Courage to Resist Urgent Action Alert
Army sends infant to protective services, mom to Afghanistan this weekend
Army has mom, Alexis Hutchinson,
arrested and 11-month old son put into county foster care system.
Alexis has now been ordered to deploy to Afghanistan on Sunday,
November 15, where she will be court martialed.
- Action Alert: Contact Congresswoman Barbara Lee to urge her to
"Request that the Army not deploy Alexis Hutchinson to Afghanistan so
that she can care for her son." From the 9th District
(Oakland-Berkeley, CA) phone: 510-763-0370 (fax: 510-763-6538).
Nationwide: 202- 225-2661 (fax: 202-225-9817).
- Donate to Alexis' legal and family support fund (couragetoresist.org/alexis)
- Alexis' attorney now available for media interviews.
By friends of Alexis and Courage to Resist. November 12, 2009
Specialist Alexis Hutchinson of Oakland, CA is the single mother of
an 11-month old boy, Kamani. Currently she is confined to Hunter Army
Airfield near Savannah, Georgia, where she has been posted since
February 2008, and threatened with a court martial if she does not
agree to be deployed to Afghanistan, even though she has not found
anyone to take care of her child while she is away.
In anticipation of going overseas Specialist Hutchinson flew to
California and left her son with her mother Angelique Hughes of
Oakland, as per her Army family care plan. However, after a week of
caring for the child Specialist Hutchinson’s mother realized that she
was unable to take care of Kamani on top of her other duties to her
special-needs daughter, her ailing mother, and her ailing sister. In
late October Angelique Hughes informed Hutchinson and her commander,
Captain Gassant, that she was not able to care for her daughter's baby
after all. The Army gave Specialist Hutchinson an extension of time to
find someone else to care for her son, and in the meantime her mother
brought Kamani back to Georgia. However just a few days before
Specialist Hutchinson was scheduled to deploy she was told that she
would not get the extended time after all and would have to deploy,
even though there was no one to care for her child.
Faced with that choice Specialist Hutchinson did not show up for her
plane. The military had her arrested and they put her child in the
county foster care system. Currently, Specialist Hutchinson is
scheduled to fly to Afghanistan for a special court martial on Sunday
and is facing up to one year in jail. Her mother flew to Georgia and
retrieved the baby but is overwhelmed, and does not feel able to
provide long-term care for Kamani.
Specialist Hutchinson would like to have more time to find someone
to care for her infant. However, she does not have a lot of family or
friends who could do so. She says: “It is outrageous that they would
deploy a single mother without a complete and current family care plan.
I would like to find someone I trust who can take care of my son, but I
cannot force my family to do this. They are dealing with their own
health issues.”
Also in the news:
Army Sends Infant to Protective Services, Mom to Afghanistan
by Dahr Jamail, Inter Press Service. November 13, 2009
Online version with possible updates
(photo above: Alexis
Hutchinson and son Kamani / Facebook) |