THE
James W. Lea, Ryan Schultz and Paige Inman are pleased to
announce that The Lea/Schultz Law Firm has been named in
US News & World Report as one of the best law firms in the
country in the area of Family Law for the second straight year.
Mr. Lea has been recognized in “The Best Lawyers in America”
and a “North Carolina Super Lawyer” for eight consecutive
years and has been recognized as an “A” rating attorney as one
of the country’s Pre-Eminent Lawyers since 1996 — seventeen
straight years for such recognition.
Experienced North Carolina Family Law
and Business Litigators
24
WBM september 2013
or sidewalk. This was an 18.75
percent decrease from the February
2012 count.
“Overall, the numbers are coming
down,” Knight says. “That’s not
to say there aren’t still a lot of folks,
including families with children, who
find themselves in housing crisis.”
Throughout the United States, the
attitude toward homeless children is
friendlier than the attitude toward
adults.
“Understandably, their hearts go
out to the children,” Knight says,
adding that what she hears from
people is that the children did not
ask for or create the situation.
In a country where some communities
fight a homeless child’s
right to attend school, Knight says
New Hanover County has been
top notch upholding homeless
children’s right to an education.
“There are schools that write
letters to parents saying, ‘Well we
understand that you don’t live at this
address anymore. Your child can’t
come to our public school anymore,’”
she says.
Children staying in Good
Shepherd’s shelter are picked up on
the school bus first and dropped off
last, so other children do not know
about their situation. But the shelter
can also create a barrier for parents
trying to discipline their children,
with no bedroom to be sent to for
time out and no spanking rules.
“The guilt and the shame and
the feeling of personal failure that
comes from not being able to keep
a roof over your kid’s head, it’s not
something that you want to go and
advertise to everybody or invite their
judgment,” Knight says. “Just because
someone’s a social worker or a teacher
or in a helping profession doesn’t
mean you might not feel judgment
from them.”
Along with the fear of judgment is
the underlying fear that being homeless
means someone could take the
children away.
“I’ve seen a judge in another
community threaten a mother with
Lea/Schultz
L AW F I R M
The Lea/Schultz Law Firm, P.C.
1131-B Military Cutoff Rd, Wilmington, N.C. 28405
theleaschultzlawfirm.com • t: 910-239-5990 • f: 910-239-5992