A Child Custody Drama Multiplied by Six

In Miami, thousands of Cuban Americans lined the streets in recent weeks to protest the possible return of young Elian Gonzalez to his father. Even though Elian was returned to his father Saturday, the sheer number of protesters may well have affected how the government handled things.

Not so with the group of 50 people--men, women and children--protesting last week outside the state appeals court in Santa Ana.

They too believe they’re fighting an international custody battle. They too feel they’re enmeshed in a culture clash involving parental rights.

“Please Reunite This Family Now, They Have Suffered Enough,” reads one picket sign.

But there are no TV cameras, no public interest; just the protesters, hoping to catch anyone’s attention. About all they attract is a genial Santa Ana police officer reminding them not to park their cars illegally.

In truth, it is hard to picture a less influential protest group than the Hmong immigrants who years ago left the Laotian mountains and now find themselves patrolling this Santa Ana sidewalk.

But they persist. They’re protesting a decision by Orange County social workers to put up for adoption the six children of a Hmong couple who ran afoul of the agency. “They think they’re doing the right thing, but they’re doing the wrong thing,” Chongge Vang said of the social workers. Vang is the local president of a support group for Laotian immigrants and has met a number of times with the Hmong couple. Vang says the family’s problems with Social Services stem from cultural differences regarding Hmong family life. Language and cultural barriers then made matters worse as the family wrangled with Social Services, Vang says.

The case began almost three years ago and fills a voluminous file.

Inside the courtroom, lawyers for the father, mother, children and Social Services Agency made their arguments to the three-justice appellate panel.

It Began With a Family Argument

In 1997, social workers were called to the family home after an argument between the parents that ended with the mother’s hands tied up with an extension cord, according to court records. She was bloodied to some extent, the mother’s attorney concedes, but says it’s not clear what caused it.

The sides also seem to agree that the only physical violence to the children is that the father has spanked them.

It probably didn’t help matters when, during one tense moment with social workers, the father put a Hmong curse on the agency, according to court records.

A court-appointed attorney for the children says the case has been “very troubling” for her but refers to the parents as “intransigent.” She says they can’t or won’t conform their parenting behavior to societal norms.

The attorneys for the parents, who have replaced an earlier set, dispute that. Tustin attorney Rich Pfeiffer, representing the mother, says the parents met regularly with Vang. The family’s language and cultural barriers --even in cases where interpreters were provided--thwarted progress with Social Services, he says.

Since 1997, the six children--all younger than 10--have been in various custodial settings but not all in one place. In one macabre scene, two of the children were found in bed with the body of their foster mother, who later was judged to have been dead for at least a few days.

Last year, a Superior Court judge agreed with Social Services that adoption is still the best option for the children. The agency says it will try but can’t guarantee that all six children will end up in the same home.

In the weeks ahead, the three appellate justices will decide whether the parents received adequate legal representation from their first set of attorneys and, ultimately, where the children will go.

“I tried to educate the parents that in this country, it’s different than our own,” Vang says outside the courtroom. He says Laotian culture doesn’t embrace parental violence toward children, but concedes that the couple has had to adjust to people outside the family unit--such as social workers--intervening in how they discipline their children.

I tell him that social workers often infuriate American parents too. It’s a fact of life that deciding what’s best for children, which sometimes leads to dividing families, is rife with inflammatory potential.

The county says the case is about custody, not culture.

Vang says the two can’t be separated.

I wish the case were only about semantics.

Instead, it’s about the futures of six anonymous children, now in the hands of three judges.

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Dana Parsons’ column appears Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Readers may reach Parsons at (714) 966-7821 or dana.parsons@latimes.com.