(5-3) Updated list of octuplet posts
Paul Petersen, a former child actor (Mouseketeers and Donna Reed Show) has dedicated himself to protecting the rights of minors in the entertainment industry - mainly from their parents. His focus is making sure the child actor’s money goes to them and them alone so that it is there when they turn 18. He is President of the foundation: A Minor Consideration, But he is not acting in that capacity - he is acting as a “Man, a Father, and a product of a life lived in full public view.”
He is petitioning the Court to have a fiduciary guardian appointed on behalf of the octuplets. He also wants to ensure that whatever their involvement - the octuplets “employment” follow California child labor laws both of which exist through the efforts of his foundation.
Here’s a portion of his statement. It is a well-written from the heart statement from a man who has been through it all and is using his experience to help children that are in the position he was in.
One would be hard-pressed to find an ulterior motive in bringing this legal action. It is exactly what his Foundation is set up for and they helped get the laws in place.
Something I did not know is children in the entertainment business are exempt child labor laws. But not California law, which his foundation and his wife helped draft and get passed. He discusses two laws that apply to all 14 children, which is the basis of his concern.
———————-Paul Peterson Statement——————
[...][emphasis added]
Money is being exchanged. Rights, copyrights and even trademarks are being negotiated for access to these helpless and vulnerable babies who were born into a family that we know is even now dependent on public assistance.
In short, these 14 children are dependent on us, the tax-payers, even as they adjust to a newly purchased home, a home acquired by means unknown.
A rational person might ask, “Where are the laws that protect these infants?” who are trapped in a situation they cannot possibly comprehend. They are now, I believe, working in the entertainment business yet they cannot walk or talk…and like all children in the Entertainment Business they are exempt from federal child labor laws. Let me repeat that: Kids in the Entertainment Business are exempt from federal child labor laws and have been since 1938 and the passage of the Fair Labor Standards Act.
But they are not exempt from California Law.
The Preemie Law was passed in 1998 by a unanimous vote of the legislature and signed into Law on August 3rd 1998 to protect against Hollywood’s growing practice of hiring premature, multi-birth babies. The Law states that an infant must be full term and full birth weight, and approved for very limited work activity by a licensed doctor’s written declaration, and may then be employed fifteen days after their Due Date.
I know this Law intimately since the former kid stars who belong to A Minor Consideration, founded in 1990, drafted the legislation with the help and support of my wife, Rana Platz-Petersen who is both a Registered Nurse and the head of IATSE Local 767, Studio First Aid, which supplies all the union nurses and first aid personnel to the Eleven Western States on union productions.
There are, in fact, Laws, Regulations and Guidelines for even the youngest child employed in the entertainment business here in California, and we hold in this lawsuit that all fourteen children in the Suleman home are, in fact, employees in a commercial enterprise because of their continuing presence and utilization in that workplace. Photos-for-Pay have already appeared in the media well in advance of the “Due-Date plus fifteen days” provisions of the Preemie Law.
We are asking the Superior Court to judge whether the Suleman home is, in fact, a work site since the Department of Labor has been slow to intervene, and the Department of Social Services seems unaware of the statutes governing the employment of infants. We hold that the truth of the working status of these children is Self-Evident.
As employees these children fall under the provisions of the Revised Coogan Law which came into effect in the year 2000, thanks again to the efforts of A Minor Consideration’s members, the combined theatrical unions, and with the full support of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. The vote was unanimous and the Bill was promptly signed by the Governor. The main features of the Bill are these:
1. Children employed in the broadly defined entertainment industry now own the money they earn. Their income is their individual property.
2. All children must have a current State-Issued work permit.
3. A blocked Coogan Account must be in place for each child who works and a portion of their income, 15%, must be saved until the age of majority.
4. Infants below the age of six months may only work in two narrow time-windows…9:30 am to 11:30 am, and 2:30 pm until 4:30 pm…and must be attended by a welfare worker and a registered nurse…one each for every three infants under the age of six months.
We have good reason to believe that these laws are not being followed, and are thus asking the Superior Court for the State of California to act expeditiously to protect the youngest of our citizens.
I am grateful to Ms. Allred and her firm for undertaking this difficult task. I have not taken this legal action as the Chair of the AFTRA Young Performers Committee, nor am I acting as the President and Founder of A Minor Consideration, which is in desperate need of your financial support if we are ever to make it safe for children no matter where they work, nor am I acting as an Accredited United Nations Delegate for the World Safety Organization, but I have acted simply as a Man, a Father, and a product of a life lived in full public view.
Thank You,
Paul Petersen
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