Father of Audrie Pott, Saratoga Teen Who Committed Suicide and Topic of Netflix Documentary "Audrie & Daisy", Calls for Passage of 'Equal Shared Parenting Law'
The press conference will be held on September 12, 2016 in California
SAN JOSE, Calif., Sept. 7, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- San Jose City Hall will serve as the site of a news conference on Monday (September 12) by a coalition of activists seeking to bring attention to the issues of the alienation of children from their loving parents and family members and the inequalities inherent within the state's Family Court system. The coalition also calls on the Governor, the California State Legislature and the court system to work to put an end to abuses in the legal system that victimize children and parents.
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Press Conference Details:
10 a.m., Monday, September 12, 2016
San Jose City Hall, 200 E. Santa Clara St., San Jose, CA 95113
Leading the news conference will be Michael Lazarin, a family rights advocate who endured the suicide of his teenaged daughter, Audrie Pott, after she was sexually assaulted and bullied at Saratoga High School in 2012. Lazarin seeks to speak on behalf of his daughter and all sons and daughters unjustly denied access to their fathers, mothers and extended families. His current efforts are focused on changing existing California family laws, Family Code Section 7611, and the two year statute of limitations to obtain an Order for Blood tests set forth in Family Code Section 7540. By changing these laws parental and family alienation is no longer sanctioned by the courts. He is working hard to have a proposed reform, called the Equal Shared Parenting Law, passed in California in 2017.
Lazarin was Audrie's biological father but was denied by the Family Court system what should have been his equal right to share his life with his daughter. He has found literally hundreds of thousands of other Americans who have endured the same ordeal of alienation from their children due to an imbalanced legal system that denies fathers contact with their own children. Together with organizations like The Father's Rights Movement, Michael continues his quest to change community awareness and laws to protect families and innocent children who need to experience life with both parents.
Lazarin was forced to navigate a twisted legal system starting on December 11, 2003, when he became an alienated father of his beloved daughter Audrie when she was just seven years old.
On September 12, 2012, in what is every parent's worst nightmare, Audrie, an innocent 15-year-old, became an international story when she took her own life, following a sexual assault and bullying by classmates days earlier. The media portrayed the sensational bits of the story of Audrie's assault and suicide, but Michael and his family knew there was much more to the story than what the media knew and what was being told publicly. Audrie's tragic death could not solely be attributed to her sexual assault. Michael and his family knew it was also the result of having her father and extended family erased from her life following a legal decision in Family Court. Michael went to court to fight for his daughter from 2003 to 2005.
An account of Audrie's heartbreaking story is included in a documentary film, "Audrie & Daisy," which also recounts the story of Daisy Coleman, who was allegedly sexually assaulted at age 14, and like Audrie, shamed and bullied afterwards. The film will have its worldwide premier release via Netflix on September 23, 2016 (see https://www.facebook.com/AudrieandDaisy/?fref=ts)
Lazarin, as any loving father, seeks to eliminate cyberbullying and sexual assault from our society, but he also insists that the state must reform child custody laws within our Family Court system so that biological parents in particular do not have to undergo the pain of court-ordered separation from their kids.
"Instead of allowing Audrie's memory to go for naught, I became determined to honor my daughter's memory and transform my family's trauma into triumph by doing all that is within my power— and a little bit more—to protect other families from enduring unnecessary alienation," Lazarin said. "This child abuse and family destruction must end now."
Contact: Michael Lazarin, (510) 693-9602, Email
The Father's Rights Movement, Linda Mohr, (209) 403-5043, Email
SOURCE Michael Lazarin
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