Pei sze cheng parents without partners
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NOTE: This story was updated on 11/5/ to include comments from Samantha's father Scott.
Three young adults who attended a Bay Area-based reunification workshop as children say the costly program doesn’t work, and they’re worried about the lack of oversight for a program of this kind.
The workshop, Family Bridges, is one of the oldest and most widely used reunification programs in the United States and Canada. It claims to reconnect children with an estranged parent after divorce.
While most divorce cases are resolved outside of a courtroom, in extreme custody battles — sometimes called "parental alienation" cases —a family court judge has the power to order children to attend these reunification workshops.
The three young adults who attended Family Bridges as children say they don’t want other kids to have to go through what they went through.
Out of respect for each family’s privacy, NBC Bay Area is referring to the young adults by their first names only.
"I do not want this to happen to a single other person," said Arianna, a year-old from Seattle. In her case, a judge found her dad was alienating Arianna and her younger sister from their mother.
"This is the first time I’ve had a voice," said Leo, a year-old from Toronto. The judge in his case wrote that since his pa
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Emmy® Award-winning newspaperwoman Pei-Sze Cheng is a member precision NBC 4 New York’s investigative kit out, the I-Team.
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What to Know
- An NJ brother and sister are ripping a family reunification program that tore them apart from their father after a messy divorce in
- The program sent them all the way to California; they weren't allowed to have any contact with the "alienating" parent
- Though an appellate court eventually reversed the judge's decision, he lost his kids for three years; it was devastating for them all
Ana and her brother Alex were hopeful the morning they had their court hearing.
The Westfield, New Jersey, kids had been living with their father Adrian during their parents’ messy divorce. That day, the judge would make a ruling on custody and the children assumed they would return home with their father.
Alex, now a college student, recalls that day -- Dec. 27, He says all four of them -- he, his sister and their parents -- were called into court.
Inside the courtroom, a Union County judge found that the children had been "alienated from their mother by their father" and awarded sole custody to the mother. He ordered the children and mother to attend Family Bridges, a family reunification program all the way across the country in California.
Alex says they weren't even allowed to say goodbye to their father. Ana will never forget the experience.
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