Kid Dumped
Apparently there’s a demand for places to ditch teens. Second one in a week. First one just crossed the river. This one drove from Michigan. Omaha World-Herald:
LINCOLN — A Michigan mother drove more than 700 miles to leave her 13-year-old boy in the middle of the night at an Omaha hospital — a place where the family had no ties.
What drew her, according to officials with the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services, was Nebraska’s unique safe haven law.
The teenager became the second child from another state to be left at a Nebraska hospital under the law, which sets no age limit on the children who can be left.
A 14-year-old Council Bluffs girl was left last week at Creighton. She has since been returned to her family.
The safe haven law, which took effect July 18, says people cannot be prosecuted in Nebraska for leaving a child with a hospital employee on duty. They can, however, be charged with other acts of abuse and neglect and can lose their parental rights.
In the Michigan case, a woman identifying herself as the boy’s mother left him at Creighton University Medical Center about 1:30 a.m. Monday, said Todd Landry, children and family services director for HHS. The family is from the Detroit area.
Landry said the boy’s mother remained in Nebraska on Monday afternoon and had talked with state officials at least twice.
HHS officials were still gathering and verifying information, but it appeared the family came to Nebraska specifically to drop off the teen, who has since been placed at an emergency shelter.
“Just like every other of the instances of safe haven use, the child does not appear to be and was not in any immediate danger of being harmed in any way,” Landry said.
He said he could not give information about why the family decided to make use of the safe haven law. He said that there was no indication the teen had violent tendencies and that he was not a state ward in Michigan.
The family likely found out about the Nebraska law through news coverage of the safe haven law. The law — and the mounting number of families making use of it — has drawn national and international attention.
Landry said HHS is working with Michigan officials and the Douglas County Attorney’s Office to resolve the latest situation as quickly as possible.
“We have made a formal report of the abandonment to the Michigan Department of Human Services,” he said. “Our focus remains on the safety of the child.”
Nebraska lawmakers fear what they have wrought. KETV:
Lawmakers are beginning to reconsider calling a special session to fix the law. They had originally opposed such action.
“If we see a deluge of children from out of state, then I think I might change my mind on that,” said Nebraska Sen. Bill Avery.
“I was a little bit shocked because it’s not Iowa,” Avery said. “It’s not a neighboring state.”
…
Nebraska’s unique Safe Haven law allows children as old as 18 to be abandoned without fear of prosecution.
Topics: kids, law & order, moms and dads
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 11:39 pm on Monday, October 13, 2008
3 Responses to “Kid Dumped”
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October 14th, 2008 at 11:15 am
To abandon an infant is sad enough, but at least they have nothing to remember. To abandon an older child, especially a young teen, is just tragic. The fact that the woman drove 700 miles to deliver her son to a place where she knew he’d be safe at least means she cares about him, and probably had a valid reason to do it (is sick and can’t support him, and there’s no reliable family to keep him, maybe). It’s none of our business, but it’s better than turning him out on a street corner.
October 14th, 2008 at 9:50 pm
Note this from the comments on the topic at a “women’s issues” blog:
“This is perhaps just another canary in the mineshaft of just how tight and tense our world - especially financially - is becoming.
If anything … these [open-ended] laws should be universal across the country.”
No doubt the writer’s a Democrat, and is looking forward to a Barack Obama administration.
October 15th, 2008 at 11:27 pm
Rebecca, the fact that the woman drove 700 miles to dump her child tells me she determined, and knew she would get away with it.
…And turning him out on a street corner is better than cracking his skull with a baseball bat, but that doesn’t mean the street corner is a good idea.