Battle of the Minds Part 2 - The Sword of St. Michael

In Part 1 of Battle of the Minds, we provide tips to help you make it through difficult times. The greatest advice we can give to you is to rely in your faith in God.  When your life has been destroyed by corrupt people who take delight in your suffering there is no greater ally in your fight for survival and justice than God. When things were the most difficult for us we found comfort in Christ.

Having faith in God still didn't take away the guilt that I felt in not being able to protect my family from Adrienne Driggers (Southwest District Director of the Texas DFPS Childcare Licensing Division) and her group of thugs. One day I was speaking with our son Marco about everything that we had been through. I apologized to him for being unable to protect him, his little brother, and his mom from those animals from Childcare Services (DFPS, Childcare Licensing). He responded by telling me not to feel bad because God had chosen us as we were the only ones strong enough to put an end to Adrienne Driggers and the rest of the evil people running the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services and the Texas Attorney General's Office.

I thought of what he had said and I remembered how close we had come to complete destruction when we were in San Antonio. We were saved time and time again by minor miracles that allowed us to survive. One day, after a temporary job that I had in Corpus Christi had terminated (after Adrienne Driggers had closed our daycare), I stood at an HEB grocery store and debated buying some peaches for our boys. I was hesitant in purchasing them as we no longer had any money coming in. I thought to myself "God, you helped us survive the worst that Adrienne Driggers could do to us. You have delivered us from her evil before and I have all the faith in the world that you will do so again. If I am to defeat these evil people in your honor I need your help. I need a job immediately so that I can focus my attention on the preparation of the hearing instead of being worried about our family becoming homeless. I surrender to you and place our lives in your hands." The fear of not having employment disappeared. I felt a huge burden lift off of my shoulders. I paid for the peaches with all the confidence in the world that somehow God would deliver us. The next day I received a call telling me that I had been hired to manage a clinic.

These words from Psalm 23 resonated within me. They comforted our souls.

¹The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

² He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.
³ He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
⁴ Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
⁵ Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
⁶ Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

A prayer commissioned by General George S. Patton, written by Third Army head chaplain James O'Neill, during World War II as Patton and his Third Army prepared to battle the Nazis read:

Almighty and most merciful Father, we humbly beseech Thee, of Thy great goodness, to restrain these immoderate rains with which we have to contend. Grant us fair weather for battle. Graciously harken to us as soldiers who call upon Thee that armed with Thy power, we may advance from victory to victory, and crush the oppression and wickedness of our enemies, and establish Thy justice among men and nations. Amen.

When you change the words "immoderate rains" to "financial difficulties" the prayer fit perfectly with our goal of defeating Adrienne Driggers and the Department of Family and Protective Services.

That miracle of being hired so quickly after my plea to God inspired me and strengthened my resolve. Who were these evil people compared to the power of God? I truly felt that God was assisting us in this battle. I was very well aware that our efforts against Adrienne Driggers and the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services would affect the lives of the tens of thousands of children. It was a burden that I proudly placed on my shoulders. I was going to do everything in my power to protect the children of Texas.

Psalm 27:1
The Lord is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the Strength of my life; Of whom shall I be afraid?

I was asked recently by a minister if I ever faulted or cursed God for the incredible suffering that our family was forced to endure.  The answer was a resounding "No". I explained to him that despite the incredible hardships, I felt that God had chosen our family because of our will to overcome. Throughout my life I have heard people say that God presents us with challenges to test our faith. I did not see it this way. I felt that we were faced with hardships to make us stronger and better prepared for his ultimate purpose. The Lord does not give you more than you can handle and as Friedrich Nietzsche stated "That which does not kill us makes us stronger." We were mentally prepared for the showdown with Adrienne Driggers and the Texas Attorney General's Office but we had other goals in mind beyond saving our daycare and getting Marla off of the DFPS Central Registry. Our goal was to destroy the demon and the environment that not only created her but allowed her the freedom to wreak havoc on innocent people.

We lived with a sense of purpose. We had answered the Lord's call. We were walking with God and were being guided by the sword of Michael.

PRAYER TO SAINT MICHAEL
THE ARCHANGEL
St. Michael the Archangel,
defend us in battle.
Be our defense against the wickedness and snares of the Devil.
May God rebuke him, we humbly pray,
and do thou,
O Prince of the heavenly hosts,
by the power of God,
thrust into hell Satan,
and all the evil spirits,
who prowl about the world
seeking the ruin of souls. Amen..

As the days grew closer to the hearing, Marla tried to convince me to hire an attorney. She was worried that while my theory of the State's weakness made sense (Attorney's from the Texas Attorney General's Office lack of knowledge in the State of Texas Minimum Standards for Childcare Centers), she was worried that it wouldn't work. While I couldn't blame her for feeling this way as it would be just me against the State of Texas, I looked at her, shook my head, and said to her as I pointed my thumb at my chest "Uh Uh, They're Mine." There was a purpose for us. We were selected by God to destroy and expose these corrupt people and save countless children and families. We could not fail.

Marla and I wore these rosary rings of the Archangel Michael at the hearing. They had been  blessed by the Catholic Church specifically for this hearing. Though we were surrounded by absolute evil we vowed to destroy our oppressors.

Things to Come

This will very likely be the shortest post that I will make on this blog. I just want to let you know that in our hearing before the State Office of Administrative Hearings we were able to prove without a doubt that:

• Childcare Licensing representatives deliberately falsified information and deficiencies to close our daycare
• Adrienne Driggers, the Southwest District Director for Childcare Licensing, and Childcare Licensing added deficiencies after closing the daycare for childcare licensing inspections that did not occur.
• Adrienne Driggers and the Department of Family and Protective Services deliberately ignored the Texas Administrative Code as it relates to:
• The scheduling of Administrative Reviews as mandated by the Texas Administrative Code
• Closing the daycare without allowing us to challenge the deficiencies that the closing was supposedly partially based on
• Adrienne Driggers had a pattern of abusing her power to deny us our Constitutional Rights in our pursuit of happiness
• Adrienne Driggers violated the law by deliberately bypassing the Texas Legislature to create her own rules and regulations specifically to deny Marla her right to operate a children's daycare.
• The Texas Attorney General's Office could not identify any justification for closing the daycare.
• The Corpus Christi Childcare Licensing Office had not only cleared Marla and the daycare of any wrongdoing but commended her for being a competent director that ensured the safety and well-being of the children.
• The Corpus Christi Childcare Licensing Office also acknowledged that Marla's daycare did not pose a threat to the safety and well-being of the children.
• Marla trained her staff at least 5 times the amount required by the State.

I will be posting very soon the details of what occurred at the hearing as well as the closing statement that positioned the presiding judge, Melissa Ricard, into either violating the Constitution and lying about the evidence and testimony that was presented in her court or abide by the Texas Administrative Code and the US Constitution ( not to mention the overwhelming evidence!), and rule in our favor . I will also be providing you with the documentation that we used to prove our case as well as Ms. Ricard's ruling and the basis of her ruling.

You will see that everything that I have posted in this blog is not only true but much worse than you may have thought.

Battle of the Minds Part 1

It is an extreme ordeal when everything that you have worked for, everything that you have ever dreamed of doing, is unjustly taken from you by a bigoted corrupt person. What made it worse for us is how it affected our children, how our unborn child was murdered, how my wife who had devoted her entire life to help children faced the harsh reality of no longer being able to work with children. Prior to our move to San Antonio, we would never have imagined meeting someone like Adrienne Driggers, a person so evil that she would sacrifice the safety and well-being of children to satisfy her insatiable hatred and abuse her immense power to destroy a people, who because of their race, were unworthy of being treated like human beings.

When Adrienne Driggers closed our daycare in San Antonio for Marla speaking to one of the parents about a sale at an HEB Plus grocery store, we were sent into a tailspin. As a reminder, Adrienne Driggers created a rule specifically targeting Marla where Marla could not appear to be more knowledgeable than the rest of the staff and could not be a "go to" person. The vagueness of this is what Driggers would use to say that Marla violated this rule when she spoke to the parent about the sale. Driggers creating this rule specifically targeting Marla was illegal as it violated Marla's Constitutional Rights. After the daycare closed, we were unable to find work and faced the real possibility of being homeless. Financially, we weren't prepared. Worse yet, we weren't prepared psychologically. Every day that we went without work increased our fear of being homeless. We did not have any family or friends in San Antonio so we knew that there was no one that could take us in. Because Adrienne Driggers' Department of Family and Protective Services was able to close our daycare, and only source of income, without any legitimate justification we knew that the Department could also take our children without any justification. Because the Department closed our daycare, we were treated like pariahs despite having done nothing wrong. There was also the shock of having to escape from Texas and the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services for the safety of Oklahoma.  It was when we were in Oklahoma that we discovered that Adrienne Driggers and her staff had lied to us regarding the amount of time that Marla could not be a license holder. This time limit had lapsed mere weeks after Driggers had closed my daycare. We felt that this was the true reason why Adrienne Driggers closed my daycare, Adrienne Driggers was determined to prevent Marla from operating a daycare.

Though we felt safe in Oklahoma, we returned to Corpus Christi, Texas as my mother's health had so deteriorated that we knew that she did not have much time to live. She would lapse into a coma two weeks after our return. She passed away the following week. My name was the last word that my mother said.

The Department's attorney, Patricia Fernandez, had arranged an agreement to where I would be allowed to operate as an Assistant Director. However, when we tried to reopen in Corpus Christi, Texas, Adrienne Driggers reneged on the offer but was forced to comply by Ms. Fernandez. Even though we had reopened our daycare I always felt that Adrienne Driggers would not give up in trying to destroy us.  I felt that she would come back with a vengeance as she had been humiliated by being forced to abide by the agreement made by Ms. Fernandez.

My impression of Driggers, after she tried to attack me at the San Antonio Courthouse, was one of a person who had a complete lack of self control. She was a person whose animalistic tendencies drove her decision making regardless of the damage it inflicted. She was no different from a starving rabid animal.

 I knew that psychologically we had to be prepared for her. I bought our boys a puppy as I had read somewhere that having animals can help people cope with loss. When Adrienne Driggers went after us again in Corpus Christi, our boys made it through because of the happiness that they received as a result of having this puppy.

Exercise was incredibly important as well as I had read that exercise and time spent in the sun helped people cope with traumatic experiences. As a family we picked up kickboxing and spending time together at parks. Camping was another way that helped us cope with all that we had lost. We bonded together as a family while enjoying the serenity of nature.

A person that was experiencing the same traumatic experience as a result of Adrienne Driggers called me one time when she was having difficulty coping with the troubles of her life had been destroyed. I told her these words that every person who has lost everything that they have worked for should heed; I told her that I was aware that she had lost everything. I knew that she was being shunned by people that she believed were her closest friends. I knew that it is difficult for her to get up in the morning. I told her "You've got to Get your Ass Up!" because she did not have the luxury to mope around feeling sorry for herself. Those animals weren't going to feel sorry for her. She had to get up and move. She had to fight for her life because refusing to be destroyed by those monsters was a victory for God."

A Reasonable Person

I have mentioned in a previous post (The State's Fatal Flaw) that I used advice that I had given to my son for his Karate in my war with Adrienne Driggers and her Department of Family and Protective Services. The advice that I gave to my son was to prepare as much on Defense as he did on Offense. We would identify how his opponents were likely to attack him and how best to defend himself. We also prepared to counter attack by using his opponents attacks against them. The plan was to dictate the pace of the hearing and dismember their case by addressing the points that they were likely to raise before they had the opportunity and to use our counterattacks to help us prove the reasonable person standard.

A reasonable person standard requires a person to act with the same degree of care, knowledge, experience, fair-mindedness, and awareness of the law that the community would expect of a hypothetical reasonable person.

Adrienne Driggers used the incident of a child walking out of the building to close our daycare and place my wife on the State of Texas Central Registry for Abuse and Neglect. Adrienne Driggers' Department of Family and Protective Services Childcare Licensing Department first used the fact that Marla was not at the daycare at the time of the incident to place her on the Central Registry. They would change their reasoning, well after the daycare closed, after they realized that we were hammering them with our petition and on this blog that State regulations do not require daycare operators to be present at their daycares during all hours of operation. Imagine daycare operators being unable to leave their facilities when their daycares operate on a 24 hour basis!

Adrienne Driggers' Department changed their reasoning, well after Driggers and her Department ordered the adverse actions, claiming that Marla did not place a person in charge of her daycare in her absence. This was proven to be blatantly false by Childcare Licensing Representative Monica Martinez, the person who investigated the incident.

The Department finally settled on their allegation that Marla did not train her staff. The interesting thing about this is that our daycare was well known for having an extremely well-trained staff. There were times that our staff had to correct Childcare Licensing Representatives on their own rules and regulations! Our staff were easily trained at least 5 TIMES the amount required by the State of Texas.

The question that you must be able to answer is: Would a reasonable person have acted the same way?

A main focus of our hearing was based on Marla's (Our) training of the staff. The State of Texas Minimum Standards for Childcare Centers states that caregivers must receive 8 hours of pre-service training if they did not have at least 6 months of experience as a caregiver in a childcare center. We however required all of our staff, regardless of how much experience they had, to obtain at least a week's worth of training at a minimum of 8 hours per day which consisted of classroom training, taking a grueling test to measure the new employees level of understanding, and shadowing another employee. The individual, who I will refer to as "PE", whose actions were determined by the State to have been at fault for the incident admitted to receiving 1 1/2 weeks worth of training before being allowed to work alone with the children. She would admit during the hearing that she shadowed Marla even though it is not required by the State of Texas Minimum Standards for the Director to personally train the staff. PE would also admit that Marla trained her, long before the incident, to be aware of children's tendencies and to act accordingly to prevent a child from possibly harming themselves. Would a reasonable person have gone over and beyond the amount of training required by the State of Texas as Marla did? The answer is simple, only a person that truly cared about the safety and well-being of the children would devote as much time into training as Marla did with the staff.

It was pointed out in the hearing that there were crazy ants in the facility-An amount that totaled less than 10 total ants! Although the State of Texas guidelines do not require daycare operators to contract with pest control companies to spray and check for pests every quarter (every 3 months), Marla did. What this means is that not only did she go above and beyond the State of Texas guidelines, she did everything humanly possible to ensure that there were no problems with pests. Would a reasonable person have done this? Only a person that truly cared about the safety and well-being of the children would contract with a pest control company when it was not required. Marla also contracted with a company to shampoo the carpet every quarter which is also not a requirement of the State of Texas Minimum Standards for Childcare Centers.

Marla clearly passed the reasonable person test and the Texas Attorney General's Office was pathetically unable to prove otherwise and were in fact humiliated numerous times throughout the hearing trying to prove otherwise.

If you are wondering what occurred at the hearing, I promise you that I will disclose every single detail of what occurred. What you will learn is that Adrienne Driggers and the Department of Family and Protective Services are much more dangerous to the families of Texas than you may have imagine. You will also learn how unethical the Texas Attorney General's Office and the State Office of Administrative Hearings are. Unless you are one of the corrupt people that work within the aforementioned you will be calling for the end or the reorganization of all three.

Follow this blog very closely because the entire corrupt system will be exposed before the world within the next week.

The Credibility of the State Office of Administrative Hearings is at Stake

As you may recall from previous posts, Administrative Reviews are the means by which license holder's are able to challenge deficiencies given to them by childcare licensing representatives. You may also recall that these informal hearings are complete shams as the person who hears your case is a childcare licensing representative that works in the same office as the person whose deficiencies you are challenging. You cannot question any accusers, or any supposed evidence that the State has against you. I can't state enough times that the entire system is loaded with conflicts of interest. Nevertheless, the Texas Administrative Code states that license holders can request for Administrative Reviews and it is mandatory for the Department (DFPS Childcare Licensing) to schedule the Administrative Reviews within 10 days of the request and must schedule the Administrative Reviews within 30 days of being scheduled. Adrienne Driggers and the Department  ignored our requests for these administrative reviews by waiting to schedule them until well after Adrienne Driggers had already closed the daycare and placed Marla on the Central Registry.

This was the elephant in the room that we presented in our hearing. It's importance cannot be overstated as the Texas Administrative Code clearly states in Title 40, Part 19, Chapter 745, Subchapter M, Division 1, Rule §745.8803 that the Department cannot implement any decision or action that is the subject of the review until license holders due process rights concerning the decision or action are exhausted. Adrienne Driggers and the Department did not allow the Administrative Reviews to occur as mandated by the Texas Administrative Code and therefore illegally closed Marla's daycare and placed her on the Central Registry.

These facts alone should force Melissa Ricard, the presiding judge of the State Office of Administrative Hearings to rule in our favor. There was much more than particular code that should get her to rule in our favor as we proved in court that Childcare Licensing Representatives: Monica Martinez and Christina Cantu deliberately falsified deficiencies. We also proved, through emails and the documentation that they tried to withhold from us 3 months earlier, that Adrienne Driggers violated Marla's Constitutional Rights and had clearly abused her power in closing Marla's daycare and placing her on the Central Registry.  Let me state this loud and clear: We proved that Adrienne Driggers violated the law. I will be providing this proof on another post that I will present to you soon.

As of today (11/29/2015), The Honorable Judge Melissa Ricard has yet to make her decision as to whether or not Marla should get her license back and should be removed from the Central Registry. You will see when I present to you what occurred at the hearing that there was no doubt that Marla should never have had her license to operate taken away from her nor should she have been placed on the Central Registry, but as I have stated throughout this blog, the entire system is corrupt.

She could surprise us and follow the law by ruling in our favor but we are suspicious as she is a State employee and shares an office on the same floor with the Department of Family and Protective Services Childcare Licensing. Her office is just a few feet away from DFPS! A statement that she made and an action that she took during the hearing left us with some suspicion as to whether or not she will rule according to the Texas Administrative Code which would be in our favor of course or if she will rule in the Departments favor simply because they, like her, are State of Texas employees.

It has been my premise all along that the system is broken and corrupt. If she rules in their favor it would only legitimize all that I have said. Should this occur one could expect for the media and certain Civil Rights Organizations to get involved. The U.S. Department of Justice would have no choice but to get involved as well. Should the judge rule against us Adrienne Driggers, the Department of Family and Protective Service, the Texas Attorney General's Office, and the State Office of Administrative Hearings might as well shred the United States Constitution.

If she does what is right and rules in our favor she will be hailed a hero for taking a stand against abuse of power, the targeting of minority business owners, and for standing up for the United States Constitution. The credibility of the State Office of Administrative Hearings is in the balance. Will it show itself to be like the kangaroo court system that the Administrative Reviews are known to be or will it show itself to be a legitimate court that is impartial as it purports to be? We will find out soon.

Established Standards by The Department of Family and Protective Services

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder proved to be a strange ally. I was constantly reliving what these corrupt people did to our family and the children in our care. I had many sleepless nights just thinking about what they did to us. Because of that all of the crooked things that they did stayed fresh on my mind. As you may have realized by now, I am a very analytical person. One of the things that I kept thinking of was how Adrienne Driggers and the Department was able to close our daycare but allow other daycares, where bad things really did happen, to continue to operate.  What I realized was that there are no guidelines or triggers that the DFPS uses to impose adverse actions which include closing a children's daycare or placing someone on the Texas DFPS Central Registry. All of the punishments that they impose are subjective. So one would think.

When you read of horrible incidents that occur at daycares where the Department allows for those daycares to continue to operate what the Department has done is establish a standard or precedent of the actions that are acceptable to the Department.  My strategy to defeat the State (DFPS and the Attorney General's Office) was multifaceted. One facet that I utilized was the questioning of the credibility of a Department that would allow for certain incidents that occurred at daycares throughout the State to go unpunished , particularly the district controlled by Adrienne Driggers to help prove how she targeted our daycare.

Given that the State used a child walking out of our building as the reason for closing our daycare I will start by mentioning Just Kids Learning Center located in San Antonio, Texas. The location of this daycare is key as San Antonio is the city in which Adrienne Driggers office is located. At this daycare two toddlers left the building and crossed a major road. This daycare had 5 TIMES the amount of deficiencies as Marla's daycare yet did not receive any punishment whatsoever from Adrienne Driggers and her Department. Provided is a link to the incident. We are not stating that the daycare was dangerous and should be closed but merely that two children did leave the daycare and Adrienne Driggers Child Care Licensing Department did not close the daycare nor put their Director on the Texas DFPS Central Registry.

Just Kids Learning Center - Two Toddlers Leave Daycare

The next daycare that I'll mention is Tutor Time Daycare located in Austin Texas. Austin is not only the State's Capitol, it is also the home to the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services and the Texas Attorney General's Office. At Tutor Time an 18 month old child left the daycare and wandered off to a six-lane road. Again we are not saying that the daycare should have been closed but merely pointing out that the daycare was not closed nor their Director placed on the Texas DFPS Central Registry. Please read the following article from the Austin Statesman regarding the incident:

Austin Statesman - Toddler found along busy northwest Austin road

The following article highlights a very important fact when fighting Child Care Licensing. This article points out that Childcare Licensing (DFPS) is provided other remedies, besides the revocation and closing of the daycare, by the Texas Legislature within the Texas Administrative Code in dealing with daycares that the Department feels need to make corrections to ensure the safety of the children. In this article taken from the Victoria Advocate, Bearly Beginnings a children's daycare in Victoria Texas, is placed on Corrective Action. Corrective Action is where the Department (DFPS Childcare Licensing) gives the daycare a certain amount of time to make corrections to ensure the safety of the children rather than close the daycare and have the children uprooted and discarded into the community without trained care. Please keep in mind that my wife's daycare had a mere 13 deficiencies compared to Bearly Beginnings which had 72. At this daycare, the children were being hit and being denied food by the staff.

Victoria Advocate - State investigating Victoria daycare center after abuse allegations

The next story comes from the television station KENS5 located in San Antonio Texas. This story highlights how Childcare Licensing allowed daycares to continue operating despite having large amounts of deficiencies.  Keep in mind that Adrienne Driggers Department of Family and Protective Services and the Attorney General's Office attempted to state that my wife's daycare posed a danger to children despite having only 13 deficiencies. This story mentions the following daycares: Step-2-Step daycare (99 deficiencies), Little Friends Daycare Center (129 deficiencies), and Montessori Earth School (253 deficiencies). It must be taken with a grain of salt that Childcare Licensing, which falls under the Department of Family and Protective Services, is prone to falsify deficiencies. For this reason, the number of deficiencies is not an accurate measure of a daycares ability to care for children.

KENS5.COM - I-Team: San Antonio daycares caught breaking the rules

The saddest story of all that highlights the Department's lack of credibility in closing a daycare and having it's Director placed on the Central Registry is the story of Jordan Arredondo. Jordan Arredondo was killed when a television fell on top of him at Mary Bethune Daycare in Corpus Christi Texas the same city where we were operating that led to the creation of this blog. The Department ruled that Bethune Daycare was negligent in the death of Jordan Arredondo but did not close the daycare nor place the Director on the Texas DFPS Central Registry. One cannot help but wonder, given the Department's penchant for punishing Hispanic operated daycares more harshly than Non-Hispanic operated daycares, the value that they placed on the death of a Hispanic child. I think of a quote from Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn where Tom Sawyer fabricates a story of an accident on a boat that killed a Black man. A lady responds to the story of the Black man's death by stating: "Well it's lucky; because sometimes people do get hurt." Please note the length of time that the Department dragged it's feet in it's investigation of the young Jordan's death. CPS (Child Protective Services) is used interchangeably with the Department of Family and Protective Services but it is merely a branch within DFPS as is Childcare Licensing. It is not surprising that I have been told from many people that the tactics that Childcare Licensing uses are used by Child Protective Services but it is as they say a whole 'nother story.

KRISTV.COM - Child Passes Away After TV Fell on Him

KRISTV.COM - CPS Still Investigating Death from Day Care Accident

The overriding question that must be answered is "does my daycare deserve any more punishment than the daycares presented in this post?" Odds are that the answer is resounding "NO". Why? Because the State through it's allowing the aforementioned daycares to continue to operate established a standard of acceptable behaviors and incidences.

The State's Fatal Flaw

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.