It's no small task to battle the State of Texas. As you have read throughout this blog the system is setup against you. There are conflicts of interest in every layer that you must go through when battling the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. The Texas Legislature allows for "Administrative Reviews" to allow daycare operators to challenge deficiencies given by Childcare Licensing Representatives but the person that makes the determination as to whether or not the deficiencies were justified will always be a co-worker and very likely friend of the person whose deficiencies you are challenging. You can provide all the evidence in the world to support your position but they will always uphold the deficiencies. I am being sarcastic when I state that the only time that you will have "equal" footing against the State is when you are able to present your case before an "impartial" judge is when you have a hearing before the State Office of Administrative Hearings. I stress on the word "impartial" because the judge that will hear your case is a State employee who will very likely take the position that the Department of Family and Protective Services does not commit the egregious behaviors that I have described in this blog and that any actions that they took was merely in the act of doing their job.
One would hope as we once did that the Texas Attorney General's Office would come to your rescue as it is their job to defend the Constitutional rights of the citizens of Texas. Unfortunately, that is not going to happen when it is a State Agency that you are having to defend your Constitutional Rights from! The Texas Attorney General's Office is not only going to take the position of the State Agency but will not even question the legitimacy of the State Agency's position. Just as it is the job of the Texas Attorney Generals Office to defend the Constitutional rights of it's citizens it is also given the responsibility of defending State Agencies in court. This creates a conflict of interest within the Texas Attorney Generals Office. The Texas Attorney General's Office will actively seek to deny your Constitutional Rights in these situations. As I stated in a previous post, Patricia Fernandez an attorney with the Attorney General's Office was well aware that Adrienne Driggers actions had led to the molestation of two children but did nothing to correct her behavior. They are not going to do what is morally correct.
What compounds the problem of fighting a system loaded with a never ending conflicts of interest is that the people in our American system that we turn to for help in these matters are attorneys who very likely are not familiar with the State of Texas Minimum Standards for Childcare Operations or the Texas Administrative Code. Because attorneys are not familiar with the rules and regulations that govern childcare centers, the Attorney General's Office is able to attack you even when you followed those same rules and regulations. They will attack you for following the rules and regulations because the presiding judge is very likely an attorney, and like your own attorney, will also not be familiar with the rules and regulations.
Before I continue, I must state that a huge impact on how I was going to wage war against the State of Texas was advice that I gave to my son Marco when he was in Karate. I gave him advice for each opponent that he faced each of which presented different obstacles that he had to overcome. As a Management major in college I had learned about SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats). I applied this thinking to Marco's training and in turn applied the advice that I gave to him to our war against Adrienne Driggers and the State of Texas.
One day I was consumed with the thought of how all of the aforementioned were stacked up against us (the conflicts of interest, the Texas Attorney General's Office attacking you for following the rules and regulations, how whatever attorney that we hired would very likely be unfamiliar with the rules and regulations, and how the presiding judge would also not be familiar with the rules and regulations) and I suddenly remembered telling my son how everybody had a weakness and the solution occurred to me and it very well should have been in a huge neon light. The solution was in the very title Texas ATTORNEY General's office.
The hearing before the State Office of Administrative Hearings as to whether Adrienne Driggers was justified in ordering Marla's daycare to close and her being placed on the Central Registry was going to be dictated by the rules and regulations established in the State of Texas Minimum Standards for Childcare Centers. We knew the rules and regulations like the back of our hands while their attorneys were very likely going to be clueless about them. We were experts in the topic and they were just hired assassins who were going to throw mud at us in court but lack any substance in their arguments. Because we knew that the presiding judge would not be familiar with the rules and regulations I planned to educate her on the rules and regulations in explaining why our opponents were wrong. Adrienne Driggers was not going to prepare their attorneys as doing so would have been an acknowledgement that she did not have any justification for her actions. Like Lieutenant Colonel George Custer against the great Sioux and Cheyenne nations, Driggers with all of her arrogance, led the Attorney Generals Office into an ambush and massacre.
As great attorneys as they may have been they were in essence taking knives to a gun fight. Two more bits of advice that I gave to Marco that had an effect in my war with the State was if your opponent is unable to defend themselves from one of your attacks then keep attacking them with the same technique. The other thing that I will mention at this time (there will be more) is when Marco was facing a bully in one of his competitions. It was a child that was significantly taller and bigger than Marco. This child would bulldoze the other kids. What I told Marco was to test that child's defense. Go after him and see if he can take what he dishes out. Give him a taste of his own medicine. Marco charged after him and destroyed him. I would do the same to DFPS and the Attorney Generals Office. You see, DFPS and the Attorney General's Office, like that bully, are accustomed to bulldozing their opponents. They are not accustomed to being placed on the defensive. I very easily overwhelmed them. So if you as a Childcare Licensing operator are forced to face these people feel comfort in knowing that you have the upper hand. Not only are they not omnipotent but very easy to defeat.
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