Padding Writeups

When you become a target of Childcare Licensing, the Department will go through great lengths to discredit you and make it appear as if you are a danger to children. Few people expect for a Department charged with protecting children to be so unethical and that is why they are so successful using this strategy. People that have never experienced this behavior or are unaware that the Department uses this strategy when targeting daycare operators further victimize those daycare operators (as well as their staff and the children in their care) by siding with the Department, often very vocally. I compare these people to mindless villagers chasing after the so-called villain with torches and pitchforks in horror movies of old.

A great clue as to when the Department is targeting a daycare is if the daycare has received frequent inspections from childcare licensing. The Department will use the guise of stating that a "report" was made against the daycare forcing them to investigate or that they were merely "following up" on a previous investigation.  State law states that a person can make anonymous "reports" on daycares (and individuals for that matter). The Department is able to simply state that a report was made, even when it wasn't, to justify harassing daycare operators and give the Department the opportunity to pad (increase) the number of deficiencies.

A further indicator as to the intentions of the Department when they are targeting a daycare operator is the length of time that their representatives are at the daycare. If a Childcare Licensing Representative is following up on a previous visit or investigating a report, it does not make sense for a representative to be present at that daycare for more than an hour and a half. We once had a childcare licensing representative named Veronica Lopez present at our daycare for a period of 7 hours! The daycare ran so smoothly that she felt compelled to falsify write-ups including stating that fire ants were crawling all over her when a professional exterminator acknowledged that there were no ants on the property.

The Department is also successful in padding write-ups as a result of how they put the wording into the deficiencies. For example, a caregiver who is changing the diaper of an infant while another infant is feeding themselves in a high chair, while a third infant is asleep in a crib. The State mandated ratio is 4:1 so the ratio would be easily met. Imagine that the child eating the food drops their spoon on the floor. A childcare Licensing Representative who is targeting the daycare will write-up the daycare for the spoon being on the floor but will neglect to include in their report that the caregiver was changing the diaper and that the daycare was easily in ratio. To pad the write-ups even more, the Childcare Licensing Representative will state that as a result of this writeup the Daycare Operator was not adhering to the State of Texas Minimum Standards. This deficiency is a huge red flag that the Department is padding write-ups as the gist of this deficiency is that a daycare operator is receiving a deficiency for getting a deficiency!

There is also an example of a Childcare Licensing Representative writing up the daycare for there being food on the floor in a toddler room without mentioning in her report that the toddlers were having a scheduled meal at the time and that it is normal behavior for children of that age to get food on the floor while they are eating!

It is widely known that children that are just let out of school have a tendency to want to blow off steam. School age children tend to get excited and want to play. Sometimes there are so many children in your care that you have to increase the volume of your voice to ensure that the children are under control. There is a difference between raising your voice and yelling at children. Yelling at  children is something that is done in a fit of anger. What Childcare Licensing Representatives will do is writeup the daycare for a caregiver yelling at children when there was never any yelling involved. You can provide other witnesses including the children that will refute what the Childcare Licensing Representative writes in their report but doing so risks retaliation.

Because School Age children are excited to be out of school they will want to have fun and play games. We had a Childcare Licensing Representative named Christina Cantu who not only threatened to write us up for offering too many activities for the children (not just school age children) but wrote us up because the School Age children did not return the games in an organized manner. This by the way is not a violation according to the State of Texas Minimum Standards by which daycare centers operate.

I was told by one daycare operator that her daycare was given a deficiency by a Childcare Licensing Representative because one of her staff reached out of her room to get a spray bottle. It was not surprising to find that it was Geneva Hudel, the Heinrich Himmler to Adrienne Driggers, who cited her for supposedly leaving the room even though it was only a portion of her arm!

We were once written up by a Childcare Licensing Representative named Pam Hayes in San Antonio when a 3 year old child placed her snack on a bare table instead of the paper plate that she had been given. When I stated to her that she had to be kidding as the deficiency was so absurd she responded by stating: "Mr. Gonzales, I have to write you up for something?!"

This led me to a question that I asked Geneva Hudel in her first visit to our daycare. I asked her if Childcare Licensing Representatives were seen with a suspicious eye by their supervisors if they returned to their offices after having driven around all day inspecting daycares without many write-ups for the daycares. I asked her if they had a quota system. She replied that they did have a quota system and were treated as if they were not doing their jobs if they did not return with many write-ups.

Of course one could challenge the falsified deficiencies by using Administrative Reviews. Which you may remember are informal hearings where you cannot question the Childcare Licensing Representative that falsified the deficiency(ies), nor can you question any person that supposedly filed a report against you or challenge any evidence. These informal hearings are held by a co-worker within the same office as the person whose deficiencies you are challenging.

One would think that daycare operators are protected under the United States Constitution's 6th Amendment Confrontation Clause which reads: In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to be confronted with the witnesses against him. The 14th Amendment has made the 6th Amendment’s right to confrontation applicable to state court as well as federal court. The confrontation clause guarantees criminal defendants the opportunity to face the prosecution’s witnesses in the case against them and dispute the witnesses’ testimony. This guarantee applies to both statements made in court and statements made outside of court that are offered as evidence during trial.

The problem is that daycare operators are not afforded this Constitutional right in Administrative Hearings despite the substance of the hearings being identical to that of criminal proceedings. The State Office of Adminstrative Hearings will use the findings from the Administrative Reviews against daycare operators in making their decisions against daycare operators.

The First Ambush

Scene from Law Abiding Citizen: It's Going to be Biblical

It was just a few days from Christmas when we received a letter from the Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS or the Department) telling us that Marla was being placed on the Central Registry for Abuse and Neglect for a child running out of the building. We were shocked as never had a person been accused of neglect or abuse much less placed on the Central Registry for not even being present at the time of the so-called incident of neglect or abuse. This was a clear violation of the Texas Administrative Code's interpretation as to what constitutes neglect or abuse. But we knew that the person that had ordered Marla to be placed on the Central Registry was a person who cared little for the Texas Administrative Code, the United States Constitution, or any form of decency: Adrienne Driggers, the Southwest District Director of the Department of Family and Protective Services Childcare Licensing Division. Marla clearly went above and beyond the State of Texas Minimum Standards for Childcare Centers as we would later prove this emphatically in court. Before I go on I must add that the child was gone from the grounds less than a minute, which given the design of the building and the location of the exit of the building, would have made it impossible for him to have gotten near any road. In fact, given the small amount of time that he was gone it was very likely that he may have only gotten a few feet from the surrounding fence as the staff moved promptly to retrieve him. 

When Adrienne Driggers closed our daycare in San Antonio for Marla speaking to one of the parents about a sale at an HEB Plus, Marla refused to allow me to go after Driggers and the Department. She wanted to maintain a peaceful working relationship with the Department. My argument was that the Adrienne Driggers could care less about any peaceful relationships. She wanted to destroy us and use her power any way she could whether or not it was legal or ethical for her to do so. This time however, Driggers went too far. When Driggers placed Marla on the Central Registry she did so not because Marla deserved to be on it but by being placed on the Central Registry, Marla would not be able to be present at the daycare and therefore not be able to fulfill her obligations as a license holder. Driggers manipulated the rules to deny Marla her right under the 14th Amendment Section 1 of the United States Constitution. Of course, John Specia Jr., the Commissioner of the Department of Family and Protective Services rubber stamped Driggers decision and Paul Morris, the Assistant Commissioner of Childcare Licensing, voiced his approval of Adrienne Driggers tactics. Adrienne Driggers placed Marla in the Registry with child molesters. The gloves were going to be off this time as Marla said these three words to me: "Go After Them." In my response I told her that I was going to paint the whole town red and burn it down ( a reference to Clint Eastwood's High Plains Drifter). I was going to tear down the entire corrupt system that allowed Driggers to have an unfettered abuse of power.

It was a Friday when we received the letter informing us of Marla being placed on the Central Registry. By Monday a petition on Change.org calling for Marla's daycare to be spared, for the removal of Marla from the Central Registry, and for an investigation of Adrienne Driggers illegal and unethical tactics had gathered over 200 signatures. That number would swell to 1,000 within the next few days. 

At the same time, I launched an investigation of Adrienne Driggers with the Office of Consumer Affairs. While I did not expect much from this investigation as the Office of Consumer Affairs operates under the Department of Family and Protective Services and the staff within this Department are known to cover(protect) for each other my hope was that it would generate some kind of official statement that would be beneficial to us which itt did. We would use this statement to hammer the Department and the Texas Attorney General's Office in court. 

Not only did we launch an investigation of Adrienne Driggers through the Office of Consumer Affairs but we also launched an investigation with the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Health and Human Services a Department who had recently been placed in charge of the Department of Family and Protective Services. Given that the Department of Health and Human Services was very likely not accustomed to hearing of abuse of power and civil rights violations coming from a State Agency in their charge we didn't expect much from them. My goal was to put Adrienne Driggers, the Department, and the Texas Attorney General's Office on the defensive. 

I wasn't finished there as State Representatives Abel Herrero and Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa's offices also became involved. It was Representative Herrero's office that discovered that the reason that "the Department", code for Adrienne Driggers, placed Marla on the Central Registry was because she was not at the daycare at the time of the incident. According to the State of Texas Minimum Standards, a director is not required to be present at the daycare during all hours of operation. "The Department" (Adrienne Driggers) was ignoring it's own rules just to target Marla.

It is my understanding that the phone lines((512)438-4800) at John Specia's office were jammed with people calling to demand a reversal of Adrienne Driggers decision to place Marla on the Central Registry as well as Driggers decision to close Marla's daycare.  These State officials were not going to have the pleasure of being anonymous any longer. The people were going to know of the Departments abuses and were going to be heard.

Adrienne Driggers abused her power to target Marla. Driggers and her entire Department was ambushed and punched right smack in the mouth. This blog that has been exposing Adrienne Driggers and the Department's abuse of power would not have been created if Adrienne Driggers had just left us alone. Now that it has started, thousands of people are reading it regularly and sharing it with their friends and family. It is spreading exponentially throughout Texas and the World. I will continue to fight this Department by continuing to inform the public, until John Specia, Jr. realizes that he does not have a choice but to terminate Adrienne Driggers and the Department makes wholesale changes as to how it operates. I will fight for the lives of every child against this dangerous State Agency.

This ambush was so effective that Patricia Fernandez, the lead attorney from the Texas Attorney General's Office, would in her meltdown at the termination of the hearing before SOAH (The State Office of Administrative Hearings) would mention the tactics that I used against them as if they were unfair. Imagine the horror that they put us through and they were crying foul because for once they were being forced to answer for their behavior. That, my friends, is how you take down a corrupt State Agency. 

Keep reading folks because if you are sickened by the behavior of Adrienne Driggers and the Department you will be ecstatic when you read of the Beatdown that they took in court. It was as brutal as it was beautiful and it is coming very soon!

Forced into unregulated childcare

Adrienne Driggers is clearly one of the most disgusting filthy animals Texas has ever seen. She very well may be the most evil woman in Texas for deliberately endangering the lives of children just so that she can target and discriminate against people solely because of the color of their skin. She is enabled by a corrupt group of people that are her supervisors, her staff, and the Texas Attorney General's Office who assumes her positions and fights her battles. The lives of the children in Texas will never be safe as long as the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services continues to operate as currently constructed without any oversight, checks and balances, or objectivity.

Working with children is a blessing. We took childcare a step further than most. Our daycares were special. We operated almost like missionaries. We reached out to help the communities that we provided services to while spreading the word of God. We donated clothes and food to struggling families. In San Antonio we were mere days away(in cooperation with the Abundant Grace Lutheran Church) from opening a food pantry in the depressed area of Southeast San Antonio when Adrienne Driggers closed our daycare for Marla speaking to one of the parents of the daycare about a sale at an HEB Plus. We routinely donated Thanksgiving meals and Christmas presents to struggling families as well. When parents lost their jobs or had their hours decreased at work and could no longer afford childcare we took care of their children for free until those families could get back on their feet. Our daycare was special that way.

By Adrienne Driggers targeting us she disrupted entire communities. A mother who could not afford childcare elsewhere was forced to leave her children in the care of a person who was not regulated. This resulted in two of her children getting molested. They were to Adrienne Driggers, the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, and the Texas Attorney General's Office nothing more than collateral damage in their pursuit of denying us our right to operate a children's daycare.

Because the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services operates in such a corrupt manner and are supported by the Texas Attorney General's Office I recommend to any person that cares deeply about children NOT to get licensed to operate a children's daycare. That is not saying that you cannot care for children as "family members" are allowed to care for their "family members" without any oversight from the State. Praise God for this as we can all imagine the State attempting to run our own households! Because of the way people like Adrienne Driggers run childcare licensing, good people are being forced to operate children's daycares without getting licensed. My wife who dedicated her life to improving the lives of children was placed on the State of Texas Central Registry by Adrienne Driggers for no other reason but to have the wrong color of skin. Absolutely no person should be placed in an undeserved position like this. My wife would not have been shamed like this if she simply did not get licensed.

One may point out that there are penalties for operating unlicensed children's daycares. It is true that there are penalties. It is also true that the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services is severely understaffed and cannot possibly close every unlicensed daycare in Texas. Because Childcare Licensing and DFPS are so corrupt who would be foolish enough to trust them when making a report? Think of this, if a person reports an unlicensed daycare that daycare operator can in turn report that person to Child Protective Services. If DFPS is willing to fasify information about a daycare that cares for many children can you imagine what they would do to one individual?

The purpose of this post is not that I want children to be placed in harm's way. Quite the contrary. What I am saying is that this Department is so out of control that they are forcing people to open unlicensed daycares, which are incredibly easy to open and operate. DFPS is endangering the lives of a massive amount of children as a result of their corrupt tendencies. Innocent people should not be targeted. Finding people like my wife who care deeply about children is an incredibly difficult thing to do. That is why I have no problem calling Adrienne Driggers an animal. Being the head of one of the largest Districts in the United States, with the largest concentration of Hispanic residents in the United States mind you, she should be very much aware that she cannot be allowed to use her position to deny Hispanics or other minorities from operating children's daycares simply because she does not care for the color of their skin.

One can make the argument that she and the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services are deliberately denying Hispanics and African-Americans the ability to make money by caring for their own kind but  allowing for an easy access to these markets for Anglos by having a different and far less stringent set of standards for Anglo operated daycares.

What I am hoping to do is get this very dangerous and corrupt State Agency abolished or reorganized to prevent people like Adrienne Driggers and her cronies from continuing to endanger the lives of children. If the DFPS continues to operate like a bunch of Nazi's we will continue to read of children getting harmed by people that truly do not have any business caring for children as in the following story (please click the link):

State Missed Daycare Owner's Criminal Past

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.