California School Presses Kidnapping, Burglary Charges Against a Mom Who Legally Signed Her Child Out of School

Nevada mom Brittany Sheehan was reluctant to allow her six-year-old daughter, T, to travel to California to visit her father for the summer for multiple reasons, but her biggest fear was that her ex-boyfriend, Justin Manty, wouldn’t return T for the school year. Sheehan had worked to secure admission to a private school for T, and did not want her to attend public schools – especially in California. Once Manty agreed to sign a notarized document agreeing that T would attend school in Nevada, which would necessitate him returning her to Sheehan, she relented. Both parties signed the agreement, dated May 24, 2021.

The first paragraph of section 5 states:

Justin Manty has agreed to pay costs of private school tuition. Both parents have agreed to the child’s school attendance at American Heritage Academy in Henderson, Nevada, in the absence of any unforeseen circumstances such as non-acceptance to the school.

In an interview with RedState, Sheehan said that T was accepted to the school and an academic testing date was set, but that Manty refused most communications during the summer and failed to have T attend the academic testing. In early August Manty informed her that he had no intention of returning their daughter for school, and within days of that Sheehan filed a custody case in Nevada asking for T’s return. As anyone who has been involved in family law cases knows, getting any type of resolution can take a long time, but the multi-state factor makes it even slower. More than a month later Manty filed a custody case in California but failed to serve Sheehan; on October 20 a California judge deferred jurisdiction to Nevada, but the Nevada court still has a jurisdiction hearing scheduled…. (Excerpts from Red State)