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Teen Parents get Lessons on Legal Rights from Experts

by Lisa Kim Bach

December 3, 1998 | Las Vegas, NV

Basic High School junior Joey Williams is a teen father.

He lives with his parents; his girlfriend lives with hers. After school on Mondays and Tuesdays, he takes care of his 2-month-old daughter. From Wednesday to Sunday, he works a full-time shift as a busboy, with half his salary going toward child support.

The situation is one he never envisioned.

'The hardest part is no sleep,' Williams said. 'And there's no free time for anything.'

Williams has not had the leisure to spend a day in the library researching his parental rights. Neither had any of the other 50 teen parents who attended a special Clark County School District forum called 'Teen Parents and the Law.'

The Wednesday event at Cashman Center brought 14 attorneys and legal experts to share their insights on custody, child support, adoption and domestic violence.

The occasion was the first time the district has offered such a program, but organizers said it would not be the last.

'It's really exceeded our expectations,' said Vicki Herman, administrative specialist for the district's School-To-Work programs. 'We're really hoping that when the kids go back to their schools, they'll take the information and share it with the fathers and their friends.'

Those who attended came from Las Vegas High School, Chaparral High School and Basic High School. The intent was to keep the group small because the program was a pilot, Herman said. The speakers volunteered through the state Bar Association.

'You're going through a struggle now,' said Matthew Dushoff, Nevada's deputy attorney general. 'But you've got to take responsibility and work harder than the next person. Having a child at your age isn't the brightest thing in the world, but you did it. Move past it. Work hard.'

Although the attorneys were not handing out advice on individual situations, the scenarios painted by students had personal undertones.

In one group, a teen mother wanted to know if her father could gain custody of her child; he had threatened it before, she said. In another group, a young mother asked what to do about a boyfriend who shoved her around when he was angry.

One of the few teen fathers present wanted to know about custody: Could the mother of his child legally deny him visitation?

'Paying child support and having visitation are two different things,' attorney Neil Mullins said during a group session on custody issues. 'You pay child support whether you have visitation or not. You can have visitation whether you pay child support or not. You can't trade one right for the other. You have to treat them separately.'

Attorney Dawn Lozano emphasized the importance of fathers establishing paternity. Biological paternity is not the same as legal paternity, she said. Being married establishes paternity in the eyes of the court. Men who have children out of wedlock need to establish their fatherhood with a blood test if they intend to ask a judge for legal rights.

'If a child is born to a mother out of wedlock, the mother has primary custody until the father establishes paternity,' Lozano said.

She also advised mothers to work with fathers without using emotional blackmail.

'If you think, 'I'm the mom, I win,' you're wrong,' Lozano said. 'If dad is taking care of the child, if you've abandoned the child, then you are the missing parent, and you will pay child support.'

Nevada's rate of teen pregnancy is one of the highest in the nation. In 1997, Clark County reported 76 pregnancies in girls aged 10-14 years and 1,211 pregnancies among girls 15-17 years old. Day care for the children of students is offered in several district high schools, including Rancho and Cimarron-Memorial.

Sue Grinnell, who teaches child development at Chaparral High School, covers the state curriculum emphasizing abstention from premarital sex. She also tries to show parenting in a realistic light to youngsters by getting teen parents to speak about night feedings, illness, diapers and lifelong responsibility.

For those teens who have children, however, the forum was an excellent chance to ask questions that teachers might not have an answer for, she said.

'I'm really glad I came,' said 16-year-old Tiffany Cupan, who married last week and is expecting a baby in July. 'Three hours ago, I didn't know any of this.'

Source: Las Vegas Review-Journal (Reproduced with permission)

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Parents and the Law

Topic: At-Risk Youth