Principal lashes out at NOW’s suggestion to suspend ‘switching homes’ for children during curfew

An educator is taking President of the National Organization of Women (NOW) Marsha Hinds to task for her recent call for the law courts to suspend access orders until January 14 when the national curfew ends.

Principal of The Ifill School Akil Ifill said that while he is not surprised by Hinds’ request, he believes her call is in poor taste and suggested that the same way children will be headed to public spaces they can spend time with their fathers.

During an interview with Barbados TODAY last week, the NOW president argued that the suspension of access orders is necessary at this time to stop children from moving between households in the ongoing COVID-19 environment.

Hinds said that despite the recent spike in COVID-19 positive cases on the island, there are some parents, particularly fathers who were still insisting that their children switch houses, while Barbados is fighting a health battle.

“Every time Miss Hinds speaks there is this lashing at men, at males and fathers in our society when we need them the most. She spoke about male parents making demands, but I know of fathers who have been denied access to their children by the mothers for six months, a year, and up to three years despite specific court orders and this was before the COVID-19 pandemic came to our shores.

“Why don’t we look at the imbalance in terms of the males and the fathers being put into prison for not paying child support, which is fair in a sense when the fathers may have gone on for months not doing so? But if you talk about breach of a court order, there are many mothers who breach court orders daily and who have denied access to children by the fathers,” he said.

“I have to ask, did Miss Hinds thoroughly examine the UN Convention on the Rights of a Child. Did she read article 3.1? Did she read the Family Law Act? Every right-thinking [person] in this country should want what is best for our children. But every time she speaks it is always a direct attack on the men in this country. It is time that she addresses issues on both sides of the discussion,” Ifill added.

Ifill said that in the same way the Attorney General cannot speak to matters regarding judicial decisions, Hinds cannot expect the court to make such a statement which he said attempts to marginalize the rights of fathers.

He also questioned why the court should make such a significant decision when the national curfew is expected to end in a matter of days.

“The court cannot micromanage parental relationships. I can appreciate any discussion to minimize exposure of the virus to children. But in her statements, she presented a one-sided biased narrative. The mother could be working in an environment where her risk of exposure is greater. “She could be a nurse or she could be working directly where testing is being done. Would it not be better for the child to stay with the father who may be a teacher, a gardener or a welder, and whose risk to exposure is significantly less?

“I understand that she said that her call is not to take away the rights of healthy participatory fathers, but in my opinion, she did very little to present a balanced point of view. In most cases, fathers are given very little access every weekend or every other weekend, which is another issue entirely,” Ifill said.

The NOW president said that a parent who is not weaponizing the court understands that with everything that is going on on the island, the best thing for a child right now is to remain in the care of the custodial parent with computer-assisted access for the visiting parent.

However, Ifill argued that many mothers refuse to contact fathers regardless of how many times the children have asked them to, in an effort to negatively affect fathers.

“So how does computer-assisted access help in reality? The phones are blocked or the mother simply does not care about communication with the father,” he said.

The educator said he agreed that there are fathers who do not take care of their children, but noted that it is just as important to identify mothers who do the same.

He said there are mothers who disrespect fathers, form allegations, demonize them and take to social media to tear them down while playing the victim in the eyes of the court, while the children are suffering emotionally, socially, and educationally.

“Isn’t it enough that they are not receiving the fullness of their education due to the same COVID pandemic? Do you want to take away the little time they have with their fathers as well?” he said.

“As a proud and amazing father of three, I have seen firsthand how some of our good fathers and mothers as well are treated unfairly in the court system. I am tired of these attacks and attempts at reducing the importance of fathers in our country.

“Please stop it. Let us work on addressing inadequacies in the court system which should respect the best interest of the child regardless of if it is the mother or father. Punish those who deserve to be punished, treat those who have shown the court and their children that they understand the best interest of a child, better,” he added.
(anestahenry@barbadostoday.bb)