Saturday, September 27, 2008

Kicking kids out of court

When I was in court on Monday, the first thing that happened was that the bailiff kicked two teenagers out of court. Apparently Commissioner Irwin H. Joseph has a policy of not allowing minors in his court.

That seems wrong to me. If the court proceedings are open to the public, then minors should be allowed. There is no law or rule against it, as far as I know. Sometimes kids are kept out of closed juvenile court hearings, but even that is ending. California is passing a law requiring all kids age ten or older to be told that they can be present in their juvenile court cases.

My kids have been interviewed by court personel, but have not been in the courtroom. Someday they will learn how a cruel and malicious court commissioner tried to ruin their lives. They have a right to know.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

My kids wanted to testify in family court. Judge Stevens announced, "whoever brings the kids in those doors automatically loses."

Judges make decisions that affect people's lives, and the ones who have to live with those decisions are the children. You'd think that the kids would at least have some say, since it wasn't their idea in the first place for their parents to get divorced.

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.