The Abandoned Children of Nebraska

[babylonsister]

The Abandoned Children of Nebraska
By Karen Ball Saturday, Nov. 15, 2008


There are a couple of ways law-abiding citizens can abandon children in Nebraska. Sometimes a desperate parent will tell the child they're going to the hospital for something minor, like a rash — then, in the emergency room, the child waits and waits, only to discover only the doctors are there and mother has walked away for good. On the other hand, unruly teenagers might simply be dumped at the ER door. "A parent will pull up and say, 'All right, get out of the car," says Lisa Stites of Creighton University Medical Center in Omaha. In other states, laws that allow parents to leave their children in hospitals or fire stations are usually limited to newborns of a few weeks or months. In Nebraska, the law failed to define the word "child." As a result, children as old as 17 have been abandoned.

Not just one or two. Nebraska found itself facing an epidemic of abandoned children after the legislature passed a safe haven law in July, allowing parents to leave their children in a safe place, such as a hospital, without fear of prosecution. It was one of the last states in the country to do so but the law had that very large loophole that covered all of childhood. To try to patch that loophole, the state legislature gathered Friday in a special session to begin fixing the state's "safe haven" law. Just the day before, three more kids were abandoned at Omaha hospitals — bringing the total to 34 since mid-September, shortly after the state law was passed. A five-year-old boy was left by his mom on Thursday night; two teen-age girls, 14 and 17, were dropped off earlier the same day. The older of the girls ran away from the ER before authorities could arrive. A Florida man traveled from Miami to drop his 11-year-old boy earlier this week.

But while Nebraska can easily narrow its statute, dealing with the underlying causes of abandonment is much harder, child welfare experts say. "These parents had to be totally overwhelmed to do something like this," says Rev. Steven Boes, president of Boys Town — the original safe haven of Father Flanagan fame, which happens to be headquartered in Omaha. Once upon a time, Depression-battered parents would buy bus fare for their children and hand them a sign, "Take Me to Boys Town." Their counterparts today "are parents who have tried to navigate the system for years and this is their last resort; these are parents who ran out of patience too darn fast and gave up too early, and everything in between," says Father Boes.

For each abandonment, there are just as many parents who arrive at the safe haven but, in the end, don't carry through, says Courtney Anderson of the Immanuel Medical Center in Omaha. As a medical social worker, she has been on duty in the ER when some of the abandonments unfolded. "Some parents want us to threaten the child — they feel that would set them straight." Some parents cry; others are merely angry. Some children begin to cry when they figure out what's going on, says Anderson, while others are hardened veterans of the foster care system and "are used to these ups and downs."

Five of the children abandoned in Nebraska have been from out of state, but most are local. A majority of the children are older than 13 and have a history of being treated for mental health issues. Nearly every abandoned child came from a single-parent household. In September, one father walked into a hospital and left nine children, ages one to 17. He reportedly told hospital workers he'd been overwhelmed since his wife died a few days after their youngest was born.

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http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1859405,00.html

[TankLV]

1. I don't understand WHY the law needs to be "changed"...these CHILDREN are in TROUBLE!

THREE DAYS or SEVENTEEN YEARS old, they need HELP and HELP NOW!

If they change the law, and FORCE these CHILDREN back to UNWANTED homes or homes where their parent(s) can NO LONGER CARE FOR THEM PROPERLY, these CHILDREN will be a GREAT RISK to their LIVES!

Why can't these Nebraska yahoos SEE this?!?!

It's that fucking RIGHT WING WACKO RELIGIOUS CONSERVATIVE REPUKE mindset of SAVE THE UNBORN but FUCK THEM ALL ONCE THEIR BORN, THEY'RE ON THEIR OWN attitude in play for all to see REAL LARGE!

This is all a DIRECT result of FAILED REPUKE POLICIES and the CONSERVATIVE MINDSET that has prevailed for the past TWENTY YEARS!!!

[acmavm]

2. This is one of the most horrible and heartbreaking situations that I've

ever heard of and the truth is that a change of the law isn't going to help anyone, not if that's all we do. A change in the way we deal with families and their problems is the only thing that can really help these families. Aid and support for families in trouble is the way to go. Help them find counseling, help them financially, help them get mental health treatment for the children and the parents. People see the number 34 and are freaking out like all of a sudden people are just converging on the state and dumping off kids by the carload. That's crazy. 34 is not a deluge of humanity being dumped here. But it is most certainly enough to prove that we have problems in this country and that we need to work on the cause, not establish a bullshit 'cure' that involves the abandonment of children.

We need to work on the root problems, help these kids and their parents solve their problems. I fully realize that in some cases it's better for the kid to be left in a 'safe' environment. That goes without saying. But if there's a chance that these kids and their families can be helped, where abandonment is not seen as a cure for whatever the problems are, we need to try to find that solution.

As for abandoned newborns, that's just another sad tale. But America has to come to the realization that we've lost our way. That babies are not disposable like the diapers we put them in. We need to ramp up programs to prevent unwanted pregnancies, and I don't mean this abstinence crap. I have no problem with telling kids they need to wait until marriage or whatever family situation they can find that would allow them to raise their child in safety and security. But I'm not stupid enough to believe for one minute that abstinence is ever going to be an effective policy to prevent unwanted births. That's stupid. GIVE ANYONE WHO WANTS IT BIRTH CONTROL, NO QUESTIONS ASKED. And don't abandon these babies once they're born. That's when the mother/father and their families really need our help. That's when, as a nation, we need to show we are really committed to helping the young, the poor, and those poor children born into less than what we see as 'ideal' situations (a mommy and a daddy and the assets necessary to adequately raise a child). If we want to continue to claim the moral high road, we need to finally start walking down it as a people, as a community, as a nation.