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Court Says Mom's Use Of Pot Not Reason To Remove Kids
Pubdate: Wed, 02 Apr 2003
Source: Plain Dealer, The (OH)
Copyright: 2003 The Plain Dealer
Contact: http://www.cleveland.com/plaindealer/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/342
Author: Karen Farkas
COURT SAYS MOM'S USE OF POT NOT REASON TO REMOVE KIDS
Akron- Smoking marijuana daily does not make a woman an unfit parent and her
four children should not have been removed by a county agency, an appeals
court has ruled.
Teresa Scott is a single working mother who paid her rent and provided
loving care to her children, her lawyer said, but when she admitted she
smoked marijuana, the Summit County Children Services Board removed the
children in August 2001.
The agency's decision was upheld in the county's Juvenile Court.
The 9th Ohio District Court of Appeals overruled that decision, 2-1, on
Monday.
"While this court certainly does not condone a parent's use of an illegal
substance or abuse of a legal substance, parents have a fundamental right to
raise their children," said appeals Judges Donna Carr and William
Batchelder.
"Without some evidence that Teresa's supervision of her children or the
environment of her children has been affected in some negative way by her
use of marijuana, there is not clear and convincing evidence" the children
should be removed.
Judge Lynn Slaby dissented. "I believe the continued use of an illegal
substance can do nothing but have a detrimental impact on the children," he
wrote.
He said people may argue that alcohol abuse may not warrant the removal of
children, but "I believe there is a distinction between using a legal
substance and the continued use of an illegal substance."
Scott, of Akron, may soon be reunited with her children, ages 8, 11, 12 and
15, who have been living with relatives. The decision will not be appealed,
and the case will go back to Juvenile Court, where Judge Linda Tucci
Teodosio will decide who will have custody of the children, said Louise
Miller, spokeswoman for the Children Services Board.
Juvenile Court Judge Judy Hunter, who was defeated by Teodosio in November,
had ruled that Scott's drug use affected the children's environment. Hunter
gave the county temporary custody.
"Her whole family was disbanded and torn apart and she absolutely wants them
back," said Scott's lawyer, Richard Kutuchief. "Children Services was being
overzealous as a watchdog, and the sole issue was whether her smoking
marijuana was justifiable to remove and estrange the children from their
parent."
According to court documents, a social worker at an Akron hospital contacted
Children Services about possible child abuse after Scott took her son to the
hospital.
His adult half-sister had hit him on the leg with a belt buckle when he was
at his father's home.
A Children Services caseworker later spoke to Scott after receiving
additional information that Scott's children were smoking marijuana and that
the children were unsupervised in her home. Scott admitted that she smoked
marijuana once or twice a day but that it was never done in front of her
children. She agreed to have her urine tested that day for the presence of
drugs.
She arrived 15 minutes too late for the urine test because she went to a job
interview. The next day the county removed her children.
Assistant Summit County Prosecutor Philip Bogdanoff said he was disappointed
in the appeals court decision. "If the parent is high on drugs, it does
affect the environment of the child," he said.
Kutuchief said Scott visits her children and is in drug counseling. He said
he was unable to find any case law dealing with the specifics of his case.
"If a person uses marijuana to relax or in the same fashion as alcohol, is
it bad?" he asked. "Would it be better for the court if she was on Prozac or
another prescription drug that could be more intense than marijuana?"
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