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.