Gunnar Allen: Dad or dollar sign

Gunnar Allen
Ms. Cook
Writing 122
January 28, 2008

DAD OR DOLLAR SIGN

Although paying Child Support is necessary and it is the law, the “dead-beat dad’s” of the past have created bias in the court system. Judgments regarding Child Support prove to favor the mother in most cases, creating a hostile environment to all those involved. Prejudice prevails and hurts those of us dad’s who have paid and do pay and care. Unfortunately our children pay the ultimate price with our absence caused by unjust support amounts brewed up on the Child Support Calculator. This system is used to determine the amount a parent should pay per child. It uses a point system factoring in each parents income, potential earnings, health insurance contributions, overnights and much more. The Child Support Enforcement Agency pits the mother and father against each other leaving the child/children torn between the two, and this can be financially and emotionally crippling.
In my case, I pay Child Support for my fifteen year old son named .Dakota, who lives in Shoreline, WA just north of Seattle, with his mother. Dakota’s mother has not made life easy for either of us. I love him more than anything and have done and will continue to do the best I can for him. Dakota’s mother, whom I’ll call Satan I, was born and raised money hungry and always will be, along with the ugly word selfish. The year was 1993, Satan I and I parted ways in an ugly split, she took our son. In 1994 while in Maritime school and a poor student, I was served papers for a court ordered hearing. With no job, no representation and no money, I was ordered to pay two hundred eleven dollars per month which seemed like a million to a kid who didn’t have a damn dime to his name. This was my first taste of the court system favoring the mother. Since then things have only gotten worse. Today I pay seven hundred dollars a month which is down from eight hundred forty thanks to the arrears finally being paid off. I pay this for my son, who doesn’t see a dime of it nor his father for that matter. After much research on the Internet, I have found the “National average for Child Support to be four hundred dollars per child per month". It makes you wonder doesn’t it?
Every two years Child Support is reviewed and adjusted accordingly by the courts and the Child Support Enforcement Agency. Enter Satan II, Carol Birney, the head Child Support enforcement officer of Clatsop County and one evil woman! This adjustment is called a modification and is based on the above stated calculator as well as Satan I’s request for an increase. My support went from two hundred eleven to four eighty nine per month this modification. Within the allotted sixty day grace period I appealed this decision and hired a lawyer. This maneuver made me look like a “dead-beat dad” to the courts and obviously to Satan II, and I lost the hearing again. Through the process I lost legal fees and gained an increase in my support in the amount of five hundred and thirty three dollars. On top of the increase the amount of twenty eight hundred and change dollars in arrears was inherited by me, going back retro to the beginning of the modification. This flagged and ruined my perfect credit and the new total damage including arrears was six hundred and thirty nine dollars and sixty cents. My lawyer recommended that we do not appeal this as the amount would go up again. Why I asked? I received no clear or just answer.
Oregon State Law requires that garnishment of wages be made through employers to alleviate the “dead-beat dad” problem. This system works great and isn’t an issue, nor is paying Child Support. The argument is solely the amount to be paid. How much is enough? These prejudiced judgments financially crippled and devastated me. For example, while I was working on the Salvage Chief during the summer months, the money was minimal. After garnishment of Child Support and taxes, I was left with four hundred dollars to pay one thousand dollars worth of bills, buy groceries and gas to travel to Seattle to pick up my son for visitation. Needless to say I didn’t get to see my son which gives his mother more points and more money according to Satan II’s Child Support calculator. Carol Birney’s biased calculations have cost Dakota and I valuable father son time that we will never get back!
There are steps however; a parent can take in this battle for justice, though they haven’t worked for me thus proving bias and perhaps a conflict of interest. These processes are called “Request for Review” and “Change in Circumstance” and they require the agency to look deeper into the case. I followed protocol and stated my case, showing documentation of missed visitation and my total financial situation, looking for justice for Dakota and I. Satan II discounted my claims and raised my support amount to six ninety nine. Shortly thereafter, like a storm from hell, Satan I reported to Satan II that Dakota’s Orthodontia be included in my support amount. May I state that Orthodontia is not a mandatory procedure and is purely cosmetic. Although Satan I had turned down my health insurance, a percentage was factored into the support amount that I had already paid. Now Satan II added the Orthodontia bill to my support amount calling it arrears. My support skyrocketed to eight hundred forty per month! This lengthened the distance between Dakota and I more so.
I know the cost of raising a child is going up, especially when an interest in sports and other hobbies and activities increases. I understand that visits to the doctor or dentist add up quickly. The cost of living increases continually as the economy worsens. Mine has three-fold. I am very thankful that Dakota lives a very comfortable life in Seattle. I argue though, doesn’t he deserve the same from his father’s side of the spectrum? Do I not deserve the right to provide for my son from my own household? Do I not deserve a life with my son? Unfortunately it’s all in the hands of Carol Birney!
Satan I’s husband knocks down one hundred fifty thousand plus bonus in salary per year. Satan I doesn’t work. So I ask Carol Birney and the courts, who is rightfully claiming my son on their W-4 form for taxes? I make a meager thirty eight thousand per year, so I ask why when comparing incomes via Child Support Calculator, is Satan I’s potential salary used instead of her husbands in arriving at a support amount, especially when my son is using their last name. Satan II’s unjust calculations have empowered Satan I and have taken me out of the picture even more so in my son’s life. An example of this would be that Dakota and I cannot and will not communicate via his cell phone because I am not a Verizon customer. Satan I’s orders! I am his father for Christ sakes! The Child Support Agency has created this monster of a situation due to pure and simple discrimination!
Recently the amount of support that I pay has dropped from eight forty to seven hundred dollars thanks to me paying off the arrears. Still this amount is truly unjust when the national average is four hundred dollars per child per month. For what reason is Satan II making an example of me? I have tried everything that I know to resolve this injustice including speaking with Oregon State Senator, Betsy Johnson. I need a damn good pro-bono lawyer and a fair judge and the removal of Satan II from the Clatsop County Child Support Enforcement Agency office. Carol Birney’s prejudice, backed by the system has cost me. I have suffered tremendously emotionally and financially, but the real question is how much has Dakota suffered with the absence of his father.