Nancy Lee Grahn (Alexis/General Hospital) Testifies About Personal Ordeal
An interesting press release arrived today that I thought I’d share with you.
When I saw Nancy Lee Grahn’s name in the headline, it immediately got my attention. And as I read on, it became even more interesting.
As a soap fan, I have – for years – enjoyed Nancy Lee Grahn’s portrayal of the strong, smart, ever-so-efficient attorney Alexis Davis. But I had no idea that she was involved in a court battle regarding her child.
According to this release, Grahn is testifying Tuesday at the California Assembly Judiciary Committee Hearing on behalf of Bill AB 612. If passed, the bill would outlaw the use of Parental Alienation Syndrome to gain custody of children in divorce situations.
The syndrome describes behavior where one parent turns a child against the other by convincing the child the parent has treated him or her badly, even when they have not. Many call it “junk science” and are trying to get it banned from being used to gain custody in divorce cases.
Below is the press release which describes Grahn’s participation in these hearings and her support for this bill.
T.V. Star Nancy Lee Grahn to Join Dozens of Family Court Victims to Urge Passage of Assemblyman Jim Beall’s AB 612
What: Pre-Hearing Press Conference
Who: Daytime TV Celebrity Nancy Lee Grahn & dozens of family court victims & court reform advocates
When: 8:30AM on Tuesday, April 28 – Press Conference; 9:00AM Hearing in Room 4202
Where: State Capitol- Room 444
Acclaimed television star Nancy Lee Grahn will address reporters tomorrow about her personal family court ordeal before she testifies on behalf of AB 612 at the California Assembly Judiciary Committee Hearing. Grahn will join dozens of parents and children to speak about the ravages of Parental Alienation Syndrome, or PAS, on their lives, and the desperate need for family court reform.
Like thousands of parents in California’s family courts, Grahn was falsely accused of alienating her child against her father, yet she eventually prevailed in her protecting her child. AB 612 would outlaw the use of this unscientific theory that is typically responsible for placing more than 58,000 children per year in the U.S. into dangerous homes with parents the children have identified as their molesters and abusers (Leadership Council on Child Abuse & Interpersonal Violence). Beall’s bill is just one of a handful of measures addressing the need for family court reform in California this year.
PAS is a controversial, unscientific theory that does not meet legal evidentiary standards, yet it is commonly used in family courts everywhere. PAS and related alienation theories are not accepted or endorsed by the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, American Psychological Association, American Prosecutors Research Institute, National Center for Prosecution of Child Abuse, and nearly all credible researchers on the subject.
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Pingback by Mark Nadler » Blog Archive » Child custody — May 10, 2009 @ 4:31 am
All these mothers are on the band wagon, for Rights for Mothers trying to have PAS inadmissabled and banned in Family Court but have they given ANY thought to the fact that this is a real sydrome and that many many mothers are also the victims of this incideous brain washing by angry fathers bent on revenge at any price who are using the children as weapons to hurt their mothers. This is real and the people who use this technique to abuse their children and the alienated parent dont care that they are hurting their children.
WHY do people always have to make it a gender issue? Its obvious they dont care that children are being abused, the focus of the people using this to abuse children and the people wanting it banned is only themselves. These are selfish destructive people and in the meantime children are being abused and who is speaking for them? PAS is child abuse, the emotional trauma can damage them forever.
Comment by Isotope — May 11, 2009 @ 2:31 pm
The ONLY consideration should be the child or children NOT who wins in court. My daughter is a victim of PAS and she is suffering, her father is one of those people who will do anything, including destroy his entire family just to get revenge. This is NOT a syndrome specific to alienated fathers. This is a psychotic game being played by parents of both genders and it has to be recognized for the sake of the children.
Comment by Isotope — May 11, 2009 @ 2:35 pm
THIS is not a syndrome at all. It is being promoted by scam artists as such, but it is not.
Comment by justice4mothers — May 12, 2009 @ 5:01 pm
PAS is not a real syndrome dear…what you are describing is something else:
PAS WIDELY DISCREDITED
1996 – The Report of the American Psychological Association Presidential Task Force on Violence and the Family discredited the theory. It stated:
Although there are no data to support the phenomenon called parental alienation syndrome, in which protective parents are blamed for interfering with their children’s attachment to their abusers, the term is still used by some evaluators and courts to discount children’s fears in hostile and psychologically abusive situations.[4] Family courts often do not consider the history of violence between the parents in making custody and visitation decisions. . . . Psychological evaluators not trained in domestic violence may contribute to this process by ignoring or minimizing the violence and by giving inappropriate pathological labels to women’s responses to chronic victimization. Terms such as “parental alienation” may be used to blame the women for the children’s reasonable fear of or anger toward their violent abuser.
2003 – The National District Attorneys Association’s Center for Prosecution of Child Abuse discredited the theory. It stated:
Although PAS may be hailed as a “syndrome” . . . in fact it is the product of anecdotal evidence gathered from Dr. Gardner’s own practice. [...] PAS is based primarily upon two notions, neither of which has a foundation in empirical research. […] PAS is an untested theory that, unchallenged, can have far-reaching consequences for children seeking protection and legal vindication in courts of law.”
2006 – The American Bar Association’s Children’s Legal Rights Journal discredited the theory. It stated:
PAS’s twenty-year run in American courts is an embarrassing chapter in the history of evidentiary law. It reflects the wholesale failure of legal professionals entrusted with evidentiary gate-keeping intended to guard legal processes from the taint of pseudo-science…. As a matter of science, law, and policy PAS should remain inadmissible in American courts.
2006 – The National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges also discredited the theory. It stated:
The discredited “diagnosis” of “PAS” (or allegation of “parental alienation”), quite apart from its scientific invalidity, inappropriately asks the court to assume that the children’s behaviors and attitudes toward the parent who claims to be “alienated” have no grounding in reality. It also diverts attention away from the behaviors of the abusive parent, who may have directly influenced the children’s responses by acting in violent, disrespectful, intimidating, humiliating and/or discrediting ways toward the children themselves, or the children’s other parent.
Now, I wouldn’t call these organizations just along for the ride on our bandwagon…
Comment by justice4mothers — May 12, 2009 @ 5:05 pm
[...] 2009, 10:46 PM. An interesting press release arrived today that I thought Id share with you. …Read more…Use of Parental Alienation Syndrome Soon to Be Outlawed in California Amazon.com Widgets [...]
Pingback by Use of Parental Alienation Syndrome Soon to Be Outlawed in California Celebrity news Use of Parental Alienation Syndrome Soon to Be Outlawed in California People and Celebrity News and links from all over the Net Use of Parental Alienation Syndrome Soon t — May 16, 2009 @ 4:07 am
As a father of two adopted children, complete with an FBI background check and Social services vetting, who has not seen or even talked to his two children in over ten years, go ahead and try to convince me that alienation syndrome isn’t a fact.
“there are no data to support the phenomenon called parental alienation syndrome” What a lie.
Comment by Charles — June 15, 2009 @ 4:05 pm
Parental alienation, so called, given unwarranted credence by the male celebrity of Alec Baldwin — What’s gone missing in the deceptive anti-protective-parent “languaging” about “parental alienation” is that Alec Baldwin’s TV sit-com style of humored-over male supremacy resulted in his unpremeditated (i.e., always a part of his belief system) verbal violence against his daughter as “rude little pig” who (this coming from a grown male father to a pre-teen girl) needed to have her “ass straightened out.”
Pig and ass as Baldwin’s true view of the female gender underclass. Small wonder his ex-wife fought to free her daughter from this misogynist who is still appealing (oh, he’s so funny) to the internalized misogyny of his women supporters who (mind-boggled by misogyny) do not see clearly. It’s a vicious circle that humorists are trying to normalize wherever media beams. It’s still a war, one that men have made.
http://thelongestwar.wordpress.com/
Comment by Jude — June 18, 2009 @ 11:21 am
Wow, I like your blog Jude! I would like to post a link to it on our front page!
Comment by justice4mothers — June 18, 2009 @ 4:46 pm
Yes, interesting blog.
Comment by Rj — June 18, 2009 @ 10:20 pm
[...] Lee Grahn’s case too (Public Officials in California Call for Major Changes in Family Law, Use of Parental Alienation Syndrome Soon to Be Outlawed in California….Here’s Hoping!) It will open your eyes to the corruption in family courts (if you don’t know it personally [...]
Pingback by Family Court Discussion with The Center For Judicial Excellence’s Kathleen Russell « RightsForMothers.com — July 18, 2009 @ 11:17 am