Snyder signs law sparked by Ann Arbor child custody case
Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder signed into law Tuesday a bill that changes the standard under which children can be removed from their parents, MLive reported.
Christopher Ratte didn't realize he was giving his son an alcoholic drink when he bought Mike's Hard Lemonade.
Current Michigan law permits the emergency removal of children whose surroundings endanger their health, morals or welfare. The new law raises that threshold to children who are at substantial risk of harm or in surroundings that present an imminent risk of harm. Christopher Ratte purchased a bottle of Mike's Hard Lemonade for his son, Leo, without realizing it contained alcohol. Officials took the boy, who was 7 at the time, from his parents and kept him for several days.
Snyder also signed a law Tuesday giving biological fathers paternity rights even if a child’s mother was married to someone else at the time of the child’s birth.
Comments
coffeequeenie
Thu, Jun 14, 2012 : 1:53 p.m.
@Billy-Amen. I completely agree with you about CPS. So many of them are self-righteous idiots. I have known people who have been vicitimized by CPS. What are the qualifications to work for CPS? What quailifications or degree do you need to have the athority to take a child from their home? I also wonder if they harrass inocent people becuase A. They can and B. If they are only permitted so many cases, they can fill their case load with easy cases rather to have to actually deal with serious and real abuse cases.
CincoDeMayo
Thu, Jun 14, 2012 : 11:04 a.m.
Thank you Christopher Ratte for standing up for yourself, and thus the many others who don't feel as secure or have the same kind of resources.
Mick52
Wed, Jun 13, 2012 : 10:22 p.m.
Not sure it is still the case, but not long ago a non biological father could be forced to pay child support even if he was not the biological father due to some shenanigans by the mother. I hope that was reversed so that no one has to pay child support under such circumstances unless they want to.
rusty shackelford
Wed, Jun 13, 2012 : 5:58 p.m.
I know he's trying to look upset, but for some reason this photo always completely tickles me.
LBH
Wed, Jun 13, 2012 : 5:54 p.m.
I haven't read all the wording in the bill but it seems that if a man wants paternal rights to a child then he better be ready to provide support for that child. At first blush this may seem like a fairness issue or to be "for the child" but really it is about controlling the woman who bore the child. Yet again it is about progeny being property of the male. Poorly thought out but not surprising given the Lt Gov and the current control of the legislature. Women should be paying attention to this stuff.
LBH
Wed, Jun 13, 2012 : 5:55 p.m.
This was referring to the mention of an additional part of the bill. The removal of that poor kid at the baseball game was ridiculous.
seldon
Wed, Jun 13, 2012 : 2:20 p.m.
I'm still amazed by the original case. Aren't there children in Wayne County who are truly at-risk, but CPS claims to not have the staffing to help them? When you've got kids being raised by crack addicts and meth-heads, and you say you can't possibly help all of them, so kids are going to fall through the cracks, where the heck do you find the resources to seize a kid because his dad gave him a bottle of Mike's Hard Lemonade?
Billy
Wed, Jun 13, 2012 : 2:01 p.m.
The child obviously didn't need to be taken away because they weren't in any kind of legitimate danger. The child was taken away because of the entitled self-righteous people who work at CPS. That's what the REAL problem here was...that the child was taken away in the first place. They need to investigate the rot in the CPS system first, because if they don't fix that everything else will just be a band-aid.