ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, September 25, 1996 TAG: 9609250035
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-8 EDITION: METRO
REMEMBER VALERIE Smelser as the Parental Rights and Responsibilities Act of 1995 winds its way through Congress.
This legislation would increase the risk of more children sharing her fate.
The parental-rights act provides, in part: "No federal, state or local government, or any official of such a government acting under color of law, shall interfere with or usurp the right of a parent to direct the upbringing of the child of the parent."
This sounds reasonable and only right when those directing the upbringing of a child are capable and loving parents - or even somewhat incompetent but well-meaning parents - raising their children according to their attitudes and beliefs.
It is not reasonable, though, when the upbringing of a child is in the hands of Wanda Smelser, the Virginia woman who last month pleaded no contest to second-degree murder and abduction for standing by and doing nothing while her boyfriend imprisoned, starved and finally beat to death her 12-year-old daughter, Valerie, in the basement of their home.
While the intent of the legislation is not to allow such horrific child abuse to go undetected, that could be the result. The bill's language is so broad that parents, for example, might be able to get a federal court order to halt investigations by child-protective-services workers.
Leaving aside the legislation's impact on educational institutions - which ought to be teaching values more, not less - it almost surely would make the job of social workers and investigators more difficult, and at an especially bad time. The Department of Health and Human Services reports that instances of child abuse and neglect almost doubled over a seven-year period ending with 1993. That year, 565,000 children - almost four times the number in 1986 - were seriously injured.
The Christian Coalition, which asked for the parental-rights bill in its 1994 "Contract With the American Family," undoubtedly can cite instances of gross injustice, where parental rights were violated by overzealous enforcement of laws designed to protect children. Some parents have had children taken away from them without good cause.
Such wrongs, too, are an outrage. But they must be remedied narrowly, by state legislatures addressing specific abuses of power where they arise. Sweeping federal legislation would threaten society's legitimate need to protect its most vulnerable members.
The parent-child bond is humanity's strongest, and laws should, and almost always do, recognize the primacy of that relationship. But parental rights, which courts time and again have upheld, sometimes to the detriment of children, must not be allowed to wipe out what protections children have from parents who truly endanger their well-being.
Parents who are wronged have all the tools at the disposal of adults living in a free country to raise a hue and cry and seek redress for grievances. Children have no such freedom or power.
Sometimes, like Valerie, they can give only mute testimony to the wrongs they've suffered. To remove them from the reach of the rest of society would increase their vulnerability.
LENGTH: Medium: 60 linesby CNB