Legal Question in Family Law in South Carolina
I am engaged to a man with a four year old child who I plan on adopting. The child's biological mother basically abandoned him at six months old, only seeing him maybe twice since then. She hasn't seen or talked to him in over a year and a half now, and she drinks and drugs and hops from state to state (she has several outstanding arrest warrants). She has contacted me, but not the child's legal guardian or his father (the child's grandmother was awarded custody for financial reasons and is in the process of turning over custody to my fiance). She has shown malicious intent with the child and tried to use him as leverage to re-establish a relationship with his father, making threats of "taking him away from us" unless my fiance gets back with her. She has made it clear that she knows where the child goes to school and we are afraid for his safety. If she has contacted me, but not the child or his guardian for more than a year now, can we have her parental rights removed? We are fearing for the child's safety, God forbid he is ever released to her from school.
1 Answer from Attorneys
You have a complicated situation on your hands. As for the mother picking up the child at school, you said grandmother has custody--so have grandmother make sure mother is not listed with school as a person permitted to pick up child. Once father has custody he needs to do the same thing. A parent in SC may have his/her parental rights for several reasons, including not visiting for greater than 6 months. Contacting you would not be the same as visiting with child. Based upon the facts that you have explained the mother might have her rights terminated. I would suggest meeting with an attorney to discuss the best time and way to do this. I would suggest that it be done at the time of the adoption. It sounds as though father needs to get custody back first. Good luck.
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