December 7th, 2011 by Glenn Sacks
Washington Department of Social and Health Services seized Maile Metalwala, the 4-year-old daughter of Solomon Metalwala, away from her unfit mother, Julia Biryukova, and put Maile in foster care on November 6. It is a common but unjust practice for child welfare agencies to put children in foster care instead of giving them to their fathers. Moreover, the Washington court separated Maile from Solomon based on spurious abuse allegations from a now thoroughly discredited accuser.
On Tuesday November 29 Fathers and Families launched our Campaign to Reunite Solomon Metalwala with His Daughter Maile. Our goal has been to push WA DSHS and King County Superior Court to reunite Maile and Solomon as soon as possible. Many of our members and supporters wrote and/or called the relevant authorities, and our campaign has been covered by much of the Seattle media. DSHS issued a statement in response to our campaign on Friday.
On Monday, in part because Washington Department of Social and Health Services is now supportive of Solomon’s custody bid, Solomon won custody of Maile–for details see Seattle KING 5 News’ Solomon Metalwala one step away from regaining custody of Sky’s sister (12/5/11).
Better yet, as the Seattle Times explains, “A judge on Tuesday lifted the protection order against Solomon Metalwala, father of missing a 2-year-old boy, clearing the way for him to regain custody of his 4-year-old daughter.”
We thank all of the Fathers and Families members and supporters who wrote and called DSHS and the relevant court officials. We’ll never know to what degree your calls and letters and the widespread media coverage our protest garnered impacted the authorities. What we do know is that, within a week of your calls and letters to DSHS and the King County court, both agreed that Solomon should have custody of Maile.
We will continue to monitor the situation and keep our members informed of new developments. We salute Clay Terry, Esq., Solomon’s attorney, for his determined work towards reuniting Maile with Solomon.
We thank the Seattle TV stations KIRO, KING 5 and NWCN 2, KOMO News Radio, and the numerous other Seattle media outlets who covered our campaign for helping to highlight this important child custody issue. We also thank the Washington Domestic Violence Commission for their assistance.
Together with you in the love of our children,
Glenn Sacks, MA Executive Director, Fathers and Families
Ned Holstein, M.D., M.S. Founder, Chairman of the Board, Fathers and Families