Custody Fight

I'm called to an elementary school by the principal. The call notes advise an out-of-state mother is trying to sign her children, who haven't stayed with her in years, out of class. She intends to take them back to Indiana for the summer. The father and his new girlfriend are at the school. They don't want her to have the children.

I arrive and speak with dad. He and his girlfriend seem reasonable. He tells me his ex-wife tried to commit suicide two years ago with the children in the house at the time. He says she's in a Narcotics Anonymous group and under the care of a psychiatrist. He says, since the attempted suicide, he's kept the children with him and she's only had two supervised visits. Unfortunately he's never modified the custody agreement, which says she gets the children from June 11th through August 1st.

I then speak with the principal, who is young and stressed out. He's called the school superintendant, who is calling their attorneys. He wants to wait until he gets clarification as to who should get the children. Clarification from people sitting in an office somewhere who have no idea what's going on.

He leads me to the mother. She's sitting in a chair, twitching her lips. In two seconds I can tell something is wrong with her. She's "tweaking" like someone ready for a fix. I ask her a few questions and the following comes out. She tried to kill herself two years ago, but her ex-husband is not telling the truth because, although the kids were with her, her roomate was also their to supervise the kids. So they would have been taken care of if she died (and this makes it alright). She is unemployed, living with friends, and recently left the care of her psychiatrist, against his wishes. She also decided to take herself off all of her medications. She tells me the meds were the problem. "Now that I'm not seeing a doctor or taking meds, everything's fine! I just want to take the kids for the summer." She's smiling like someone who might just bake the kids in a pie.

While I get her statement the husband decides to sign the kids out and leave. The agreement is a copy from another state, therefore we really can't intervene (nor would I want to). Amazingly, the principal sprints across the parking lot and stands behind the moving vehicle. I ask him what he's doing. He tells me he has to wait until the bureaucrats tell him what to do. I tell him to get out of the path of the vehicle. I can see he's visibly relieved that I've essentially taken him out of the equation, because making a decision is more than anyone can bear these days. I mean, what if you're wrong?

He later told me the bureaucrats had decided to let the insane woman take the kids in accordance with the agreement, even though it was a copy without a notary seal, barely readable, and held by a grinning psychotic.