CHILDREN CAN'T VOTE, SO WE HAVE LAWS TO PROTECT THEM. WHY WON'T THE COURTS ENFORCE THOSE LAWS?

Foster children in Florida were kept in overcrowded and inadequate homes and facilities and placed with families that were abusive, dangerous or neglectful. Advocates for the children sued the state governor and other officials because they failed to keep the children safe and provide them with appropriate care or placements.

The children's advocates believed that they could enforce their rights under the Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act of 1980, a law intended to protect foster children that establishes requirements that states must meet in order to receive federal funding for child welfare.

But a federal court in Florida refused to try the case based on a number of technicalities. Most critically, the court ruled that the federal law governing adoptions could not be enforced by a lawsuit brought by the children. Even though there was a law that had been created to protect them, they were left without a way to enforce it.

Bonnie L. v. Bush (2003)



Alida Gebser was thirteen years old when she met Frank Waldrup, who would later be one of her teachers during her first year of high school. In her school district in Lago Vista, Texas, class offerings for the most gifted students had just been cut, so Alida took Mr. Waldrup up on his offer to give her one-on-one lessons, in spite of his occasional illicit commentary. Their tutoring sessions quickly turned into a sexual relationship that lasted a year and a half until the police got involved.

Confused and violated, Alida and her family attempted to hold their school district accountable for Waldrup’s behavior. The case Gebser v. Lago Vista Independent School District was eventually appealed to the Supreme Court, which ruled in 1998 that school districts can be held responsible only if they knew about the sexual harassment and refused to do anything about it. This decision is devastating in that it actually provides less recourse for children to file a complaint about harassment than the average adult employee – even the teachers in Alida’s school have more protection against unwanted advances than their vulnerable and impressionable charges.

Further, the Gebser case has been used as precedent to limit liability for damages for harassment based on race, color, and national origin, making it nearly impossible for victims of harassment to sue under Title IX, Title VI, or other related statutes in order to restore their sense of justice.

Gebser v. Lago Vista Independent School District (1998)


For more information about children's rights, go to that section.