A few years ago, some time after my mom and dad went through a nasty divorce, my mom met and fell in love with my step-father. He's a genuinely great guy, but had some problems when he first came into our lives. He's since pulled himself up out of an unemployed, uneducated ditch since meeting my family. He got his GED, and is now a volunteer EMT and hopes to go into nursing one day.

Aside from all that, he has got the most precious eight year old son I've ever had the pleasure of being with. He's come an even longer way than his father, and we have never been more relieved to have him with us. Relieved because he certainly did NOT belong with his mother.

When I first had the pleasure of meeting my little brother, he was rooting through the garbage of the motel dumpsters where he lived. Yes, he lived in a motel with seven other kids and his worthless piece of scum mother. He was three years old, still in diapers, not pull-ups, diapers, and couldn't make a coherent sentence. He didn't know his last name, so he made one up for himself. He called himself "_____ Rockstar". He didn't know his colors or his foods or what a birthday was. He was being abused with cigarette lighters, hammers, and ignored when he had asthma attacks.

We filed many a complaint with CPS, most of which went ignored simply because "he belongs with his mother". His mother was an addict (cigarettes, weed, and I'm pretty sure meth) and frequently talked about her sex life (which, oddly enough, involved an income) in front of her youngest daughter, a two year old. We finally couldn't take anymore BS and sued for custody.

We presented evidence in the form of moldy clothes, pictures of the kids' bruises, burns, and living space, and even recordings of the kids talking about what their mom lets them do (her oldest son at the time was nine, and proudly proclaimed that he didn't have to go to school if he didn't want to, and "mama don't make him go").

None of this evidence mattered. It didn't matter that my stable family of four, with a house, an income, and pets with a yard wanted to save this child. All that mattered was that he was able to stay with his mother. His mother that abused him, ignored him, and made him feral. My step-father was awarded joint custody, and was permitted to take his son home every weekend.

The only good quality about my little brother's mother is her utter stupidity. She decided she didn't want to risk losing her welfare checks, and packed up all seven kids on a bus to CA. At the time, my little brother had suffered a sever asthma attack (again) and was put on a nebulizer treatment twice a day. He did not receive his treatment for three days during that trip. She was charged with kidnapping, child endangerment, evading arrest, and possession of drugs.

We sued for custody again, and the original judge agreed to hear our case. It took a plea agreement to pry my brother from her greasy fingers. The kidnapping and child endangerment charges would be dropped against her if she agreed to give my step-father sole physical custody of his son. She would get supervised visitation rights only on weekends, and we were given the right to deny visitation rights if we felt she was drunk, high, acting suspicious, etc.

Well, she decided he wasn't worth her time anymore since he wasn't reeling in a check for her. The last time she contacted us (never in person, always over the phone), she didn't even speak with her son. She told us how excited she was that she had lost weight after taking up meth again.

That was nearly six years ago. No one cared. The court system, CPS, police.. none of them care about a father's right to his kids, or a child's right to a quality life. They don't care if the mother makes them live is filth, neglects them, abuses them, or leaves them unconscious on the kitchen floor for 20 minutes before calling for help when they have an asthma attack. All that matters is that they're with her.

If this story had been about a father abusing his daughter, I'm sure it would have been a lot shorter. Unfortunately, this is not the case. I'm a seventeen year old girl, and I care about mens' rights because I care about my dad and my little brother. I care about the rights of anyone else that has had to put up with bullshit in the court system because they have the wrong set of genitalia. Their case was only the beginning. My dad's unfair treatment opened my eyes to the world of MR, and I hope one day other people will open their eyes, too.

Edit

Due to the high number of people suggesting we lawyer up and/or contact the media, I would just like to say a few things. We already lawyered up six years ago. What happened to us was horrid and disgusting, and I realize this story is a perfect example of how the American court system is biased when it comes to gender and the custody of children. However, we have moved on. We had to.

My step-father is currently in nursing school, and my older sister is in community college. I cannot work to help pay the bills, so my mother is on her own to work 60+ hours a week to keep us going. I couldn't be more proud of her. We simply cannot afford an attorney at this time. After all, while I said we had an income, I did not mean we are the wealthiest family in the world.

We already complained about how our case was handled and CPS's negligence towards my brother's situation. We have since been contacted by the judge who heard our case. He formally apologized and regretted his ignorance towards the evidence put forth against the mother. We never heard back from CPS, which, unfortunately, is not all that surprising.

I realize an apology is not enough to right what was wronged, but please see it from my family's perspective. We had a long, difficult battle to get our loved one away from torment and abuse. We want to focus on keeping him happy and healthy. I don't think you realize how hard it was and how long it took to get him up to par with the rest of society. We don't want any media attention at this time, for fear of a relapse on his part. He still talks about his birth mother from time to time and still does... odd things. It's a constant fear that he'll return to that dark world he had set up for himself in his own mind when we first rescued him.

I appreciate all the supportive words and suggestions this post has wrought. We feel we were compensated for our poor treatment the moment we held that little boy in our arms and knew he was safe. We may contact the media in future, when we feel he has completely adjusted to his new life.

Thank you.