Fighting for Due Process and Right to Privacy
    Rarely are favorable bills introduced on behalf of parents and home schoolers—even more rarely do they pass. However, two such proposals would slow the tide of the Louisiana children’s rights movement.
    The first is very brief. Introduced by Senator Lomax Jordan (R-23), Senate Bill 573 would simply provide a trial by jury to parents and children when child abuse or neglect is alleged against the parent. It would not mandate jury trials, but if the parent and/or guardian ad litem for the children requests a jury trial, the parent would be entitled to one.
    This bill would protect parents against arbitrariness by family law judges who are biased toward protecting children from parents rather than preserving the family. Home School Legal Defense Association members contacting their legislators about S.B. 573 should call as concerned parents, not home schoolers. This is not a home school issue per se.
    Representative Anthony Perkins (R-64) introduced the second bill, House Bill 1460, to correct the miscarriage of justice in cases like that of Mr. and Mrs. Russell Billiot in Houma. Based on an anonymous tip alleging that their two-year-old Down Syndrome child had been found in the street unsupervised and that their children were constantly playing in the street, a social worker insisted on private interviews with all the Billiots’ children. Two experts (one a public school teacher) trained in detecting abuse and neglect in children provided written affidavits that these children were not being abused or neglected and that the Billiots were a model family. Despite this testimony, the court system allowed these children to be traumatized by interviews separate from their parents. (See the January/February 1998 Court Report for a summary of Billiot.)
    Under H.B. 1460, a court could order a child to be interviewed separately from the parents only upon probable cause—not reasonable suspicion, as in present law—that the child is in imminent danger and immediate action is needed in order to protect the child. Additionally, the court would have to notify and give the parent or guardian an opportunity to be heard prior to entering such an order.
    The bill has passed out of the house after the “probable cause” provision was struck and the current language of “reasonable suspicion” reinstated. Although disappointed by this change, HSLDA was very pleased that the remainder of the bill remains intact. The bill goes to the senate next and continues to need many calls and letters. HSLDA thanks our members for their response to our alert. Your calls make a difference.