The New York City judge, who was sued in 2017 for battery after spitting on an attorney in public, is granting only supervised visits to the child, and requires the mother to wear a mask during those visits.

NEW YORK, March 19, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) — A New York City Supreme Court judge has removed a mother’s custody rights to her 6-year-old daughter for not wearing a mask while dropping her off at school, according to a report by Gateway Pundit. Now, the mother is allowed only two supervised visits a week, as long as she is masked when with her child.

Family doctor Micheline Epstein told the Gateway Pundit that after she had dropped her daughter off to Birch Wathen Lenox School in Manhattan’s Upper East Side, the school nurse and school security attempted to force her “to wear a mask on the public street in front of the building where drop off takes place,” but Epstein refused.

The school subsequently sent a letter to the mother and her ex-husband, informing them that Epstein was no longer allowed to drop off or pick up her child from school.

The school has not responded to Gateway Pundit’s request for comment. A phone call by LifeSiteNews to Birch Wathen Lenox School was met with the message, “Our phone system is currently under a maintenance routine and will return to service as soon as possible.”

The New York City government website cites a New York State (NYS) law requiring “everyone over age 2 who can medically tolerate a face covering to wear one when in public if unable to maintain at least 6 feet of distance from others.”

Epstein’s ex-husband used the school’s letter “to request an emergency hearing for full custody — which Justice Matthew F. Cooper granted after berating the already emotionally devastated mother,” according to Gateway Pundit.

Epstein is now allowed to visit her daughter only twice a week, and must be masked as she does so. The visits must be supervised, the Gateway Pundit reported. Supervision of parental visits is ordinarily only required in cases where there is danger of physical or emotional harm to the child.

The court has also “decided that the mother is not permitted to remove her daughter” from the school, and forbade her from seeing and speaking to her daughter on her sixth birthday.

“Dr. Epstein is currently working three jobs to pay for not only her daughters expenses, but the six lawyers she hired to fight what she is referring to as the kidnapping of her child,” reported the Gateway Pundit.

Dr. Epstein was reportedly in tears as she recounted what happened. “She’s the love of my life,” she told the Gateway Pundit. “It’s horrible. Please help us.”

https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/judge-removes-6-year-old-from-mom-who-didnt-wear-mask-at-school-drop-off-report