Many years ago, a coworker told me about a judge back home. Back home for that coworker was Montana or one of the Dakotas or maybe Nebraska -- I do not recall which.
It seems that a high school girl had born a child out of wedlock sometime in the 1960s or the 1970s. She went to court to demand child support payments from the father. The father enlisted six of his buddies to testify that they all had had sex with her. In a time before the advances of molecular biology and genetic testing, the boys insisted that there was no way to determine who really was the father.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molecular_biology
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parental_testing
http://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/handbook/testing/uses
The girl and her family were devastated by the lie. However, that judge had been around the block once or twice. He ordered each of the boys to pay one-seventh of the child support until the child's eighteenth birthday. They could pay up for what they had confessed in court, or they could confess that they had perjured themselves in court and face those charges instead.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defamation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perjury
That judge was an American Solomon in my book.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/source/biography/Solomon.html
Showing posts with label pregnant out of wedlock. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pregnant out of wedlock. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Meet My Friend Joe
Joe and I have been friends for over thirty years. Abortion is the one topic that we agree not to talk about. Joe is Catholic and vehemently "pro-life". I am anti-misogyny-tricked-out-as-religion and vehemently pro-choice-by-the-one-most-competent-to-make-the-decision, i.e., the woman.
Some years ago, Joe's daughter became pregnant out of wedlock. Abortion was out of the question in that house (At least she had the sense not to marry the father and did finish school.) Like my friend Mary, this girl's child came into the world with cerebral palsy. This particular child is bright as a button; has good eyesight; but does need a walker or a wheelchair to get around.
The time came to enroll the grandchild in grade school. For Joe it was a no brainer that he would bust his butt a few more years to pay for another generation of his family to attend a Catholic school on the south side of Columbus, Ohio. Joe's family had been members of that parish for three generations; this child would be the fourth.
Joe or his daughter, I am not sure which, went to the school to talk to the powers that be about letting the child attend the school on a trial basis. If it did not work out, the family would make other arrangements for the child. The administrator running the school said flat out that she was not comfortable with a disabled child attending school there. The parish priest backed the administrator.
After three generations, Joe and his family now attend another parish. The child attends a different Catholic school across town. From the way Joe related the story to me, I can not quite tell whether the administrator was more put off by the child's physical disabilities or the fact that the child was born out of wedlock.
There may be no appeal within the church, but that Catholic school accepts federal funds for education and is therefore subject to certain secular rules of fair play. Joe's daughter filed a complaint with the federal government. In her complaint, she asks that the school's personnel be required to complete training to work with disabled pupils in light of the federal tax dollars all of us have paid to that school to date.
Oh, and one more thing. The mother wants not one penny in damages for herself or her child. She does want an apology.
Some years ago, Joe's daughter became pregnant out of wedlock. Abortion was out of the question in that house (At least she had the sense not to marry the father and did finish school.) Like my friend Mary, this girl's child came into the world with cerebral palsy. This particular child is bright as a button; has good eyesight; but does need a walker or a wheelchair to get around.
The time came to enroll the grandchild in grade school. For Joe it was a no brainer that he would bust his butt a few more years to pay for another generation of his family to attend a Catholic school on the south side of Columbus, Ohio. Joe's family had been members of that parish for three generations; this child would be the fourth.
Joe or his daughter, I am not sure which, went to the school to talk to the powers that be about letting the child attend the school on a trial basis. If it did not work out, the family would make other arrangements for the child. The administrator running the school said flat out that she was not comfortable with a disabled child attending school there. The parish priest backed the administrator.
After three generations, Joe and his family now attend another parish. The child attends a different Catholic school across town. From the way Joe related the story to me, I can not quite tell whether the administrator was more put off by the child's physical disabilities or the fact that the child was born out of wedlock.
There may be no appeal within the church, but that Catholic school accepts federal funds for education and is therefore subject to certain secular rules of fair play. Joe's daughter filed a complaint with the federal government. In her complaint, she asks that the school's personnel be required to complete training to work with disabled pupils in light of the federal tax dollars all of us have paid to that school to date.
Oh, and one more thing. The mother wants not one penny in damages for herself or her child. She does want an apology.
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