Rally, walk highlight family court problem

Associate Circuit Judge Peter Statler will speak at the kickoff rally Monday morning to bring attention to what rally participants call the failure of family courts to protect abused children.

The rally precedes a 518-mile walk from Trail of Tears State Park in Cape Girardeau to Marietta, Ga., that is being organized by Wendy Titelman of Atlanta, Ga., founder of Kourts for Kids.

She founded Kourts for Kids, a nonprofit advocacy group, after she lost custody of her two daughters to their father.

Joining Statler at the rally from 10 a.m. to noon at the gazebo on the grounds of the Common Pleas Courthouse will be singer/songwriter Peter Love and New Orleans jazz musician Tom Fitzpatrick, along with local musicians. Love's songs "Daddy's Little Girl," "Save Our Children" and "A Mother's Love" have all made the charts.

On Sunday "Small Justice," an award-winning documentary on the problem in America's family courts will be shown at 7:30 p.m. at the Rose Theatre on the Southeast Missouri State University campus. Admission is free.

The film explores the family court system that Titelman said routinely gives custody to the parent the children have named as their sexual abuser. The documentary won the award for best social documentary at the New York International Film and Video Festival.

"It describes how batterers harm children in order to control the mothers and how the courts help those men," Titelman said. "By following the stories of three protective mothers and their lawyers, 'Small Justice' exposes a systematic legal failure to safeguard those who need protection the most."

The walk will begin immediately after Monday's rally and is expected to take 40 days. Participants will walk through Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee before ending July 29 in Marietta. Musical rallies will take place in Nashville and Marietta.

Titelman was in Cape Girardeau recently to finalize plans for the walk. She said she is not sure how many women will begin the walk with her Monday, but she expects to pick up additional walkers along the way, particularly in Nashville and going into Georgia. Expected to begin the walk with her are a group of women from northern Illinois, Kansas City and New Orleans.

lredeffer@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 160