Six Months in Jail because 18 year old daughter didn't get GED
For my readers I have dramatically changed the context of my blog because I decided to focus on one singular theme...human rights and civil liberties.
Everywhere I turn I am reading a story about how our rights have been jettisoned from us faster than a Snickers bar at a Jenny Craig meeting and I am sick of it. Hopefully, this blog will not just serve as a tool for me to release my frustrations but as a way to share some of the injustices that are being perpetrated and finding ways to make a positive change.
Case in point: Here is a link to an article by WCPO's Deb Siverman that tells a story about how an Ohio father, Brian Gegner, was sent to jail for six months because his daughter failed to pass the GED. Please read the article and than send me a comment to post. Here is the link:
http://www.wcpo.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=28d2acca-9947-44cc-8831-9859f1f6137e
How horrible is this. The daughter, Brittany Gegner, wasn't even living with him at the time she skipped school...she was living with her mom....and she's almost 19 now. This father will miss six months of work. Do you think he will even have a job when this is over? This is a disgrace.
Please use this link to let the Gov of Ohio know how you feel.
http://www.governor.ohio.gov/Default.aspx?tabid=448
I would like to thank Betty, Brian Gegners sister, for providing more insight into her brothers situation and unfair jail sentence and urge you to read the comment she posted here.
To read newest, follow up, post (May 12) on this issue please visit: http://barryseward.com/2008/05/12/follow-up-on-father-who-is-jailed-because-adult-daughter-failed-ged.aspx
Until next time,
Help preserve our human rights and civil liberties
Barry Seward
A little more insight into the story, from Brian's sister....
Brian and Brittany's mother were never married. They had children at a young age, and eventually split up. In his early twenties, Brian fought for and won custody of his two daughters, ages 3 and 1. He met and married a wonderful single mom, and from there they raised their blended family under one roof. Of course not without obstacles thrown in their way. Through the years his daughters had to learn to say, "No, I live with my DAD!"
Brittany, the middle child in this blended family, had not only truancy but delinquency problems during her teen years. Brian & his wife tried everything to help Brittany, including involving the police, which is how the courts became involved with this family.
At 16 Brittany got pregnant and had the baby shortly after she turned 17. This also put a wrench in her education. Brittany continually begged her father to let her go live with her mother, and he eventually gave in, hoping Brittany would continue her schooling there. She enrolled in a new school, but that didn't last, either.
Was allowing Brittany to live with her mother a wise choice? Hindsight is 20/20. One thing I can say about my brother is he always wanted what was best for his girls, and he was hoping it was best for a troubled Brittany and her new baby to live with her mother. Many, many people told him to give parental custody of Brittany, at the age of 17, to her mother, but he simply couldn't do it.
Anyway....
Brittany had sporadic court dates about her truancy through all this. It was June 2007 when the judge told Brian he would be go to jail for contributing to the delinquency of a minor if Brittany did not return to school in the Fall. Brittany turned 18 yrs old August 2007 and was enrolled in school, but did not attend because she was "18".
She returned to juvenile court, although she was now 18, on August 29th. The court then ordered her father to take Brittany out of school, and told Brittany to get her GED before the next court date or her father would go to jail.
So, the court was ordering an 18 year old to make a choice, get your GED or your father goes to jail. Now you have to imagine all the possible scenarios. What if she should care less about her father and decided not to get her GED? The judge never said....get your GED or YOU go to jail. I think Brittany did not believe that the judge would seriously throw her father in jail, so she procrastinated. Brittany loves her Dad but she has the thought process of a teenager.
By the next court date, March 2008, Brittany had been taking GED classes, but by the May 7th court hearing, she had no luck passing the math portion of the test, and that's when her Dad was whisked off to jail for six months. No options to pay a fine, probation, house arrest, or community service.
Btw, Brittany's mother owes over $15,000 in back child support. Has she ever spent a night in jail because of it? Of course not.
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This situation is a travesty, and a grave miscarriage of justice. I hope this man is freed SOON, and the judge is punished.
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When I first read about this, I thought it was a joke. I am absolutely dumb-founded. We elect judges to be fair and impartial. This judge has clearly shown his/her inability to perform the job at hand. How does sending the father to jail help this family? Why is an 18-year old considered old enough to be tried as an adult in all cases except this one? Why is the father punished when a supposed failure to parent should lie with both parents? Not to mention, the waste of money the tax-payers are now stuck paying so the judge can make a ludicrous example of an innocent man. How about focusing on the real criminals, the murderers, rapists, child abusers, etc. who actually deserve to go to jail for their crimes. I am appalled. I hope the voters speak loud and clear when it's time to re-elect.
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I'm not surprised to see a father being locked up because of his daughter's inability to pass basic math.... even though it's not in his fault.... when the mother failed this daughter her whole life.
Face it ladies, men are held to MUCH MUCH higher standards than women are, espeically legally. We live in a society where a 40 yr old woman can have the child of a 12 yr old boy, and she only gets probation, if that... but we lock men up for the failures of their ADULT daughters?
Women only serve ONE THRID the sentence a man does for the same crime. In NY state, ore than 1,400 women are in prison for MURDER ONE, yet only 4 have a sentence longer than 10 yrs. A black male charged woth car theft serves a longer sentence than a white wmen does for murder, on average. Only 30% of women ordered to pay child suport, do so... yet only ONE woman in US history has been sent to jail for non payment of child support... ONE!
More than one million men in the US are forced to pay child support to children that DNA test proved AREN'T theirs.
You NEVER hear women, especially feminists talk about this stuff. God forbid they be decent and honest enough to admit there are plenty advantages to being a women in America. It messes with their "I am woman, I am victim" mantras and brianwashig tactics.
Truth be told: When it comes to crime, it pays t be a woman. Women are just not held accountable for anything in American society. I call it the "Oprahfacation" of America... where all that matters, is what women want and how they feel. Men be damned... and pick up the tab while you're at it guys!
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