April is Child Abuse Awareness Month. For those of us who have dedicated our lives and our careers to protecting children from harm, we have a lot to be grateful for as we advocate for the rights of children to grow up in safe homes, safe schools and safe communities.
The dawning of the #MeToo and #MarchForOurLives movements is shifting the consciousness of an entire nation. Instead of ignoring demands from survivors of violence for safety in our schools, our workplaces and our homes, as we have seen for centuries, America finally appears to be pulling its head out of the sand and turning toward survivors of violence and assault with meaningful support and resources.
Adult victims of violence are starting to be believed. Serial abusers such as Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey and Matt Lauer are being held accountable for their devastating conduct with the loss of companies, projects and possibly their careers.
We must continue to help adult and teen survivors of violence and assault heal while we also turn our attention to the 58,000 children of divorce each year in the U.S. who are forced by court order to live or spend time with an abusive parent that they’ve reported is hurting them.
In the past decade alone, the San Rafael-based Center for Judicial Excellence has documented 630 child homicides by a divorcing or separating parent in the United States. Many were preventable homicides, had the family courts prioritized child safety above all else, as they are required to do.
An important new film from UK filmmaker Rachel Meyrick exposes the decades-old crisis in the U.S. family court system that has taken countless children away from their safe, protective mothers and forced them into violent homes with fathers who continue to abuse them.
“What Doesn’t Kill Me” will premiere in Marin County from 7 to 9 p.m. Wednesday, April 11 at Dominican University’s Guzman Hall. The film screening will be followed by a discussion between child protection advocates who are featured in the film, domestic violence survivors and their allies and members of the audience. Admission is free and open to the public. The event is co-sponsored by the Center for Judicial Excellence, Dominican University’s Democracy and Equity Initiative, Center for Domestic Peace, Marin County Women Lawyers, Canal Alliance, California Protective Parents Association, Family Violence Appellate Project, Marin County Women’s Commission, SOAR for Justice and Penguins for Peace.
Lawmakers are responding by introducing vital legislation to keep our communities safe. House Concurrent Resolution 72, which directs the states to prioritize child safety in family courts and which the Center for Judicial Excellence helped introduce, has 34 bipartisan co-sponsors in Congress. Fourteen of these co-sponsors are members of the California delegation. In Sacramento, Assemblyman Mark Stone just introduced AB 2044 to better protect children of divorce, and Assemblywoman Blanca Rubio will introduce “Piqui’s Resolution.”
Piqui was one of the 630 innocent American children who were murdered by a divorcing or separating parent in the past decade. Just days before his father killed him, Piqui’s mother, Ana Estevez, brought evidence to court and begged the judge to protect her son, but she was disbelieved, as countless mothers (and some fathers) have been for decades.
The Center for Judicial Excellence has advocated for child safety in family courts for 12 years because we believe that every child in Marin County and beyond deserves to grow up in a home that is free from violence, abuse and trauma. Please join us at Dominican on April 11 as our community gathers to ensure that every victim of assault and violence is believed and protected, especially our children, who are precious human beings with a right to safety.
Kathleen Russell is executive director of the Center for Judicial Excellence in San Rafael.