Sadia Loeliger and her 16 year-old daughter Fatima were key figures in PBS's Breaking the Silence: Children's Stories. The film purports to detail an alleged crisis of fit mothers losing custody of their children to violent husbands in divorce.  In the film, Sadia is portrayed as the victim of anti-mother bias in family courts.

The documents were revealed by Los Angeles-based newspaper columnist Glenn Sacks, who has helped lead a protest of the show, and Scott Loeliger, Fatima’s father who was divorced from Sadia in 1991.  According to Sacks:

"It’s amazing that PBS and the filmmakers decided--despite repeated warnings--to nationally televise Sadia and her claims. Not only were there clear Juvenile Court findings of her abuse of Fatima and also of Fatima's cousin Sara, who lived with Sadia, but we have extensive testimony from Sadia's babysitter, Sara, and several mental health professionals about Sadia's violence. The filmmakers put a child [Fatima] in an extremely difficult position."

Doris Nava Arellano, Sadia's babysitter for 18 months, testified that "every child in the house is afraid" of Sadia and that “Sara actually has scars on the back of her legs and on the left side of her head from Ms. Ali-Loeliger's attacks on her.”

Sara, then aged 15, penned a desperate letter detailing the abuse she suffered at Sadia's hands, writing “she hits in front of anyone anywhere with anything. I fear for my life sometimes. Just recently she hit me in the head.”

In the documents--posted on Sacks' website at www.glennsacks.com/pbs --Sadia is portrayed by numerous mental health, judicial and investigative authorities as violent and abusive towards the children under her care.

A child abuse investigator for Tehama County wrote that Fatima, then age eight, "says she is afraid to go home because she fears being hit again. She also expressed concern for the two other female minors in her mother's residence."

A therapist who conducted investigations for Shasta County Child Protective Services wrote that Fatima "told me she did not want to go home because she was afraid her mother was going to hit her."

Another therapist wrote "On two separate occasions this child reported to me that she was burned 'with a match' by her mother, Sadia Ali Loeliger....I am extremely concerned regarding this child's welfare."

Among the documents revealed are a series of letters, written to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Breaking the Silence co-producers Tatge-Lasseur Productions and Connecticut Public Broadcasting, informing them of Sadia's history of child abuse.  The letters were written earlier this year by Scott Loeliger, a Northern California physician, and his attorney Dennis Roberts. They asked that footage of Scott’s daughter Fatima be excluded from the film. Despite this, PBS went forward with the broadcast, including the sections featuring Sadia and Fatima.

Breaking the Silence is already the source of considerable controversy. At the instigation of Sacks, Fathers and Families, Help Stop PAS Inc., the American Coalition for Fathers & Children, and others, PBS and its affiliates have been flooded with over 10,000 calls and letters protesting the show. Sacks calls the show a "direct assault on fatherhood" which "portrays fathers as batterers and child molesters who steal children from their mothers." 

Holstein, President of Fathers and Families, says:

"A few groups are concerned about the accelerating trend towards joint custody of children, and are striking back by accusing most fathers who seek custody of being batterers and child abusers. It's a shame PBS has dispensed with objective reporting and chosen to air an extremist point of view without looking at the political motives of the advocates it features.”

Sacks adds:

“It’s a shame they didn’t check the backgrounds of the mothers they chose to lionize more carefully, too."