testified that she didn’t even recognize him after being placed in their care. She remembered Spencer coming next door to her house without any assistance, playing basketball and kickball with his siblings and having a vocabulary. Now, Spencer has lost 10 pounds and is nonverbal.