Most of When we were children we were physically, emotionally and (some of us) sexually abused by one of our parents. Sometimes we got up the courage to tell our loving parent what our abusive parent was doing to us. Sometimes there were witnesses or medical evidence and our protective parent tried her/his best to protect us.

For some reason there was movement of fear and frenzy in the courts. People didn’t want to believe that a parent could be so abusive to his/her own child. The courts insisted that children or one of their parents must be making up these stories of horrendous abuse. The courts decided to punish the parents who believed their children and who were only trying to protect their children. The courts failed to realize, or didn’t care, that they were punishing us more.

It’s difficult to believe that such horror exists in America today, but thousands of children have been, and still are, taken away from their protective parent and placed with their abusers, by court orders. And some kids who were placed with abusers years ago are still trapped because the courts refuse to admit to, and correct their mistakes. Some of those kids are our younger siblings, and we are grieving for them.

Some of us kids are not able to speak out yet, because we are still stuck with our abusers and we are too afraid of how they, and the courts, will retaliate against us and our protective parents if we speak out. But we are getting support online from others in the Courageous Kids Network who managed to escape. Knowing there are other kids like us out there, who we can talk to and who understand what we are going through, helps those of us who are still trapped not to feel so alone.

For those of us who can speak out, we know that if we put our voices together, we can make a difference and change the family court system that is wrecking so many kids' lives. The Courageous Kids Network is an organization dedicated to stopping the continuing assault on children's human right to live free from abuse.