Who is Micheline Epstein? NY doctor separated from daughter, 6, after refusing to wear mask outside school
A New York City family physician has claimed she was forcefully separated from her 6-year-old daughter and that a judge ordered her to wear a mask even inside her home if she wanted supervised visits from her child.
In an interview with Gateway Pundit, Dr. Micheline Epstein claimed that when she went to drop her daughter off at the Birch Wathen Lenox School on the Upper East Side last week, the school nurse and school security attempted to force her to wear a mask on the public street in front of the building. At the time, she said that her daughter was already inside the school building and was wearing a mask.
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When Epstein refused to put on a face covering, the school nurse came out and started demanding that she put on one. Since she was already leaving the spot, she again refused to put on a mask. “The next thing I know, my daughter is taken away from me,” she said. Dr. Epstein’s boyfriend Jeff Guttenplan corroborated her account of the incident. "No one got physical or anything, she just refused to wear the mask. They were outside on the public sidewalk,” he said, adding that her daughter was wearing a mask because she was required to go inside the school premises.
According to the outlet, Dr. Epstein was separated from her daughter’s father and the divorce was not a smooth one. They had a shared custody agreement, according to which, the six-year-old split her time between the two homes equally. Following the confrontation at the school, Epstein said she received a letter from her daughter's school telling her that she was no longer permitted to drop off or pick up her child from the school. The same letter was forwarded to her estranged husband and the attorneys for both the parties.
Apparently, after that, the child's father used the notice about the mask situation to request an emergency hearing for full custody. This was granted by Justice Matthew F. Cooper. "She’s the love of my life,” Epstein said. “It’s horrible. Please help us.”
The court has also reportedly decided that the mother was not permitted to remove her daughter from the school and that she did not have a choice in the matter. Epstein also added that on Tuesday, which was her daughter's birthday, she was not permitted to see or even speak to her child. The court has mandated that she will be allowed two supervised visits with her daughter per week provided that she wears a mask inside her own home.
“The only thing I want is for people to stand up already and stop with this nonsense,” Epstein said.
The physician has launched a GiveSendGo fundraiser to help cover the mounting legal expenses.
MEAWW can't verify the claims made in the original report