The following article has been making major waves amongst Parental Rights groups across the Nation. I have started a boycott of the shops involved and ask that you do not support these shop owners until they drop their participating in this program.

 

The Shops are:

Karen's Pizzeria, 1085 Eaton Ave, Hamilton, OH 45013

(513) 737-8111

 Fairfield Pizzeria 680 Nilles Road, Fairfield, OH 45014

(513)829-2200

 

Both of these shops have been sent the letter that follows this article expressing our thoughts on this program and have been given opinions are to how to stop this boycott.

 

Ray

Akron Director

 

Updated: 2007-03-26 09:54:35

Pizza Boxes Carry Photos of Deadbeat Parents

By LISA CORNWELL

AP

AP

Savanah Glaub displays pizza boxes with posters showing men wanted for non-payment of child support in Hamilton, Ohio.

 

CINCINNATI (March 25) - Customers at some suburban pizza parlors are getting something extra with their pepperoni and mushrooms - wanted posters for parents accused of failing to pay child support.

The idea came to Cynthia Brown, executive director of the Butler County Child Enforcement Agency, while she was ordering pizza.

"It suddenly dawned on me that most people running from the law don't eat out, they order pizza," said Brown, whose county is north of Cincinnati.

Enforcement agencies across the country use a variety of methods to locate support scofflaws and collect past-due payments. Virginia has issued subpoenas to cellular phone companies seeking addresses and phone numbers. California's Kern County seizes and auctions parents' vehicles, with proceeds going to the children, said Kay Cullen, a spokeswoman for the National Child Support Enforcement Association.

State child support agencies collected more than $23 billion in child support for 17.2 million children in 2005, but the cumulative past-due child support since the agencies were first formed more than 30 years ago is $106 billion, Cullen said.

"While we have made progress, putting the wanted posters on pizza boxes is an example of the innovation and commitment that we need," she said.

Other Ohio counties put posters on their Web sites and work with local Crime Stoppers programs, and a few contract with companies that can track people through rental and cell phone records, according to the Ohio Child Support Directors Association. Some include fliers in water and sewer bills.

Butler County has printed posters with mug shots of its 10 most-wanted parents, placing them in post offices and other government buildings and sending them to Ohio's 87 other counties. The lineup, chosen by prosecutors, is changed twice a year.

The Butler County sheriff's office served 1,224 nonsupport warrants last year, said sheriff's Sgt. Todd Langmeyer. The county has about 350,000 residents.

Brown approached several restaurants and chains with her idea of affixing the posters to pizza boxes, but so far only three pizzerias are participating.

Since the first pizza posters appeared in August, they have led to one arrest, Langmeyer said. "It's a good idea any time you can put the faces out there," he said.

The owner of Karen's Pizzeria hasn't heard any complaints about her participation in the poster program.

"Some customers joke about it and say they're glad they aren't on it," Karen Willis said. "Most seem to think it's a good idea."

An attorney who focuses on fathers' rights cases called the tactic "horrible."

"It's just a way of shaming people," said Maury Beaulier, whose firm is in Eden Prairie, Minn.

Many circumstances can cause people to get behind in support payments, but that doesn't make them deadbeats, he said.

Widespread public shaming also can devastate the children, said Michael McCormick, executive director of the American Coalition for Fathers and Children.

"Think how children feel to see a parent on a wanted poster and know their friends might see it," he said.

Brown said her agency tries to work with parents by trying to help them find work and seeks most payments through civil court. Criminal charges are a last resort. Conviction on a felony count of failing to pay child support brings a prison sentence of up to 18 months, with fines usually set in the amount of the support owed.

"We aren't trying to penalize these people," Brown said. "We are just trying to help the kids who have a right to be supported."

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press.

 

My Letter to the shops:

 

Dear Shop Owner;

 

Recent media coverage has come to our attention that indicates that your establishment has participated in a program sponsored by your local Child Support Agency that has you placing the pictures of 'Deadbeat Fathers' on pizza boxes.

 

We find this program disgusting and ask at this time ask that you discontinue your participation in this program. While we believe in the support of all children, we also believe that this state should treat divorced or separated parents in an equal manner, which they do not.

 

No separated parent is this stated is guaranteed equal access to their child should a divorce occur. The laws of this state allow a judge in Family Courts to 'award' custody based on total judicial discretion and in 85% of the cases award custody to the mother, in turn making good fit parents nothing more than visitors to child that they have shared equally in the raising of before.

 

At the same time, judicial discretion allows the same judge to set a level of child support for the same children at a level that for many is unrealistic and often throws them into a poverty situation where they could not even afford the product that you sell. There is a case in Champaign County of a father whose support level was set by the judge at 800 times his income level. The father has a motion which has been pending in that same court for over eight years and the courts have refused to act on this motion. He is not a Deadbeat, he is Dead Broke.

 

Yet the same court has found that father guilty of failure to support his children twice in total disregard of the constitutional protections of double jeopardy. Don't you think there may be something wrong with this picture?

 

While the Child Support Enforcement Agencies will claim that they are acting in the best interest of the children, do they assist those same children in seeing the fit parents that they are separated from? Trust me, not. I for one have paid my support even though my income level is substantially less than my ex and I have not been allowed to see my son in over two years. Mind you I have never been found to be an unfit parent, I am only divorced.

 

Tell the local CSEA to prove that they have forwarded every bit of funds to deserving parents as Federal Law requires them to do.  Go ask ACES how many people they hear from that are not receiving their support checks while proof exists that it has been collected. While we do not share like beliefs with ACES, we also have to wonder about how a government agency exists that fails to follow the federal laws it is required to follow.

 

At this time we are making you aware that a posting will be made to our website at www.pacegroup.org informing people of your participation in this program and telling them to boycott your business. You can end this boycott in two ways, by removing your shop from this program and then pass out literature, in the same manner, which supports equal parenting for fit parents. The second method would be to make a substantial contribution to Parents And Child for Equality thru our website. As a director and board member I will know when that has happened and will remove you from the boycott information.

 

I would also encourage you to attend a meeting at the Cincinnati Chapter so you can hear the stories of the struggles that fit parents go through to be a part of their children's lives.

 

Sincerely

 

Ray R. Lautenschlager

PACE Director

 Akron, Ohio