A parent has the right and the duty to protect his child and
the child's future from harm. If you're involved in a custody dispute in Harris or Galveston County, Texas you must
use the local family court system to assert this right and fulfill this obligation. A
parent who becomes aware of dangerous behavior or damaging influences that
threaten the children's physical safety or emotional well-being can ask the
court to protect the children by removing them from the source of the immediate
or potential danger. A court ordered award of sole custody or the severe
restriction of visitation rights are the standard methods for ensuring
children's safety. These actions may be taken if the court is shown clear and
convincing evidence that the children are seriously endangered by parent’s
lifestyle, or parents behavior, or the environment in which here it forces the
child to live.
Documented cases of child abuse in any form meet the court
systems serious endangerment standard. Physical, emotional, or sexual
mistreatment of a child is child abuse.
"A parent who becomes aware of dangerous behavior or damaging influences ...can ask the court to protect the children by removing them from the source of the immediate or potential danger."
Physical abuse is any action that inflicts grave physical
damage, even if the injury is temporary. Corporal punishment that causes
bruising, bleeding, or burning is physical abuse. So is the denial of food,
water, shelter, or medical treatment. Well the difference between acceptable physical
discipline and physical abuse has never been defined in law, most courts and
most parents know when the boundary between the two has been crossed.
Emotional abuse includes derogatory language and parental
conduct calculated to destroy or seriously undermine a child's dignity and self-esteem.
Constantly berating a child, humiliating a child in the presence of family,
friends, or teachers, or isolating the child from the outside world for
extended periods of time are examples of emotional abuse. Relentless insults or
mockery are other forms of this destructive behavior.
The legal definition of sexual abuse encompasses virtually
all actions involving a child intended to lead to the sexual gratification of
either the child or a participating adult. While the most common forms of
sexual abuse are outright sexual acts such as fondling, intercourse, oral
copulation, this category of child abuse may also Include placing the child in
sexually compromising positions, using the child to produce pornography,
requiring the child to wear seductive clothing, and indulging in forms of
physical discipline more commonly associated with adult sexuality than parental
behavior. Whether the child consents to sexual activity or is forced to
participate is irrelevant in determining if sexual mistreatment has occurred.
Neglect may also constitute serious endangerment courts have
revoked custodial rights of parents who have left young children alone for
hours or days parents whose primary meal planning function has been leaving paint
chips within easy reach; Parents who fail to treat, or even notice, the serious
physical or mental illnesses of a child ; And parents who have been unable or
unwilling to provide a clean, warm room for their children to sleep in.
Elements of a custodial parent’s lifestyle may be judged
dangerous, or potentially dangerous, to a child, even if the child is not
directly involved in that lifestyle. And lifestyle that brings potentially
harmful relationships into a child's life, for example can be considered to be
dangerous enough to warrant removal of the child.
Source: Father’s
Rights by Jeffery M. Leving
