Family Court Legal Fees

65 donors

$5,439 raised of $15K

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Family Court Legal Fees

Shay White is organizing this fundraiser.

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Greetings! My name is Sechita but everyone calls me Shay. I am writing to ask for your help. I am a single parent of an incredible seven year old son named Elias. He has been my life's mission since I knew I was pregnant.

Elias and I need the community of friends, family, friends of friends, child advocate groups to please assist me in paying legal fees to appeal to the Los Angles courts' order of taking my primary custodial rights away. I have only a short 60 day window (from April 18, 2018) to file my appeal and need to pay mounting legal fees to fight this court order! This order is not in Elias’ best interest, to move to Los Angeles to a father who barleys takes responsibility for him, and it will be a devastating transition for him to not have his mother in his life, the sole caregiver he ever had since birth.

In the last 16 months I have been hit with a barrage of legal motions filed by his father with the help of his current wife and ex wife in Los Angeles while we lived in Atlanta, GA. I am a single parent with limited means who had to fight the Los Angeles courts cross-country since 1/23//17. The father had been asking for sole legal and sole physical custody four(!) times now, on the grounds of allegations that my son is not being educated, my instability, homelessness, and denial of knowing where we lived to a whole list of lies.

The past 1.5 years I have attended many court hearings in Los Angeles which have made it very difficult to continuously travel to Los Angeles several months back to back to confront these many lies he filed in court, while taking care of Elias, creating a safe and nurturing home, working and earning money, and paying enormous legal fees.

He also refused to communicate with me and we had to drive to Los Angeles January 23, 2017, February 10, 2017, then fly out March 21, 2017, with additional hearings May 3, 2017, June 2017, three dates in August, 24, 25, 28 2017, then more court dates October 16, 18 of which I could not afford to go, a full day October 25, 2017, January 24, 25, 2018, May 1, 2018. All this because of his desire to control me by means of our son. None of this is because my son is in danger, neglected, or abused.

He, his ex-wife, and current wife don't have an on-going relationship with my son since birth, as well as none of their children have a relationship with him. Countless times I have invited his father to come to Atlanta to spend time with Elias and attend his sporting events outside of his court ordered vacation time, but he never came.

Even when we were in LA, I encouraged his participation in Elias' activities, but he would decline, as well as his whole family refused to participate in Elias’ baptism, birthdays, or daily life. I can say the few times he ever did participate was during the time he was filing court papers against me. In 2014 when he had filed the second time for sole legal sole physical custody the courts granted Elias and I to away from California to Georgia.

I have always been the only 24/7 parent making sure Elias was taking care of. I would take him to doctor’s appointment, school, school activities, German language tutoring, playdates, trips; I attended parent teacher conferences, organized birthday parties. I have done it all. And with all my hard work, and while these court actions were on going in the last 15 months, I continued to communicate with his father about everything concerning our son.

Needless to say the courts have made a judgement against me and say that Elias is court ordered to return to Los Angeles this summer to reside with his father and current step mother. I say 'current step-mother' because this is his second marriage since my son was born.

The court feels that Elias' father is more stable than me siting "he is married, has step kids (16 &17) in the home,
he has a 16 year old form his ex wife that comes on the weekend to visit, he has a basketball court, a backyard, a public school in the neighborhood, he has a horse my son could have access to..." and so on.

Elias has family here! We currently live with my mother, Elias' grandmother, and I commute Elias 3 hours every day to and from school. I have put my child before anything in life, especially my career. Many who know me well, know that I am very active at every school my son has attended and I am very active in his life. I have a college degree, I keep Elias engaged in cultural activities, athletic teams, arts classes, and I enrich his education with field trips to colleges, universities, national landmarks, civil right museums, professional acting jobs, social justice movements. I even started building up his retirement fund at 4 years old and kept him number 1 in my life. That a judge can say that I put my career before my son is a wild and discriminatory allegation, and my entire family suffers tremendously under these lies.

Please share my gofundme. We need you help

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SingleParent #SingleMom #LegalFees #LosAngeles #NewYorkCity #Brooklyn #NewJersey #Georgia #Atlanta #mom #son #motherandson #Actor #Model #SagaAftra #Advocate #POC #bond #FamilyCourt #Allies

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