The Death of Our Unborn Child

Our unborn child was 12 weeks old when she died. I was three months pregnant when I had a miscarriage as a result of an incredible amount of stress that resulted from Adrienne Driggers closing my husbands daycare in San Antonio Texas as a result of my having spoken with one of the parents of the daycare about a sale at an HEB Plus grocery store and some blatantly falsified write-ups by her staff . That closing was a culmination of Adrienne Driggers and her staff parading me around as if I were some kind of criminal unworthy to be working with children. In clear violation of the Texas Administrative Code, Adrienne Driggers had closed my daycare for repeat write-ups after her office had withheld write-ups from me bringing them to light only after the time had expired to be able to challenge them.

We did not know the true gender of our unborn child when she passed away but we say that our baby was a girl because a little girl is what we had so prayed for our child to be. Hilario and I were incredibly happy when we discovered that I was pregnant. We already had two boys, this little girl was going to be spoiled with love and dresses, and little tea parties, doll houses, all the little things that girls love. I was already preparing her room at the time that she passed away. She was going to be our little princess.

It was in 1993 when I was working at First Baptist Church School in Corpus Christi, TX that I experienced a life altering event. The children were being read stories of Job, as well as Jonah and the Whale when tears began to form in my eyes. That is when I decided that I was going to dedicate my life to working with children while spreading the word of God. I did just that for many years. We had been blessed with two incredible boys and I was now going to have my little girl.

Adrienne Driggers had other plans. Retaliation seemed most likely for a number of reasons:

• I had reported one of her staff for not having provided me with write-ups
• My staff had reported one of the supervisors in her office for ordering one of them to leave a child unattended at a diaper changing table
• Hilario reported Veronica Lopez, another one of the supervisors beneath her, for stealing documents from his daycare to allow her to falsify write-ups against him
• Hilario had reported Geneva Hudel for falsifying write-ups.

Perhaps it was just my being Hispanic. Whatever reason she had, it certainly had nothing to do with the safety of the children.

Never in my life have I witnessed or experienced such contempt not just towards myself but for children. Adrienne Driggers certainly does not seem to understand nor care about the adverse consequences of her actions. Children are given absolutely no consideration when it comes to her seeking vengeance even if it means children getting molested or killed. The scariest thing of all is not just that she has so much power that she can destroy peoples lives at a whim but that she has the full support of the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services and the State of Texas Attorney General's Office.

When Adrienne Driggers ordered the immediate closing of the daycare after my conversation about the sale at HEB Plus the stress of being unemployed and being labeled a danger to the safety of children was incredible. What compounded the mental anguish of being branded by the State of Texas as a danger to children and of facing homelessness was my having to help remove our equipment from the daycare. We had nobody to help us. Though Hilario did not want me to help him, I felt that I had no choice because we knew that we would be able to reopen as Adrienne Driggers did not have justification to close the daycare. In order for us to reopen we needed our equipment and Hilario could not empty the buildings by himself.

When I started getting painful stomach cramps and my body began to expel tissue we knew what had happened. Our child had died. I had dedicated my life to helping other people's children and now my child had been killed. We cried and mourned my babies passing but our agony didn't end there as we were unable to find work in San Antonio and had to make the agonizing decision to leave all that our children knew to move to Oklahoma where Hilario found work and we found respite and escape from Adrienne Driggers and the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services.

Regardless of where you are, let your voice against injustice and intolerance be heard. Join us in our fight against Adrienne Driggers by signing our petition with change.org. If you have already signed the petition, please sponsor the petition. For as little as $20 you can help us reach 150 like minded people. That donation can be made directly through change.org.  https://www.change.org/p/end-the-abuse-of-power-by-the-san-antonio-department-of-family-and-protective-services-undo-the-unwarranted-placing-of-marla-gonzales-on-the-dfps-central-registry

WARNING TO ALL DAYCARE OPERATORS IN THE STATE OF TEXAS

I have been reminded by another daycare operator that daycare operators are at an additional risk from the State of Texas Childcare Licensing. When a childcare licensing representative makes a visit to your daycare you will be asked to sign (on their computer) an "acknowledgement" of having received the report which may or may not contain write-ups. You will be told by the Childcare Licensing Representative that your signing the report is not an acknowledgment that the write-ups are true but an acknowledgment of having received the report. DO NOT BELIEVE IT. DO NOT SIGN THE REPORT.

Any write-up that you receive you will have to be challenged within their "Administrative Review" process. By challenging the write-ups you are saying that you disagree with the write-ups. Administrative Reviews are held within the same office of the person whose write-ups you are challenging. They operate similar to a court system except that Childcare Licensing acts as the judge, jury, and executioner. I can tell you from experience that these people are not going to overrule the write-ups of people that they work with everyday. These people are friends with each other. That is just not going to happen no matter how much evidence that you have to support you. That is why the State of Texas Childcare Licensing "Administrative Review" process is well-known for being a Kangaroo Court System.

In the "Administrative Reviews" you cannot question their evidence, you cannot question the Childcare Licensing Representatives, nor can you question any witnesses that they claim they may have.  It is very possible that they may not even have any witnesses but merely claim they do so as to allow Childcare Licensing to state that you are violating the State of Texas Minimum Standards for Childcare Centers the rules by which daycares operate. You will hear from honest Childcare Licensing Representatives that the majority of reports against daycare owners come from disgruntled employees, clients that have been charged penalties for paying their tuitions late, or competing daycares. These make up the majority of their witnesses.

If Childcare Licensing revokes your license to operate they will use the write-ups against you and portray your daycare as a danger to children. They will inform the judge that you were given due-process through their administrative review process. Judges will be none the wiser and believe that the write-ups were proven to be correct.

Another tactic that Childcare Licensing will do is to add additional write-ups after having left the daycare. The purpose of this is obviously to pad the amount of write-ups to your daycare. If they do this to you take it as a huge red flag that you are being targeted.

What you should do to protect yourself are: 1) DO NOT SIGN THE REPORT 2) Have video cameras with sound in your daycare 3) Record everything that the Childcare Licensing Representative tells you. 4) Take pictures of the Report even if you do not have any write-ups. 5) Challenge the write-ups at the daycare and have witnesses. 6) Related to 5, obtain a notarized statement from the witness to corroborate your conversation with the Childcare Licensing Representative. 7) Keep a sign-in/sign-out sheet for all visitors to sign including Childcare Licensing Representatives.  Be aware however that asking Childcare Licensing Representatives may get upset with you for wanting them to sign in/out and may not want to cooperate.

The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services War on Black and Hispanic children

As you already know from having read this blog: State of Texas Childcare Licensing Representatives, and especially District Directors, have far too much power and have absolutely no checks and balances.

One thing that is deeply disturbing is that a District Director,  who may be a racist, a sadist or have the emotional maturity of a 3 year old (or all of the above!), can have a children's daycare closed even if a District Judge rules in the daycares favor in obtaining a temporary restraining order against Childcare Licensing regarding a revocation of a daycares license to operate.

As occurred with us, Adrienne Driggers ordered all of the children to be removed from our care on the same day that she ordered our daycare to close. The State of Texas Administrative Code states that daycare operators must be allowed time to obtain a temporary restraining order unless that daycare poses an imminent threat to children. This sounds like a good thing for the public until you realize how this is applied. A Childcare Licensing District Director can simply state that a daycare poses an imminent threat to children without having to provide any proof. Please recall how Adrienne Driggers ordered the immediate closing of my daycare in San Antonio when my wife spoke with a parent about a sale at an HEB Plus grocery store. I am sure you also are aware that she did absolutely nothing to Bethune daycare in Corpus Christi when a little Hispanic boy was killed when a television fell on top of him.

Very briefly I will state that to obtain a temporary restraining order you must be able to obtain an attorney at a moments notice which is incredibly difficult as attorneys do not advertise that they can help daycares in matters against the State, the attorney must then draw up the documentation to provide the judge, you must then go before a judge and hope that he grants you the temporary restraining order. The most time that you can expect from Childcare Licensing is three days and they consider an entire day even if they notify you in the afternoon! Should the judge rule in your favor the District Director will still be able to close your daycare by cutting off the State's funding of your daycare.

By ordering all of the children in your daycare to immediately transfer elsewhere you will not be able to re-enroll those children if they are on a governmental program that pays for their tuition. If your daycare's operations are deeply dependent on this funding, Childcare Licensing will be able to close your daycare by making it impossible for you to cover your expenses. This is even if the courts and the public agree with you.

There are a number of things that you can do protect yourself from the abuses of Childcare Licensing: 1) Do not have a Spanish surname as the State of Texas Department of Family and Protective Services Childcare Licensing Division clearly has a double standard of applying the rules and regulations. 2) Do not operate a daycare in low-income areas as a high percentage of  your enrollment of children on governmental assistance will make you an easy target. This would pose huge repercussions to low income families particularly among geographic areas compromising of Black and Hispanic children . 3) Do not open a children's daycare in Texas. I am certain that as more people discover how corrupt Adrienne Driggers and Childcare Licensing operate fewer people will be willing to open children's daycares in Texas. Fewer children's daycares will no doubt lead to a massive spike in child abuse cases in Texas. This is why we believe that Adrienne Driggers must be terminated immediately as the longer she remains with unfettered power the lives of tens of thousands of children are at risk.  4) If you truly wish to open a business that caters to children in Texas, open a business that thank God are not under the jurisdiction of DFPS Childcare Licensing. Examples include: gymnastics, karate, and tutoring. 5) DEMAND that the Texas Legislature make a massive overhaul and reduce the powers of the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services.

If you have already become a victim of Childcare Licensing you can move to another State where the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services does not have jurisdiction. So if you get placed on the State of Texas Central Registry or your daycare gets closed without justification you can still open a daycare in another state and not have the Central Registry issue or the revocation of your license to operate follow you.

The need to Reform the State Office of Administrative Hearings(SOAH)

We received a letter from the Texas Attorney General's Office today notifying us of the scheduling for the State Office of Administrative Hearings. It comes to us with no surprise that the Texas Attorney General's Office who is acting as an extension of Adrienne Driggers Childcare Licensing Department has changed their reasoning for placing Marla on the Central Registry and closing her daycare! Given the response that we have received it is apparent that any person that has read this blog is well aware that Adrienne Driggers orders to place Marla on the Central Registry and to close her daycare were not only unjustified but came as a result of Ms. Driggers animosity towards us.
It is obvious that the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services Childcare Licensing Division needs a major overhaul to prevent the kind of abuse of power of which you have read throughout the blog. What this case also illustrates is the need to overhaul the State Office of Administrative Hearings (SOAH) who is supposed to act as an independent party in judging over actions committed by State agencies.

To schedule a hearing before SOAH, you must go through the Texas Attorney General's Office who acts as an extension of the agency that you are fighting. For some bizarre reason SOAH does not schedule the hearings with the two parties. The Attorney General's Office can delay the hearing as long as they please or even schedule the hearing for a date/day that they know is difficult for you. If you need a continuance to reschedule the hearing you must obtain the permission from the Attorney General's Office.

Documentation that SOAH receives is solely provided by the Attorney General's Office in the form of the agencies opinions that very likely contains false information as it does in our case. The presiding judge will make the assumption that the agency and the Attorney General's Office is acting in good-faith,  which as is in the case is simply not true. What it means to the person fighting the State agency is that the odds are stacked against you before you even step foot inside the court room. The judge, who will very likely be influenced by the demonization of you, may not allow certain evidence, questions that you would like to ask representatives of the agency, or answers that you may try to give that will help clear you of the State agencies punishment

SOAH was created to allow a person due process against State agencies. Unfortunately, due process is denied because of the way SOAH is structured.

The State Office of Administrative Hearings and the intentions of the Attorney Generals Office

A few weeks ago we finally heard from the Attorney General's Office to schedule our hearing with the State Office of Administrative Hearings (SOAH). The conversation was brief and the contents of the conversation had been totally predicted. The call came from an attorney named Patricia Fernandez a person that we had met previously in San Antonio when she represented Childcare Licensing for closing my daycare when my wife, Marla, spoke to a parent about a sale at an HEB Plus grocery store.

Please keep in mind that after the traumatic experience that we experienced in San Antonio we went through a period where I suffered the horrible effects of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. One positive from this was that I thought about what they (Adrienne Driggers, her staff, the Attorney Generals Office) did to us daily. I would go through nights being unable to sleep just thinking about how crooked they were and the tactics that they used not to mention how they destroyed our family, and made our family suffer.

One of the things that I thought of was how the Attorney Generals office had a tendency to schedule SOAH hearings on Wednesdays as if that were the only day that SOAH operated. I figured that the reason that they did this was to make it harder for people like us to even attend much less any witnesses that would otherwise come to testify. So when Ms. Fernandez called to schedule the hearing she insisted on having the hearing on a Wednesday. We were adamant that we wanted the hearing to be held on either a Monday or a Friday. She tried so hard to force us to agree on a Wednesday that she made a pathetic attempt to lie to us by stating that she had to come to Corpus Christi on a Wednesday two weeks from the time she called and she would like to schedule it for that day so as not to have to make two trips. We refused. She, Marla, and I agreed on 4 dates for November all of which were either Mondays or Fridays.

This Friday, October 24th, we received a letter from the Attorney Generals office. They had apparently ignored the dates selected and scheduled a date on their own for January 7, 2015, a Wednesday.

This underhanded action made a huge statement. One, that we were absolutely correct in believing that they were intentionally trying to schedule hearings in the middle of the week to put us in a disadvantage. Another statement it made is by making it more difficult for our witnesses to attend the hearing, the Attorney Generals office was going to do what ever it took to protect Adrienne Driggers and allow her to continue to place children in danger and to continue to violate the rights afforded American citizens under the United States Constitution.

When I say "allow her to continue" to endanger the lives of children and to continue to violate the rights afforded American citizens under the United States Constitution is this. The Attorney Generals office was well aware of the abuses being committed by Adrienne Driggers office long before Adrienne Driggers closed our daycare in Corpus Christi.

Patricia Fernandez herself was aware that Ms. Driggers staff ordered one of Marla's staff in San Antonio to leave a child unattended at a diaper changing table, just as she was aware that Adrienne Driggers bi-passed the Texas Legislature in creating her own rule that Marla could not "appear to be more knowledgeable nor be a go-to person" to prevent Marla from being able to work in a daycare. The Attorney General's office is also well aware of how one of Ms. Driggers most important staff members, Geneva Hudel, ordered a daycare owner named Josie Sanchez into her dumpster to "fetch" some orange peels to prove that the children ate oranges that day. The thing about this is that Ms. Sanchez was contracted with a food sponsor with the USDA meaning that childcare licensing no longer had supervision of the food being provided by the daycare. Regardless, Ms. Hudel needed to only look at the receipt showing the purchase of the oranges, or ask the children or employees. Ms. Hudel ordered Ms. Sanchez into her dumpster simply to humiliate Ms. Sanchez in front of her staff. Ms. Sanchez had to endure much more including having licensing representatives park for hours outside of her house as well as one license representative ( I will name later) that attempted to break into her house. This harassment resulted in Ms. Sanchez calling State Senator Leticia Van De Putte's office for help. Ms. Van De Putte's office promptly called Adrienne Driggers and her superiors in Austin to stop harassing  Ms. Sanchez and if they continued to harass her, Ms. Sanchez was to call the police on childcare licensing. The attorneys for the Attorney Generals office were aware of this and more yet did nothing to correct the behavior of Adrienne Driggers or her staff.

So I say this: If Adrienne Driggers did nothing wrong, then she nor the Attorney Generals office should have nothing to fear. If the Attorney Generals office is so certain that they are in the right then they should let us have what ever day we want for the hearing. After all, we are just two people that wanted to help children for the rest of our lives by operating a small mom and pop daycare. By forcing the hearing to be held on a Wednesday to prevent our witnesses from being able to attend, the Attorney Generals office is showing that they do not care to hear the truth about how Adrienne Driggers. They just want to crucify us, win the hearing, and endanger the lives of tens of thousands of children in Texas that attend daycare.

Please take the time to sign our petition demanding that my wife, Marla, be removed from the Texas Central Registry, for the State of Texas to overturn the revocation of her license, and for the investigation and removal of Adrienne Driggers from her position as the Southwest District Director of Childcare Licensing:
https://www.change.org/p/end-the-abuse-of-power-by-the-san-antonio-department-of-family-and-protective-services-undo-the-unwarranted-placing-of-marla-gonzales-on-the-dfps-central-registry

Collateral Damage - The End of Innocence

This post was originally written on 9/9/2014. Some information has been updated to reflect changes that have occurred since then.

I was just going over my 11-year old son's homework assignment. The assignment was over a poem titled "On Turning 10" by Billy Collins. This poem details the passing of a happy and magical world of make-believe as held by children into a sad world where "pretend" and "make-believe" no longer exists as a result of getting older. It brings me sadness and rage that my children's innocence, as well as that of all of the children that were in our care, were ripped away by Adrienne Driggers, the Southwest District Director of the Department of Family and Protective Services Childcare Licensing Division, and her staff. All of these children were simply collateral damage from Adrienne Driggers hatred towards us. They were held in contempt by the very people whose jobs in the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services was to protect them and ensure their well-being. Their little lives meant nothing to Adrienne Driggers and John Specia, Jr. the Commissioner of the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services.

Unlike what many of you may have heard about daycares like children being denied food as punishment, children being pinned to filing cabinets with service carts, children crying and begging their parents not to take them to daycare, the children in our daycares have always loved being with us. It was common for the children in our care to cry because they didn't want to leave! There was a licensing representative in San Antonio named Cathy Storey, a lady with many years of experience working for the Department of Family and Protective Services in Virginia, who was in awe of how we operated. In her words, our daycare "operated the way daycares should operate." She was disgusted that Adrienne Driggers had closed down Marla's daycare and flatly stated that it was not only stupid of Adrienne Driggers to do so but the worst thing that she could have done to the children of the community. Ms. Storey stressed how it was obvious that our staff was very well trained not only in the State of Texas Minimum Standards for Childcare Licensing but in their interactions with the children and parents. She was overjoyed at how happy the children were to be in our care. She stated that she sensed a genuine love of children. This is what our daycare, Kiddie Care, was all about.

In a scene that I can only imagine was reminiscent of Adolf Hitler's treatment of Jews of ripping them from their families and herding them into rail cars, when Adrienne Driggers closed my daycare, the children were crying horribly as they latched themselves onto our legs and refusing to let go. We will never forget the dozens of children crying as they were being ripped away from caregivers that genuinely cared about them. Just as the parents whose children were in our care will never forget the cries of their children when they were ripped from a daycare that they loved we will never forget the two children that were molested as a result of Adrienne Driggers closing Marla's daycare. They were the sweetest children you can imagine. They did nothing wrong to Adrienne Driggers but had their innocence taken from them as a result of her actions. She is aware of this but it did not stop her from later continuing to target us by closing down our daycare in Corpus Christi.

 Our daycare was unique. When parents could not afford to pay we always came up with an arrangement for them to allow their children to continue to receive care. We understood that the daycare was the lifeline to their families. In the thick of "The Great Recession" we were what the depressed area of South East San Antonio needed.  At the time that Adrienne Driggers closed my daycare in San Antonio, Kiddie Care and the Abundant Grace Lutheran Church were mere days from opening a food pantry for the poor. Christmas was a wonderful time for the children as our daycare, with tremendous help from the church, were able to provide many toys for the children. For those of you with knowledge of daycares, this commitment to children is unheard of. As you may have already read, Adrienne Driggers had closed my daycare because my wife, Marla, had violated Adrienne Driggers' stipulation on my license of "appearing to be more knowledgeable or appearing to be a go-to person", a rule nowhere to be found in the Texas Administrative Code, by talking to one of the parents about a sale at an HEB plus.

Our importance in Corpus Christi was growing at the time that Adrienne Driggers closed our daycare. We were able to feed over a dozen families for Thanksgiving and were on the verge of opening a food pantry and a kids closet for unfortunate families.

So as I read the poem, I thought of how Adrienne Driggers shaped our children and the children in our care. A generation of children have been taught by the Department of Family and Protective Services Childcare Licensing Division the vices of intolerance, racism, unfairness, and abuse of power. Childcare Licensing has as a result of Adrienne Driggers, with the approval of her superiors, become grouped in the minds of those that she has affected no different than the Hitler's Nazi party and the Ku Klux Klan.

When a child named Jordan Arredondo died at Bethune daycare in Corpus Christi, the parents of the  children who were enrolled in our daycare, and apparently many of you who are reading this blog, rightfully asked with anger "why doesn't Adrienne Driggers close their daycare down when a child died in their care and nothing happened to any of the children at our daycare (Kiddie Care)?!" The words racism and double standard on the part of Adrienne Driggers and Childcare Licensing has been mentioned repeatedly. Even though the Department (DFPS Childcare Licensing) ruled that the daycare was negligent, Bethune daycare was allowed to continue to operate!

Adrienne Driggers, the person whose job it was to protect the children of the community, ripped our own children from everything that they loved: friends, their home, school. Our oldest at the time would pray to God for protection from Adrienne Driggers. Those prayers did not stop the nightmares. Our youngest feared for his life and when we were forced to move to Oklahoma, he would cry incessantly for us to return to our home in San Antonio. As a parent, you never forget those cries.

We have been hardened from Adrienne Driggers abuse of power and swear to put an end to her reign of terror. I promise you that in our hearing with the State Office of Administrative Hearings we will prove that she and several of her subordinates committed felonies. We will push for the Department of Justice to prosecute.

The innocence of our children has been lost for ever as a result of Adrienne Driggers rape of our family. Our five year old's entire life has been dominated by the effects of Adrienne Driggers hatred. Our 11 year old has already been hardened by Adrienne Driggers' cruelty and feels an incredible hatred for her and Childcare Licensing. Our oldest son has learned all about intolerance from Adrienne Driggers' and refers to her as a racist animal. She is the devil incarnate. It breaks our hearts that our children were introduced to such an incredible amount of hate and intolerance at such an incredibly young age.  Unfortunately, she and the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services did the same to all of the children that were in our care.

A Day of Reckoning - The State of Texas Sunset Review

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 
As a result of how the Department of Family and Protective Services(DFPS) Childcare Licensing Division is able to operate without any oversight and that the employees of Childcare Licensing band together to protect one another we have been forced to create this blog to appeal to the public and thereby giving us a fighting chance against them. Now we have been blessed with incredible timing with the State of Texas "Sunset Review" being held in Austin Texas right now! The State holds a Sunset Review every 12 years.

What Is Sunset?
Sunset is the regular assessment of the continuing need for a state agency to exist. While standard legislative oversight is concerned with agency compliance with legislative policies, Sunset asks a more basic question: Do the agency’s functions continue to be needed? The Sunset process works by setting a date on which an agency will be abolished unless legislation is passed to continue its functions. This creates a unique opportunity for the Legislature to look closely at each agency and make fundamental changes to an agency’s mission or operations if needed.

We have the opportunity to make ourselves heard directly to the people with the power to force a change in the way DFPS operates. Please take the time to fill out a Public Input Form on this link: https://www.sunset.texas.gov/input-form. Time is limited as we have only until 6/30/2014 to submit these forms. Please demand that the Sunset Advisory Commission do something about the corruption in the Department of Family and Protective Services and reference this blog (http://darksideofchildcare.blogspot.com/). You have the power to rock a corrupt State Agency to it's core. With your assistance you can help us protect the lives of tens of thousands of children that attend daycare in Texas.

Attorneys for Hire

Finding attorneys that are experienced with the State Office of Administrative Hearings(SOAH) and/or childcare licensing is difficult . Which is why I am providing this list for you. I am not recommending for you to hire these attorneys, I am merely providing this list to help you should you become a target of Child Care Licensing . It would not be a bad idea to have one on retainer. The cost of having an attorney on retainer varies. Some attorneys may ask for a retainer of $3,000 others may ask for $25,000. It could cost mom and pop establishments their entire life savings  just to hire an attorney while Childcare Licensing has the taxpayers of Texas to pay for their attorney fees. I will add more attorneys to the list as I become aware of them.

Be aware of several things regarding attorneys. Just like the public, it is very likely that the attorney that you hire may not be knowledgeable of the State of Texas Minimum Standards for Childcare Centers or believe you when you tell them that childcare licensing representatives do not act in good faith, falsify writeups , or that childcare licensing representatives and the District Director target individuals unfairly.

Insist that your attorney read this blog to help them understand. You will very likely have to teach them about the minimum standards as they are not specialized in this industry. Most attorneys will offer a discount to you as they will very likely understand that if you are needing to hire them that you are very likely facing extreme financial difficulties. Ask them about discounts and find out how they charge you. Be active in your defense. Provide as much assistance to your attorney as possible (e.g. questions to ask either of yourself or childcare licensing). Keep in mind that childcare licensing and the Attorney General's office do not play nice. Your best chance at beating them is by forcing them to answer for their behavior. Do not expect for your attorney or the presiding judge to be familiar with the daycares rules and regulations. Do expect for the State to mislead the court.


Below is a list of attorneys that may be able to help you:

Julie Ketterman
The ISIS Building
1004 Prairie Street, Suite 300
Houston, TX 77002
(866)685-0587
(713)909-3126
Website:
http://www.khalawyers.com/
Provides services statewide

Greg Cagle
1602B State St.
Houston, TX 77007
(800) 704-3929

Rain Minns
Website:
www.rainminnslaw.com

Rain Minns Law Firm
4412 Spicewood Springs Rd. Suite 500
Austin, Texas 78759
(512)372-3222 Phone
(512)861-2403 Fax
Email:
info@rainminnslaw.com   


Reyna and Reyna, Attorneys at Law
809 S. Port Ave
Corpus Christi, TX 78405
(361)884-4357


Gale, Wilson & Sanchez:
Christopher John Gale
Mark Anthony Sanchez
115 E Travis St
San Antonio, TX 78205
(210)222-8899


Robert Puente
606 N McColl Rd
Mcallen, TX 78501
(956)618-9904


Martin Cantu
Website:
www.cantulegal.com

Office Hours by Appointment Only:
11550 IH-10 West, Ste. 180
San Antonio, Texas 78230
(210)549-6036 Phone
(210)338-8664 Fax
Email:
martin.cantu@cantulegal.com


Joe Flores
Website:
www.floreslawfirm.com

500 N. Water St., Ste. 515
Corpus Christi, TX 78478
(361)887-8670 Phone
(361)887-8651 Fax
email:
joe@floreslawfirm.com


Potts and Reilly, L.L.P.
Website:
www.pottsreilly.com

7017 John Carpenter Fwy. Suite 225
Dallas, TX  75247-5132
866-876-7825
Potts & Reilly, L.L.P., in Austin, Texas, represents clients throughout Texas, including the communities of Austin, Dallas, San Marcos, Georgetown, Round Rock, Marble Falls, Horseshoe Bay, Granite Shoals, Kingsland, Bastrop, El Paso, the Texas Hill Country,
Highland Lakes, and Central Texas.

Travis County • Williamson County • Burnet County
Llano County • Dallas County • Hays County

Deleon & Washburn, P.C.
Website:
www.dwlawtx.com

901 South Mopac Expressway
Barton Oaks Plaza V, Ste 230
Austin, TX  78746
(512) 478-5308  Phone
(512) 482-8628  Fax

Leichter Law Firm PC

Website:

www.leichterlaw.com

1602 E 7th St

Austin, TX 78702

(512)495-9995

Providing Services in:

Amarillo     Arlington       Austin       Brownsville     Corpus Christi     Dallas    El Paso       Fort Worth     Garland     Houston           Laredo                 Lubbock

San Antonio                   

Ramifications

The ramifications for how Adrienne Driggers and Childcare Licensing operate and how we are fighting back are vast.

Adrienne Driggers' reckless management and the tendency of her subordinates to falsify write-ups of daycares make all of the information posted on the DFPS website unreliable for parents who are searching for daycare.  Parents, politicians, judges, attorneys, all accept the information posted on the DFPS website to be true. As you have seen from reading this blog, that is the furthest thing from the truth. . Daycare operators do not have the ability to tell their side of the story and are forced to suffer the consequences when a childcare licensing representative and/or the Childcare Licensing District Director is prone to committing libel.

The Administrative Reviews in which daycare operators can challenge the write-ups are notorious for being complete shams as they are typically administered by a Childcare Licensing Representative within the same office as the Childcare Licensing Representative's whose write-ups are being challenged. This massive conflict of interest was established by the Texas Administrative Code!

Adrienne Driggers' tendency to promote those Childcare Licensing Representatives who are prone to falsifying write-ups has created a culture of corruption where the individuals with the most power are the most corrupt.

The ease with which Adrienne Driggers is able to place innocent people on the DFPS Central Registry and close their daycares screams out for the overwhelming need for better checks and balances. She acts as judge, jury, and executioner without any oversight or fear of repercussions. Given that Adrienne Driggers clearly has far too much power, there must be a committee of both citizens, lawmakers, and daycare operators to approve those drastic decisions and to help ensure a fair, balanced, and uniform application of the punishments afforded to Childcare Licensing under the Texas Administrative Code for all daycare operators. If a daycare with 13 write-ups is being closed for posing "an immediate threat to children" then the thousands of daycares in Texas that have more write-ups should be closed as well.

The case for being able to report misconduct of Childcare Licensing Representatives and District Directors must be reorganized. Currently, the Office of Consumer Affairs is given that responsibility. Unfortunately, the Office of Consumer Affairs is within the Department of Family and Protective Services. It is part of the same State Agency as the one we are reporting. In our request for the investigation of Adrienne Driggers and Childcare Licensing, we provided the rules and regulations to support why we were in the right. Despite this, the Office of Consumer Affairs did not bother to call us for an interview nor did they ask for support documentation which we have plenty of. Despite Adrienne Driggers blatantly violating the Texas Administrative Code, the Office of Consumer Affairs responded by stating that we needed to go through the Administrative Review process. They were absolutely useless.

The manner in which we are fighting back also has major ramifications. Rather than being fearful and defenseless against what on the surface appears to be a monolithic entity we have successfully exposed this giant's weakness to the most monolithic group of all, the citizens of the State of Texas. Here in Texas, we have a natural suspicion of corrupt governments. We will also fight for the safety and well-being of children. What Adrienne Driggers and Childcare Licensing have done is not only corrupt; their corruption has endangered the lives of the most vulnerable in our community and has resulted in at least the molestation of two children and the death of our unborn child.

Through the use of social media, we now have a means to level the playing field against a State Agency that until now has controlled all of the information available to citizens regardless of whether or not that information was truthful. We now have the ability to expose Childcare Licensing Representatives for misconduct in a very public manner. I believe that Adrienne Driggers and her staff have been so reckless in their disregard of our Constitutional rights because they do not have any oversight. Through the use of social media, not only are we making Adrienne Driggers and her staff accountable for their actions we also have the ability to pressure our elected officials to protect us from her and any other corrupt State Agency.

The methods that we have used can be applied by any person against the largest of organizations. The greatest benefit in our war with DFPS Childcare Licensing are the tens of thousands of children in daycare. With each day that this blog and our petition are circulating, the possibility of Adrienne Driggers termination increases. The failure of her superiors to terminate her employment will only serve to further undermine the need for the Department of Family and Protective Services Childcare Licensing Division.

Training your Staff

In the first six months that my wife Marla operated her daycare in San Antonio, she experienced some very bizarre behavior from childcare licensing, beyond Adrienne Driggers' office refusing to provide Marla with write-ups from their visits. At the time we chalked it up to childcare licensing representatives not understanding the State of Texas Minimum Standards. There is a lot of truth to this. There were many times when our staff knew the regulations better than the representatives that would come to inspect our daycare. After all of our experiences with childcare licensing, I would have to say that the bizarre behavior was a result of the combination of both malicious intent and lack of knowledge on the part of childcare licensing representatives.

Training at Kiddie Care, our daycare, was intense. While the State requires all new employees with less than six months of experience to undergo Pre-service training. We required all of our staff, regardless of how much experience they had, to undergo pre-service training which included: studying all of the required pre-service training topics as mandated by the State of Texas Minimum Standards for Childcare Centers and preparing our staff for the day to day operations included real life situations and the best ways to handle them. This part of the training is not only not required by the State of Texas but it is not even addressed by the State of Texas.

Though it was not mandated by the State of Texas, all of our staff were required to take tests to prove their level of understanding of the State of Texas Minimum Standards for Childcare Centers and best methods of handling situations. If the potential employee did not pass the test they were not hired.

After completing the tests our staff were partnered with an employee, with the oversight of the director, to reinforce the material that they had studied in preparation for the job.

At a bare minimum, our staff obtained at least 40 hours of training by the time they were able to work with a group (The State of Texas requires 24 hours of training). The training, however, did not end there as our staff were observed closely and corrected of any deviation from the training that they had received.

Given the behavior of childcare licensing, we felt it necessary to incorporate within our training the preparation of our staff of the tactics used by childcare licensing representatives in attempting to cause injury to the daycare and the children in our care.

Staff were trained to respond in a courteous manner whenever a childcare licensing representative demanded or ordered them to do something that would be in violation of the State of Texas Minimum Standards. In their training our staff were given real life examples of what to expect from childcare licensing representatives. Role-playing was a useful tool that we used to prepare our staff for childcare licensing.

The greatest example of how this preparation protected the children in our care was when one of Adrienne Driggers' childcare licensing investigators named Jessica Nombrana attempted repeatedly to order one of Marla's employees, Megan Kettler, to leave a child unattended at a diaper changing table. Ms. Kettler had just completed her classroom training and was paired with another staff member named Lisa Cavazos. Because Ms. Kettler had been prepared for childcare licensing representatives use of unethical methods to obtain write-ups for the daycare, she politely refused Ms. Nombrana's orders despite Ms. Nombrana's aggressiveness. Both Ms. Kettler and Ms. Cavazos called Adrienne Driggers directly to complain of Ms. Nombrana's actions but were ignored. Not only was Ms. Nombrana not reprimanded but she was actually promoted to holding classes for prospective daycare operators on how to follow the State of Texas Minimum Standards!

Another example came from a childcare licensing representative named Elizabeth Venecia who attempted to pull a staff member out of the infant room leaving the room out of ratio. The staff member that she was attempting to pull out of the room politely refused by notifying Ms. Venecia that she could not leave the room as it would leave the room out of ratio. Ms. Venecia acquiesced.

One of the most difficult things for childcare operators is when a childcare licensing representative creates and enforces their own rules. For instance, in Corpus Christi, we had a Childcare Licensing Representative named Christina Cantu that wanted us to rip out the carpet and padding because it was the same carpet that was there when she had visited the location when it was operated by a different daycare. I told her that the Corpus Christi Health Department had visited the daycare the day before her visit and were perfectly fine with the carpet. In fact, we received a perfect score by the Health Department. I told Ms. Cantu that removing the carpet and padding would create serious injuries to the children  as they would be forced to play and nap on exposed concrete. She wrote up the daycare for us having the carpet but did it in such a way that it does not reflect her true reasoning. We do have witnesses that overheard her. Because I called her supervisor, Sylvia Fuentes, to state our concerns about the safety of the children if we removed the carpet, we received a letter from the Corpus Christi Director stating that they had investigated the matter and made corrections. We succeeded in protecting the children.

Training your staff is paramount to ensuring the safety of the children in your care even if it means protecting them from childcare licensing. Unfortunately, it cannot save you or your daycare if the childcare licensing representative is dead-set on finding fault in your daycare or from childcare licensing representatives falsifying write-ups. I strongly recommend that you also install hidden cameras that also capture sound because if you report the Childcare Licensing Representative for misconduct, that representative will simply deny the misconduct and that representative will have the full support from their co-workers and superiors. Childcare Licensing will uphold the write-up unless you have video to prove your case and are willing to go public with it.

We have had our fair share of crooked Childcare Licensing Representatives. We had one in San Antonio named Geneva Hudel that ripped a baseboard off the wall then wrote us up for having a loose baseboard. Ms. Hudel also used a conversation that a parent and Marla had regarding a sale at an HEB Plus to write us up for a violation that does not exist in the Texas Administrative Code but was created by Adrienne Driggers, Ms. Hudel's Supervisor and District Director for West and South Texas. In Corpus Christi we had a Childcare Licensing Representative named Monica Martinez that wrote us up for not having trained the staff despite the testimony from the staff and documentation indicating otherwise.

Here is a video of a Childcare Licensing Representative attempting to falsify a write-up. Tactics like the one seen in this video are commonly used by Childcare Licensing Representatives.

 

 



Please take the time to read and sign the following petition from Change.org. We would greatly appreciate your sponsoring the petition. You can sponsor the petition directly on change.org. By signing and promoting the petition you will be helping us to save the lives of thousands of children in Texas by putting an end to Adrienne Driggers.

 Change.org petition 

A Call for Action

The actions of Adrienne Driggers, the Southwest Direct Director of Childcare Licensing, are widespread. Her actions and that of her staff affect not only Daycare Operators but the lives of thousands of children and their families. This blog exposes the unethical behavior of Childcare Licensing but we need your help to spread the word of the existence of this blog to the community.

Please take the time to call any or all of the following and demand that they report the existence of this blog. You don't have to limit yourself by calling just one number or calling only the television stations or newspapers based on your place of residence. Without your help in spreading the word of the existence of this blog we will fail and countless children will suffer as evil will prevail. I will be adding contact information for the media from additional cities  as the corruption highlighted in this blog affects every city in Texas.

In Corpus Christi, please call:

KRIS TV  at (361)884-6666
KIII TV at (361)986-8300
KZTV TV at (361)886-6173

Corpus Christi Caller Times at (361)884-2011

In San Antonio, please call:

KENS 5 TV at (210)366-2002
WOAI TV at (210)226-4444
KABB TV at (210)442-6397
KSAT TV at (210)351-1269

San Antonio Express at (210)250-3000

In Austin, please call:

KXAN TV at (512)703-5255
KVUE TV at (512)459-9442
KTBC TV at (512)477-8643

Austin Statesman at (512)445-4000

The Persecution Continues in Corpus Christi

My mother's health had been deteriorating. Fortunately, it was easy for me to visit her as she lived in Corpus Christi, a mere 2 hour drive from San Antonio. After we moved to Oklahoma, the distance and the cost to drive to Corpus Christi made it almost impossible to see her. There wasn't a single day where we did not fear a call from one of my brothers telling us that she had passed away. They assured me that she was doing well. We realized that she was not doing well when we were finally able to visit Corpus Christi during a Spring Break. My brother's had lied to me as they felt that we had already suffered enough from Adrienne Driggers and Childcare Licensing. They didn't want us to worry. My mother had deteriorated quickly. She was completely immobile, could no longer sit nor eat on her own. She could hardly speak a word. Despite the fact that we lived in peace in Oklahoma, out of the reach of Adrienne Driggers and the Department of Family and Protective Services, we had to return to Corpus Christi. I had to be there for my Mother.

On our last day of Spring Break, we were fortunate to have found a place to rent in Corpus Christi  for our new daycare. Despite Adrienne Driggers' attempt to prevent Marla from being a license holder and working at a daycare, once we discovered that Marla's two year sentence had expired, there was nothing that she could do to stop us. I would be able to team-up with Marla at her new daycare as Patricia Fernandez, an attorney for the State and no doubt in an attempt to keep their office from losing before the State Office of Administrative Hearings (SOAH), arranged for me to be allowed to be a Director. Ms. Fernandez' office would not have made this arrangement if they felt that Adrienne Driggers was correct in her decision to close the daycare. My being allowed to work as a Director was as great an admission of a State Agencies wrongdoing as you can get. Our attorney, against our orders, compromised our position and made an agreement with Ms. Fernandez and Ms. Driggers in a closed door meeting. Ms. Fernandez and our attorney did not allow us to be a part of this meeting.

We were brought in to meet with our attorney (who suspiciously turned on us after the closed door meeting), Ms. Fernandez, and Ms. Driggers to discuss what they had agreed to. Ms. Driggers began begging us to return and open a daycare in San Antonio promising that we would get better treatment. She stated that she would provide us with her direct number should one of her staff behave inappropriately and acted as if she was not involved in their behavior. When it came to her own survival she had no problem throwing her staff under the bus. She stated that if we ever needed an administrative review she would order that it be held by somebody from a different city. Having experienced the extent of San Antonio Childcare Licensing's unethical behavior, there was no way that we were going to return. Operating a daycare in San Antonio was too dangerous. We did not believe that Driggers or her staff could be trusted. The humiliation that Adrienne Driggers experienced in  having to beg us to return to San Antonio and admit that her office acted unethically, we are certain, only increased her already intense hatred of us.

A few months later, when Marla submitted her application to Childcare Licensing in Corpus Christi, Marla was notified by one of Childcare Licensing's Representatives, Edward Flores, that Adrienne Driggers reneged on Ms. Fernandez offer. I promptly called and wrote to our attorney who promptly responded with the following email indicating that Ms. Fernandez ordered Adrienne Driggers to notify the Corpus Christi office that she was wrong in attempting to prevent me from being a director or person left in charge of Marla's daycare. She had been humiliated once again.

Email from Mark Braswell and Patricia Fernandez-Attorney Generals Office

Thing's were going great at our daycare in Corpus Christi. We had earned a great reputation for having a caring and very well trained staff. The Childcare Licensing Representatives that were assigned to us were tough but they were ethical. It was a far cry from San Antonio. Until November 7, 2013.

Many children did not attend on this day. So Marla and I decided to leave the daycare to get more equipment for the children. The State of Texas Minimum Standards state that a daycare Director is not required to be at the daycare for all hours of operation so long as someone is placed in charge of the daycare. We placed a caregiver whose initials are P.E. to be in charge of the daycare in our absence. Ms. E had both childcare and supervisory experience and had received 56 hours of training before she was allowed to work by herself with the children. The 56 hours are more than double the 24 hours of training required by the State of Texas. She had worked at our daycare for at least two months and had proven herself to be competent.

Shortly after we left the daycare to purchase equipment, Ms. E, went against specific instructions and combined her pre-k children with the toddlers to use the restroom. This is not a violation of the minimum standards but prohibited at Kiddie Care. The toddler group was being cared for by a caregiver with the initials EP who had properly followed instructions in securing her area prior to changing the diapers of the children in her care and prior to the arrival of  Ms. E's pre-k children.  We discovered later that Ms. E violated her training by ordering a child to return a toy that he had brought with him to the restroom back to the pre-k room. When the child did not return quick enough, Ms. E left her group with Ms. P to allow her to bring the child back to her group. Unfortunately, when Ms. E left the room she left the door open and unsecured. Ms. E believed that Ms. P would be able to supervise both of the groups while she was gone despite the fact that Ms. P was busy at the diaper changing table. During those few seconds that she removed herself from her children's line of sight, a child ran out of the now unsecured room, left the building, and ran towards the street in front of the daycare. Fortunately, nothing happened to the child. A passerby returned the child to the daycare where he was instructed to leave the child with Ms. E as she was the person in charge. The Corpus Christi Police Department arrived shortly after and had Ms. E call us to notify us of what had occurred.

We arrived within minutes after being called. We promptly notified Childcare Licensing as well as the child's parents. A Childcare Licensing Representative named Monica Martinez arrived at the daycare within two hours and questioned the staff as to what had occurred. After speaking with everyone she told us that it was very likely that Ms. E and possibly Ms. P would be placed on the DFPS Central Registry for Abuse and Neglect and that there was a small possibility that the daycare may be put on a corrective action though she felt that it may not as the daycare had only 13 write-ups. She provided us with a plan of action and left. Adrienne Driggers would later make an attempt to include Marla as being part of the incident even though Monica Martinez' Safety Plan clearly indicates that only Ms. E and Ms. P were involved.

Monica Martinez Safety Plan

Both Ms. P and Ms. E were gone from the daycare within days of the incident. Despite having our full support, Ms. P left the daycare on the urgings of her mother who wished to protect her from the stress and shame of not being able to work alone with the children. Strangely, PE blamed us for her situation! We were told that Ms. E driven by her anger at us, made a false report to the Corpus Christi Health Department and Childcare Licensing. Even though two inspectors came from the Health Department the daycare did not receive a single deficiency. We received a visit the next day from a Childcare Licensing Representative named Christina Cantu. Ms. Cantu made it feel like we were in San Antonio all over again.
 
When Ms. Cantu arrived I thought that she was looking for a job. She was gruff and her clothes were untidy. The most troubling thing about Ms. Cantu was her effort to rewrite the Texas Administrative Code. She attempted to write-up the daycare for not having an extra person with the toddler teacher when she was changing a child. We notified her that the caregiver was well within the State required ratios as the toddler teacher had approximately half the children as required by the State of Texas Minimum Standards.

It is said that power corrupts. I disagree. I believe that power enhances a persons personality. If a person is corrupt of heart, then being placed in a position of power will only serve to make that person worse. Whether it's Adrienne Driggers or Christina Cantu, we have seen the most corrupt of heart in Childcare Licensing. Not only did Ms. Cantu attempt to write-up the daycare for operating in ratio, she also attempted to write-up the daycare for having too much milk in the refrigerator, too many toys and activities, and having too large of a service cart! Not only were her attempts to write us up for having too much milk and having too large of a service cart ridiculous, but they are not even the responsibility of Childcare Licensing. As for having too many toys and activities, the State of Texas Minimum Standards state that daycares must provide sufficient toys and activities to stimulate the children yet Ms. Cantu was attempting to write up the daycare for meeting this requirement!

While she was unable to write us up for having too much milk, toys and activities, or having too large of a service cart, she was able to write us up for the carpet which she absolutely detested. Ms. Cantu ordered us to remove the carpet and stated that she was going to write us up for "having the same carpet in the room that was in place in a previous visit of hers" when the building was occupied by a different daycare. She was very much aware that the carpet was shampooed professionally every three months and that the Corpus Christi Health Department did not consider the carpet to be a danger to children as we were given a perfect score just the day before her visit. She stated that she could care less about this information and that she was going to state on her report that the carpet had a stain and that she would continue to write us up for that until we removed the carpet.

We stated to her: "You are aware that if we remove the carpet and padding that the children would be forced to play and sleep on exposed concrete? If we do as you are ordering us, many children are going to get hurt." We called her supervisor, Sylvia Fuentes, to get clarification. We stated our concerns about the safety of the children if we obeyed Ms. Cantu's orders to remove the carpet and padding. We also stated that we would do as Ms. Cantu ordered but we wanted to hear those orders from somebody above her. We later received a bizarre letter from John Lennan, the head of childcare licensing in Corpus Christi, stating that they had investigated and resolved the matter. This bizarre letter stated that we had complained about Ms. Cantu's "illegal and unethical behavior" when the truth was that we had merely asked for clarification. Our guess is that Mr. Lennan was upset for our questioning Ms. Cantu's wishes and lashed out in an illogical way. While we did not state to Childcare Licensing that we believed Ms. Cantu's behavior to be illegal or unethical, we did think that her wanting us to remove the carpet and padding was foolish and incredibly dangerous. We were notified later that Mr. Lennan conspired with Adrienne Driggers to close the daycare and place Marla on the State of Texas Central Registry without justification.

In early December, we received a call from Monica Martinez, the Childcare Licensing Representative that was assigned the responsibility of investigating the incident that occurred on November 7. She requested that we send to her a copy of my (Hilario) First Aid/CPR card and a copy of my transportation training. I wrote to her that I did not mind sending them to her but they had absolutely nothing to do with the incident. In my letter, I politely asked her for the reasoning behind her request. She did not respond. I told Marla that Adrienne Driggers and Childcare Licensing was up to no good. I began my preparations.

On Friday, December 20th we received a letter from Adrienne Driggers office stating she had ordered Marla to be placed on the State of Texas Central Registry for Abuse and Neglect of children. The criteria for being placed on the Central Registry is very clear. A person would have needed to either abused or neglected a child. Since Marla was not at the daycare, she clearly did not fit the criteria. Adrienne Driggers, was clearly abusing her power to prevent Marla from working with children. Having learned Ms. Driggers tactics I knew that she was going to order for the daycare to be closed. After receiving the request from Monica Martinez, I believed that Childcare Licensing was planning on doing something underhanded and prepared a petition that I would place on change.org. The petition asked for the removal of Marla from the Central Registry, for the daycare not to be closed, and for an investigation into Adrienne Driggers office. At noon on January 2, 2014, Adrienne Driggers ordered the closing of Marla's daycare effective on that day by stating the daycare posed an immediate threat to the safety of children TWO MONTHS AFTER the incident that occurred on November 7. The State of Texas Administrative Code states that license holders must be given the opportunity to obtain a temporary restraining order to prevent the closing. The State of Texas Administrative Code also provides other remedies to prevent the closing of daycares and the subsequent traumatic experience of children having to relocate. Those remedies are in the form of corrective actions that allow daycare operators the opportunity to make modifications and/or adjustments to address problem areas.

Please take the time to read and sign the following petition from Change.org. We would greatly appreciate your sponsoring the petition. You can sponsor the petition directly on change.org. By signing and promoting the petition you will be helping us to save the lives of thousands of children in Texas by putting an end to Adrienne Driggers.

 Change.org petition 

The link below is to an article from the Victoria Advocate. In this article, Adrienne Driggers is quoted giving the criteria for being placed in State of Texas Central Registry for Abuse and Neglect. Marla clearly does not fit the criteria. Please note that at the time of the article, Beary Beginnings - owned by Steven and Maribel Alkek, had 72 deficiencies. At the time of the incident on November 7, 2013, Marla's daycare had 13. Adrienne Driggers placed Bearly Beginnings on "corrective action" giving them time to make improvements and avoid the negative effects of uprooting the children in their care.

Article from Victoria Advocate-Bearly Beginning

 We had immediately requested for Administrative Reviews to challenge the write-ups from Christina Cantu, Monica Martinez, and Adrienne Driggers placing Marla on the Central Registry and were ignored each time. The State of Texas Administrative Code states that Childcare Licensing has 10 days to schedule the administrative reviews upon receiving the request and must administer the administrative reviews within 30 days of being scheduled. Adrienne Driggers' Childcare Licensing office blatantly disregarded the Texas Administrative Code by denying Marla's right to due process in challenging the write-ups and used those same write-ups to close Marla's daycare. When this was brought to the attention of Adrienne Driggers' supervisors,  Julie Richards the Childcare Licensing Program Services Coordinator, and Paul Morris, the Assistant Commissioner for Childcare Licensing, the Administrative Reviews were finally scheduled.  Both Ms. Richards and Paul Morris were already aware of and had approved of Adrienne Driggers intentions of placing Marla on the DFPS Central Registry and the closing of her daycare. Despite knowing of Adrienne Driggers history of abusing her power he stated to us that he fully supported her. Any Administrative Reviews held at this point were already compromised. 

If Paul Morris and Julie Richards are reading this blog and are upset that their names and actions have been exposed perhaps they will think twice before rubber stamping decisions as drastic as placing an innocent person on the DFPS Central Registry for Abuse and Neglect or closing their daycares without considering whether or not those actions are balanced and consistent across the State of Texas. By rubber stamping Adrienne Driggers decisions and "fully supporting" her they have aligned themselves with a person that poses an enormous and immediate threat to the safety and well-being of thousands of children.

Below is an email that we sent to Kimberly Evans-Handy, a DFPS Childcare Licensing Program Specialist who held an administrative review with Marla, myself, and our attorney, Armando Reyna, to decide if Marla should remain on the State of Texas DFPS Central Registry for abuse and neglect. Ms. Evans-Handy, with our attorney present, had the audacity to tell us that she didn't care to see or hear any evidence that we wanted to present. She stated that we could send her supporting documentation but she wasn't going to bother looking at it. In this email we state our case as to why Marla should not be on the State of Texas Central Registry and included the State of Texas Minimum Standard rules that applied. As could be expected, Ms. Evans-Handy ruled in Adrienne Driggers favor.

Email to Kimberly Evans-Handy

The following link was obtained from the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services website regarding Just Kids Christian Learning Center operated by Vivian Closna in San Antonio Texas. Two toddlers left the facilities and crossed one of San Antonio's busiest streets. Adrienne Driggers did not close the daycare, did not place the daycare on corrective action to give the daycare the opportunity to make adjustments to their operations, nor did she order the Director to be placed on the DFPS Central Registry. Just Kids Christian Learning Center had 65 total write-ups at the time of the incident which represents 5 TIMES the amount of Marla's daycare which had 13.  San Antonio is the headquarters to Adrienne Driggers office.

Just Kids Learning Center

The following link was obtained from the Austin Statesman. It describes an incident that occurred at Tutor Time Child Care, operated by Kristin Ogala, where an 18 month old child left the facility and crossed a six lane Highway in Northwest Austin. Austin is the headquarters to Paul Morris and Julie Richards' Texas Department of Family and Protective Services Childcare Licensing Division. It is also the headquarters to the Greg Abbot's Attorney General's Office whose attorney's are using the State of Texas taxpayers money to support Adrienne Driggers decision to place Marla on the DFPS Central Registry and the revocation of Marla's license.

Tutor Time Child Care Learning Center

The following article was obtained from kristv.com in Corpus Christi Texas regarding the unfortunate death of a child named Jordan Arredondo at Mary Mcleod Bethune Day Care. Bethune Day Care, like Marla's Kiddie Care, had a small amount of write-ups at the time of the incident. No child was ever hurt at Marla's daycare when Adrienne Driggers ordered that it be closed due to "posing an immediate threat to children." It has been nearly 4 months since Jordan passed away. Bethune daycare is still operating, is not facing corrective action, and the director was not placed on the DFPS Central Registry.

Death of Jordan Arredondo at Mary Mcleod Bethune Day Care

http://www.kristv.com/news/child-passes-away-after-tv-fell-on-him/

Below is an article from kens5.com regarding several daycares in San Antonio. Please note the number of write-ups from each of the daycares and keep in mind that Marla's Kiddie Care had only 13 total write-ups at the time of the incident that Adrienne Driggers would use to close her daycare. All of the daycares mentioned in the article are still operating. The daycares mentioned: Step-2-Step had 99 write-ups, Little Friends Daycare Center had 129 write-ups, and Montessori Earth School had 235.

San Antonio Daycares

It is apparent that Adrienne Driggers and Childcare Licensing targeted Marla and her daycare. Neither the safety and well-being of the children or the fair and balanced application of the punishments provided by the Texas Administrative Code considered. The Department of Family and Protective Services Childcare Licensing Division is a rogue State Agency that is clearly out of control.


Please take the time to read and sign the following petition from Change.org. We would greatly appreciate your sponsoring the petition. You can sponsor the petition directly on change.org. By signing and promoting the petition you will be helping us to save the lives of thousands of children in Texas by putting an end to Adrienne Driggers.

 Change.org petition 

*** We have the opportunity to make ourselves heard directly to the people with the power to force a change in the way DFPS operates. Please take the time to fill out a Public Input Form on this link: https://www.sunset.texas.gov/input-form. Time is limited as we have only until 6/30/2014 to submit these forms. Please demand that the Sunset Advisory Commission do something about the corruption in the Department of Family and Protective Services and reference this blog (http://darksideofchildcare.blogspot.com/). You have the power to rock a corrupt State Agency to it's core. With your assistance you can help us protect the lives of tens of thousands of children that attend daycare in Texas. ***

Horror from a corrupt State Agency

The feelings of astonishment, anger, and disgust are typical when we speak to people of the abuse of power, that we have endured at the hands of the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) Childcare Licensing Division, specifically the office of Adrienne Driggers, the District Director for regions 8, 10, and 11 which encompass the entire area South of and including El Paso, San Antonio, and Victoria. If you are a daycare operator or are a parent of a child in a daycare, what you read on this blog directly affects you. If you care about children, fear/hate the abuse of power by a State agency or are against racism, we ask you to join us in this fight.

First I must tell you that I feel a great deal of guilt for not having worked with my wife Marla when she operated her daycare in San Antonio. I would later learn just how corrupt Childcare Licensing was. We certainly did not expect a State Agency (Childcare Licensing) with the responsibility of ensuring the safety of children to jeopardize the safety of children. Nor did we expect that same State Agency to victimize a person who devoted her entire life to care for children, but that is exactly what occurred when we moved to San Antonio. Marla was pregnant with our 2nd child when she was operating without me. It is a miracle that she did not have a miscarriage as Childcare Licensing put her through an incredible amount of stress. We would not be so fortunate later.

While operating her daycare in San Antonio, Marla had received five visits from a Childcare Licensing Representative named Elizabeth Venecia all within a week and a half of each other. Adrienne Driggers' office refused to provide Marla with the write-ups from those visits, despite the Texas Administrative Code stating that Childcare Licensing must provide the write-ups within 10 days of the inspection. Marla called Ms. Venecia repeatedly asking for them so that she could make corrections but was repeatedly ignored. Marla reported this to Yvette Gutierrez, Ms. Venecia's Supervisor and to Adrienne Driggers. With the presence of myself, Marla, and Yvette Gutierrez, Ms. Venecia admitted to not having provided the write-ups to Marla. Despite not abiding by the Texas Administrative Code, Childcare Licensing did not remove the write-ups. Adrienne Driggers used those same write-ups, which accounted for approximately 75% of Marla's total write-ups, against her in closing her daycare center, stating that Marla had too many repeat write-ups! One thing to consider is that even with the aforementioned write-ups, Marla's daycare still had fewer write-ups than nearly 200 daycare centers in San Antonio alone. It is very likely that there were several hundred if not several thousand daycare centers in the the State of Texas that had more write-ups than Marla's daycare, yet she was the one that was targeted by Adrienne Driggers.

Just prior to Adrienne Driggers closing Marla's daycare, Marla received a visit from a Childcare Licensing Representative named Jessica Nombrana, who repeatedly ordered one of Marla's new employees named Megan Kettler to leave a 2 year old child unattended at a diaper changing table to wipe the nose of another child in the room.  Ms. Nombrana could have ordered another staff member (Lisa Cavazos) who was also in the room, but chose not to. Fortunately, Ms. Kettler did not leave the child unattended. Given the experiences that Marla had been having with Childcare Licensing in San Antonio, we incorporated within the staff training for Marla's staff to be vigilant of Childcare Licensing Representatives attempt to create situations that would not only endanger the safety of the children, but would result in the daycare receiving a violation. Had Ms. Kettler done as Ms. Nombrana had ordered, Adrienne Driggers would have been given a reason to close Marla's daycare.

Megan Kettler and Lisa Cavazos were so enraged and disgusted by Jessica Nombrana's actions that they called Adrienne Driggers directly to notify her of Ms. Nombrana actions, but were completely ignored. Not only did Adrienne Driggers not reprimand Jessica Nombrana but she had Ms. Nombrana give classes to potential daycare operators on how to follow the State of Texas Minimum Standards. She had been promoted!

When a person has had their license revoked or denied the District Director must provide written notification to the License Holder of their right to a hearing with the State Office of Administrative Hearings. The State Office of Administrative Hearings (SOAH   pronounced: soh uh) is a Court that was created to allow individuals equal footing against State Agencies. Adrienne Driggers withheld this documentation from us.

The District Director must also provide written documentation to the License Holder, notifying them of the period in which they cannot be a License Holder following either a revocation or denial of their license. Adrienne Driggers also withheld this documentation from us. We discovered years later from a Childcare Licensing Representative from a different district that Adrienne Driggers had drawn up a letter stating that Marla could not be a License Holder for a period of 2 years. She stated that the information could be easily obtained by any Childcare Licensing Representative.  Adrienne Driggers and some of her subordinates (i.e. Geneva Hudel and Sharon Bolter) stated that Marla could not be a License Holder for 5 years. We still have the email from her office to prove this. Their lie would later force us to move to Oklahoma.

There were horrible ramifications that resulted from the Adrienne Driggers closing the daycare. Not only did the closing result in the children traumatically being forced to relocate to other daycares, but for some, Adrienne Driggers decision was so much worse. To Marla and myself, the daycare meant more than caring for the children, it was a vehicle that we used to help the community. Businesses were suffering , labor hours were being cut and some Parents could not afford childcare. Marla would work with Parents who were having difficulty paying for their children's tuition. After the closing, one particular mother could not afford to take her children elsewhere and was forced to leave her children with a family friend. This family friend had a teenage son, that molested two of the children that had previously been safe at Marla's daycare. Adrienne Driggers had falsely alleged that Marla's daycare posed a threat to the safety and well-being of children and in the process, ended up forcing a situation on a parent that resulted in the molestation of her children.

I decided to open my own daycare after, Marla's daycare had been closed. The rules state that I could have easily taken over as the Director of Marla's daycare to prevent the children from being uprooted or negatively affected.  I was perfectly qualified for operating a children's daycare as I had several years of experience, and I had a Bachelors Degree in Management from Texas A&M University. According to Adrienne Driggers, in order for me to open my daycare, Marla had to agree not to fight the closing of her daycare. We believed that Ms. Driggers was referring to an Administrative Review with a DFPS Childcare Licensing Program Specialist named Denise Hall in Austin. Ms. Hall's decision as to whether or not Marla's daycare should have been closed were pending. An Administrative Review is an informal hearing held within the same Childcare Licensing department as the childcare licensing representative whose write-ups you are challenging.  Administrative Reviews are notorious for being complete shams, as it is a fellow co-worker of that license representative that decides whether or not the write-ups were justified. As aforementioned, Adrienne Driggers had withheld Marla's right to utilize SOAH, to challenge Adrienne Driggers' decision to close Marla's daycare.

Despite there being a time limit for how long a person could not be a license holder when they have had their license denied or revoked, Adrienne Driggers imposed a permanent stipulation on my license that Marla could not be the Director or be left in charge of the Daycare. She actually had this stipulation printed on my license certificate which was to be seen by any person visiting the daycare. In her interpretation of this stipulation, Adrienne Driggers stated that Marla "could not appear to be more knowledgeable than any of the staff or appear to be a "Go-to" person. If this interpretation sounds bizarre to you it's because it does not exist in the Texas Administrative Code. Adrienne Driggers bypassed the Texas Legislature and the Texas Administrative Code by creating this interpretation for the sole purpose of keeping Marla from being able to work at a daycare. Marla has been working in organized childcare since 1993. Marla started working in daycares when many of the staff were still in diapers. Her age alone gave her the appearance of being more knowledgeable. Not only were we required to post the license, with the stipulation written on it, in a location where it could easily have been seen, but Adrienne Driggers ordered us to notify all of the staff and parents regarding this stipulation. We were being set up for false allegations. Adrienne Driggers' interpretation of the stipulation and notifying all of the parents and staff prompted a District Director in another area to state that not only was her interpretation stupid it was also very dangerous to the safety of the children.

The end of my naïve belief that Childcare Licensing acted in good faith began when Jessica Nombrana ordered one of Marla's employees to leave a child unattended at a diaper changing table. The full realization of the depravity of Adrienne Drigger's Childcare Licensing office came from a visit by a Childcare Licensing Representative named Veronica Lopez. In this visit Ms. Lopez falsified write-ups and stole some of Marla's timesheets to prevent me from being able to prove that Marla was hardly at the daycare. She wrote me up for having Marla run the daycare, even though Marla was only at the daycare in the last 15 minutes of Ms. Lopez 7 1/2 hour visit. I mention the 7 1/2 hours because the average visit for Childcare Licensing Representatives is 1 1/2 hours. She was waiting for Marla to arrive in order to write-up the daycare for having Marla in charge. Marla left the daycare shortly after arriving to pick up children from school. In the administrative review held with a Childcare Licensing Supervisor named Sharon Bolter, I was able to prove without a doubt that the write-ups that I had received from Ms. Lopez were unjustified by making the case to Ms. Bolter that Marla being at the daycare was not a violation of the Minimum Standards as she was not on the Texas DFPS Central Registry for abuse and neglect.  I reported the theft of the timesheets to her and to Adrienne Driggers but the write-ups remained. According to the State of Texas Administrative Code, when a person has their license denied or revoked that person can not be a license holder for a period of 5 years. Unless that person is placed on the State of Texas Central Registry for abuse and neglect no state authority can stop a person from working at a children's daycare. Unless they are willing to violate your Constitutional rights.

I began receiving so many "inspections" from licensing without justification that I was forced to report their harassment to State House of Representative Ruth McClendon. Despite having repeated visitations from licensing, my daycare still had very few write-ups. This was a testament to the excellent training that my staff had received. Childcare Licensing's intentions were very clear, given the cross behavior of their representatives.

One of the worst representatives from Adrienne Driggers' Childcare Licensing office was Geneva Hudel, she personified Adrienne Driggers' approach to managing childcare. To meet Adrienne Driggers' ridiculous definition of what constituted a violation of the stipulation on my license of Marla not being allowed to be in charge; Geneva Hudel wrote me up after Marla spoke with a parent regarding a sale at an HEB Plus. The parent was so enraged that Ms. Hudel would falsify that writeup using her and Marla's conversation that she wrote a letter directly to Adrienne Driggers, of which I have a copy, identifying what was truly stated in her conversation with Ms. Hudel. In the letter, the parent also stated how she was enraged that Geneva Hudel attempted to frighten her by stating that she worked with Child Protective Services and was investigating a serious matter at the daycare. The parent was ignored by Ms. Driggers.  As previously mentioned, Marla and I had agreed to limit the number of hours that Marla worked at the daycare to a minimum-typically 3 1/2 hours a day to allow for her to pickup children from school. There was simply not enough time for her to have been able to be in charge. We still have the timesheets to prove this.

In her visit, Geneva Hudel had told me that Marla simply talking to a parent was a violation of a permanent stipulation that Adrienne Driggers put on my license.  She became enraged when I told her that not allowing Marla to speak with parents would be a violation of her Civil Rights as her interpretation of the stipulation would effectively bar her from working at the daycare. I also informed Ms. Hudel that her interpretation would be a violation of the  State of Texas Minimum Standards as caregivers are required to communicate with parents to ensure the well-being of the children. I told her that under no circumstances would I have Marla run and hide any time a parent had a question for her regarding the care of their children.

Letter from Randi Pipkin regarding conversations with Marla Gonzales

In addition to Ms. Hudel falsifying information that had been provided to her by parents Ms. Hudel altered the wording of a memo given to the staff, of which I still have, stating what Marla could and could not do at the daycare. This memo came as a result of our fear that the daycare would be exposed to false accusations regarding Marla being in charge. Following the visit from Veronica Lopez, I asked Sharon Bolter, a childcare licensing supervisor, what I could do to protect myself. She suggested that I write a letter to the staff  explaining Marla's rights and limitations and stated exactly what the letter should contain.  Geneva Hudel in writing up the daycare for Marla being in charge changed the wording of that letter to give the appearance that Marla was being left in charge of the daycare. I have both the memo and Ms. Hudel's altered version of the memo for comparison. Her deceit is obvious.

In this investigation Geneva Hudel allowed a child to run out of my daycare. Ms. Hudel foolishly allowed a hyperactive child to exit the building before her. As soon as he stepped out of the building he ran towards Rigsby Ave. Our daycare was approximately 75 yards away from Interstate 410, one of the busiest intersections in San Antonio!

On a later visit, Geneva Hudel with another Childcare License Representative named Pam Hayes would "follow up" on Ms. Hudel's previous visit and attempt to write-up the daycare for ratios that were being proposed by the Texas Legislature. Because there were kids absent from daycare that day they were not successful as the decreased attendance in that particular room put the number of children in care below the proposed ratio. Ms. Hudel and Ms. Hayes also attempted to write-up the daycare for not having run FBI fingerprinting for parent volunteers. I reminded them that volunteers were not required by the State of Texas Minimum Standards to be fingerprinted. They grudgingly acquiesced.  What happened next typified the lengths at which Adrienne Driggers' office would deny someone of their right to operate a children's daycare. Geneva Hudel, with Pam Hayes present, ripped a baseboard from the wall then wrote up the daycare for having a loose baseboard! Their intent for this inspection was blatantly obvious. They were determined to close the daycare.

 The scariest thing about Ms. Hudel was how comfortable she was in falsifying write-ups, violating our Constitutional rights and risking her own employment. So reckless was she that she left a paper trail of her misconduct at every turn. She had no fear whatsoever of any ramifications for what she was doing. This made me wonder if she was given the green light to do these things by Adrienne Driggers, the District Director, herself. Given that Ms. Hudel was promptly promoted by Adrienne Driggers after this, tells me that the answer was a very likely "yes".
 

Adrienne Driggers would use Marla's speaking to a parent regarding the sell at the HEB-Plus to close my daycare despite there being nearly 200 daycare centers in the San Antonio District alone that had more write-ups than my daycare. I still have that list.  Daycare centers operate under statewide uniform guidelines with uniform punishments. Given that there were nearly 200 daycare centers in San Antonio alone indicates that there could very well have been several thousand daycare centers in Texas that had more write-ups. Strangely enough, only two out of the 200 license holders that had more write-ups than my daycare had Spanish surnames. Those two individuals operated governmental Head Start Programs.

This deserves repeating: Adrienne Driggers closed my daycare because my wife spoke to a parent about a sale at an HEB Plus.

We would discover later that Adrienne Driggers closed my daycare mere weeks before Marla's two years of being unable to be a license holder expired. Of course, we didn't know it at the time as Adrienne Driggers had withheld that information from us. As mentioned earlier, we still have the email from her office where she specifically stated that Marla could not be a license holder for 5 years. Adrienne Driggers clearly felt that Marla did not deserve to work with children and she would do anything in her power, legal or otherwise, to ensure that happened.

Not only did we lose our sole source of income but Adrienne Driggers also succeeded in causing the death of our unborn child.  Marla was 2 1/2 months pregnant when Adrienne Driggers closed my daycare.  The incredible amount of stress, not to mention the humiliation, that the closing created added to Marla not having a choice but to help me carry heavy equipment in clearing out the daycare resulted in her having a miscarriage. The euphoria that we had that we might finally have our little girl now changed to one of great sorrow. Adrienne Driggers' and her subordinates had murdered our child.

 The time following the closing of the daycare was incredibly difficult. We had to endure the feeling of shock  knowing that nothing warranted the closing of the daycare. My family suffered immensely. Obviously we had to deal with the death of our unborn child, the end of our sole source of income, and the end of our lifetime goal of working with children. There was so much more. My wife and I clearly suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. We could not sleep and were constantly in fear that the Department of Family and Protective Services would take our children. Our oldest child, Marco, who was seven years old at the time would hide every time anybody would knock on the door, fearful that Adrienne Driggers was coming to take him and his little brother away. We were living like Jews hiding from Nazi's determined to destroy us. Marco would pray every night that God would protect us from Adrienne Driggers. The fear was real. Our family had been raped by Adrienne Driggers and her staff and there was nobody that we could turn to. As a father it was my duty to protect my family and I could do nothing to stop her. There are no words that can describe or gauge the extent of our pain. This is why I am including this video of the murder of Kelly Thomas a homeless man in Fullerton, California. If you can imagine the hopelessness of his father to see and hear his son getting beaten to death while begging and praying for his father to save him yet being completely unable to do so than you will understand how I felt to see my family getting raped by Adrienne Driggers. Warning: This video is very graphic.

 

I tried desperately to find work in San Antonio but was unsuccessful. I applied for close to three hundred different jobs but didn't have any luck. Right when we were on the verge of becoming homeless, I obtained a job in Ardmore Oklahoma.

Moving to Ardmore was traumatic for our children. Our oldest child was forced to leave his friends and everything he knew. Our younger child cried for hours every day wanting for us to return to our home in San Antonio. He was too young to understand that our home in San Antonio had become our prison.  Our escaping the reach of the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services by moving the welcoming arms of Oklahoma was very much like the Jews that escaped Nazi Germany . We had survived but were forced to live in a land that was foreign to us.

It was when we lived in Oklahoma that we discovered through the Corpus Christi Childcare Licensing office that Adrienne Driggers had lied to us about the amount of time in which Marla could not be a license holder. She had told us that Marla could not be a license holder for 5 years when the actual period was 2 years. We also learned that the two year period had expired mere weeks after she closed my daycare.

The nightmare is not over. My mother, who lived in Corpus Christi, was dying so we returned to Corpus Christi. Our hope was that Adrienne Driggers had learned to control her personal animosity towards us after having been overridden by the State Attorney Generals Office by arranging for me to be able to act as a Director in a childcare center. Adrienne Driggers attempted to renege on the Attorney Generals arrangement but was promptly forced to comply by Patricia Fernandez, an attorney with the Attorney Generals office. Perhaps it was the humiliation of literally begging us to return to San Antonio in her attempt to avoid her department losing before SOAH, or the humiliation of being corrected by the Attorney Generals office to her subordinates in Corpus Christi, or perhaps it was simply underestimating our resolve to fight her and a corrupt State agency. Whatever the reason, Adrienne Driggers unfettered hatred would strike again. This time, were prepared.

 Please take the time to read and sign the following petition from Change.org. We would greatly appreciate your sponsoring the petition. You can sponsor the petition directly on change.org. By signing and promoting the petition you will be helping us to save the lives of thousands of children in Texas by putting an end to Adrienne Driggers.

 Change.org petition



 *** We have the opportunity to make ourselves heard directly to the people with the power to force a change in the way DFPS operates. Please take the time to fill out a Public Input Form on this link: https://www.sunset.texas.gov/input-form. Time is limited as we have only until 6/30/2014 to submit these forms. Please demand that the Sunset Advisory Commission do something about the corruption in the Department of Family and Protective Services and reference this blog (http://darksideofchildcare.blogspot.com/). You have the power to rock a corrupt State Agency to it's core. With your assistance you can help us protect the lives of tens of thousands of children that attend daycare in Texas. ***