The situation in Iowa is something I’ve written about before, see First Nations peoples continue to decry the ongoing stealing of their children for adoption. There has been an ongoing activism campaign by Native Peoples around this issue for years there.

In the past month or so there has been some new coverage and important new developments.

Testimony was given to the recently created Iowa Commission on Native American Affairs during a two-day meeting at Four Directions Community Center in Sioux City, Iowa as part of the lead in to a bill that is being drafted for the 2011 legislative session.

Stephanie Woodward’s article from last month  Moving forward on child welfare issues, and Iowa Commission Takes on Child-Welfare Morass (over on the dreadful HuffPo) should both simply be read in their entirety as they provide a solid backgrounder and lots of important details.

This from the “Moving forward” piece perhaps sums the situation up best:

LaMere described the child welfare system as a “minefield” and stressed the problem’s pervasiveness. “Almost all our area families are touched. Hardly a day goes by at Four Directions when someone doesn’t contact us to say they’ve lost parental rights.”

I’m not going to even try to start pulling any further quotes out of the two pieces, just go read them.

The DesMoines Register also had a piece earlier this week, Iowa panel crafts bill addressing American Indian parental rights.

A state commission plans to introduce a bill during the 2011 legislative session that would provide a pathway to restore parental rights to Native American parents who have lost children through Iowa’s child-welfare system.

The proposal comes after a number of native families and advocates again voiced dissatisfaction with the state’s high rate of removal of Indian children during a two-day hearing in September before the Iowa Commission on Native American Affairs.

The state has for years had a severe disproportion of Native American children removed from homes in and near Sioux City, home to the state’s largest Indian population. The issue gained new attention after an article on the commission summit was published last week in Indian Country Today and Wednesday on the Huffington Post website.

The bill being drafted for consideration is modeled after one passed in Illinois.

It would provide a process for parents to regain ties with children after their rights have been terminated, provided “they clean up their act,” said Rachel Scott, spokeswoman for Iowa’s Department of Human Rights. Parents could appeal to have their parental rights restored if children had not already been adopted.

Therein of course, lies the key, if the child has not already been adopted.

Makes one wonder just how quickly First Nations childrens’ adoptions are going to be handled in Iowa from here on in.

As always, the onus is being put on the parents to “clean up their act” rather than the state to explain why it’s circumventing and terminating so many Native families parental rights in the first place.

When a state’s Department of Human Rights is down to chiding Families to “clean up their act” one really has to wonder just whose rights they’re looking after?

We’ll have to wait and see what the legislation looks like when it’s finally presented, but label me skeptical.

Finally, also see this piece, Four Directions Community Center extends its reach, about the Community Center itself and its annual Memorial March to Honor Our Lost Children that I mentioned back in my earlier post.

Four Directions’ major annual event is the Memorial March to Honor Our Lost Children, held each year on the day before Thanksgiving. Walkers proceed from South Sioux City, Neb., across a bridge over the Missouri River to Sioux City, Iowa, calling attention to Native children caught in the child-welfare system, including several who died while placed with foster or adoptive families.

…

Recent events at Four Directions included a two-day meeting of the Iowa Commission on Native American Affairs, a group of gubernatorial appointees that includes Yellowbank. The subject of the first day was child welfare and featured a training session by Indian Child Welfare Act specialist Allison Lasley, Meskwaki, who explained ICWA provisions for commissioners and invited guests, including Iowa human rights director Preston Daniels, a representative of the governor’s office, and members of the Native American Unit of the state’s department of human services.

When he was finally rescued back on September 17th at 6 years old, the boy weighed a mere 30lbs, a pound less than he did at the time of his adoption  at age 3.

Upon examination, authorities found marks and bruises on the boy’s body, marks that potentially could have been made by belt buckles found in the Arnold’s house.

Initially Christine Arnold had called 911 claiming the boy had fallen down the stairs, rendering him unconscious. When first responders found “bruises and abrasions all over his body,” in various states of healing, physical evidence inconsistent with Mrs. Arnold’s story, police we brought in and both adopters were taken to jail in suspicions of child abuse. They bonded out, with an initial court appearance where formal charges were heard on September 30th.

Pound Pup Legacy has a good round up of some of the articles to date, see PPL’s page on the case, Boy adopted by Randal and Christine Arnold and the link to a PDF copy of the arrest warrant.

This video segment from 9NEWS.com, the local NBC affiliate, is from Wednesday September 29th, just prior to their Thursday Sept. 30th court appearance. In it, there is mention of previous attempts to report on the boys condition that may or may not have resulted in an investigation at the time, but either way, the boy was left with the Arnolds.

Affidavit: Parents accused of starving, beating child with belt

The affidavit says the medical staff at Littleton Hospital Emergency Room determined the boy had blood on his brain and his brain was swelling.

A doctor at the hospital says the boy suffered from “serious bodily injury” and “severe malnutrition.” The boy also suffered from various straight line, u-shaped and horseshoe type markings across his body consistent with the buckle of a belt found at the house, according to the affidavit.

The affidavit reports the Arnolds took custody of the boy on a foster-to-adopt program when he was two and a half years old. That adoption was completed in 2006, according to the affidavit.

According to Jefferson County Social Services, the boy was examined prior to his adoption and was measured and weighed. In 2006, the boy was in the fifty to seventy five percentiles for his height and weight. At age 3, he weighed 31 pounds. On September 17, 2010, the boy weighed 30 pounds at the age of 6, according to the affidavit.

This Fox piece also contains a bit of follow up on those earlier suspicions:

Investigators determined that the principal at the child’s school, Columbine Hills Elementary, actually called police and social services before when the child came to school with stitches in his lip.

It is unclear why no action was taken at that time.

Jefferson County Schools did not return our call seeking their comment.

Finally, this ABC 7 article and video contain some further details and an update on the boy’s condition as of about a week ago, Parents Of 30-Pound 6-Year-Old Arrested On Abuse Charges:

The boy was taken to Littleton Adventist Hospital and then transferred to Children’s Hospital in Aurora.

No doubt these statements will be key as this goes to trial:

The boy’s mother, identified in the affidavit as Christine Arnold, told investigators that she was cooking and her son was playing near the stairs when she heard a crash and found him at the bottom of the stairs.

The boy’s father, Randal Arnold, said he didn’t see any injuries on his son prior to seeing him in the hospital the day paramedics were called to the house.

Investigators said Randal Arnold’s statement was at odds with a phone call he made to Columbine Hills Elementary School the day before, telling the school that his son had fallen out of bed and had “banged his head.”

After being rescued, he appears to be doing better and gaining some weight.

The hospital said the boy gained 5 pounds in five days while he was at the hospital.

As for conditions in the home and the boy’s story of his life in the Arnold’s house:

During a subsequent interview, the boy told a forensic interviewer that he didn’t have any toys except for the ones that were in the basement and he had to ask to play with them. The boy said he ate breakfast and dinner in the kitchen alone and that his parents ate at a different time.

Investigators examined the boy’s room and described it as “relatively sparse,” containing a bed with a top and bottom sheet, no blanket and no pillow, two dressers and some pictures on the wall. There was a sliding chain lock on the outside of the door to the boy’s room, according to the affidavit.

The piece also contains a bit more detail about the charges and bond:

The Arnolds were arrested on Friday on suspicion of child abuse causing serious bodily injury and cruelty toward a child knowingly or recklessly causing injury, according to state arrest records. They were held without bond over the weekend.

The couple made their first court appearance Monday, where their bond was set at $25,000 each and they bonded out. They are scheduled to be formally charged on Thursday, according to Pam Russell, spokeswoman for the Jefferson County District Attorney’s Office.

If there were questions and potential signs of abuse earlier, this raises real questions of what if any, follow up social services and the Littleton, Colorado police took and how the decision to leave the boy with the Arnolds was arrived at.

As this goes to trial, the paper trail will be important to examine carefully.

See this article, Assigned to check abuse, social worker impregnates client, from last Thursday’s Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Also note that Theola Nealy’s older children who have since been removed from her custody, and are currently in foster care.

Nealy claimed in an interview that she agreed to have sex with Nelsen because he told her he could help her prevent the bureau from removing two remaining children from her home, a claim Nelsen denies.

“That is 100% not true,” he said.

***

Obviously, there have been a torrent of articles, media interviews etc about the “Adam Herrman” / Irvin Groeninger III case. I’ve been combing through such trying pull out some of what actually matters. This is my second post about the boy. New readers will want to first read through that initial posting, Adam Herrman- homeschooled and gone missing for years, parents continued to receive subsidies.

***

KWCH has a useful set of profiles to help readers keep all the various personalities in the Adam Herrman story straight:

Adam Herrman’s Family

To that, readers can also add this article, Adam Herrman Missing: Biological Mother Speaks, in which Gerri George is identified as Adam’s mother. She recalls how her parental rights were terminated:

She said, “I didn’t exactly give him up. They kept — the county kept throwing my past of what my parents did to me. And they more or less said that I would repeat history again with my own children. And it seems like they’re the ones who are repeating the history of what my parents did to me. But they’re doing it with my own kids.

Both of his parents Gerri and Irvin were interviewed on Larry King Live, on Jan 7th. Separately, later on in the broadcast the Herrman’s lawyer was on as well.

The boy’s father brings up what should have been obvious:

GROENINGER: Right. Yes. I’ve got all kinds of questions about that, how a doctor whose seen him during his first 11 years didn’t — all of a sudden, you know, he ain’t showing up for doctor visits anymore. He ain’t showing up for dentist visits anymore. They said he was under psychiatric care. He’s not showing up for psychiatric care anymore. Somebody had to miss him.

Adam had originally been named Irvin Groeninger III. According to his mother, he apparently entered state custody around age 2.

“I had been a little bit not exactly a good parent,” she said, adding she had left a bruise on an older child.

Still, she said, she did her best to give her children a good home. She last saw her son when he was about 4.

Adam’s older biological sister, Tiffany Broadfoot, now 22 and living in Wichita, lived for a time with Adam’s adoptive family before being adopted by someone else.

Broadfoot remembers Adam having dark, almost curly hair and “this cute, really round face.” She last saw him at a birthday party when he was 5 or 6.

Over the years, she said, she called the adoptive mother to ask how he was doing.

At first, Broadfoot said, the adoptive mother said Adam was OK. But about three years ago, she said, the woman asked her not to call again because she didn’t want Adam and two younger siblings to know they were adopted.

Broadfoot tried again, without success, to contact Adam last year, she said.

Then last month, she said, her biological father called and said, “Are you sitting down? Because I need to talk to you.”

He said a detective told him that Adam had been missing since 1999.

“He (the detective) said he’s been missing nine years, and that just blew my mind,” Groeninger said.

(Emphasis added)

I detailed Tiffany’s brief stay with the Herrmans in my first post about Irvin/Adam. As I pointed out there, it appears to have been the Herrman’s biological daughter’s tip that kicked off the investigation, see Missing boy’s sister was one who called officials.

So according to Broadfoot, Valerie Herrman was at least saying she wanted to keep the fact of the kids’ adoptions from them, and utilized such as an excuse to try to make his sister stop attempting contact him. She was saying this three years ago, or approximately 6 years after his “disappearance.” Adoption secrecy makes a great excuse to never have to put the kid on the phone.

While his sister was being stonewalled later on, his adopted aunt, Kim Winslow saw him at least a few times over the years while the boy was still with the Herrmans. Her recounting of the final time she saw him, locked in chains in the bathroom, no one bringing him food or water over the course of hours really makes one wonder how the hell she never one contacted the authorities in light of what she and other family members were seeing.

I STRONGLY urge readers to watch the full video interview with Winslow on the video link here, Missing Boy’s Aunt Regrets Not Reporting Abuse.

There can be no excuse for not reporting, when you see a kid locked up like that you don’t sit back and watch the game and socialize. You don’t pretend everything ok, or that a child chained up like that could ever be any semblance of “normal”.

I don’t particularly care what quack pseudo-diagnosis (see For the Last Time, “Attachment Disorder” DOES NOT EXIST!) a kid has been labeled with,

Psychiatrists said Adam was either bipolar or schizophrenic or suffering from attachment disorder, they said.

Nor do I care that the Herrmans’ claim they kept him locked in the bathroom on the “advice of a psychiatrist.” There can simply be no excuse for pretending the kid locked away like that does not warrant at minimum a phone call to the local police.

But despite article after article now discussing “regrets” and discomfort, etc, that call that would have led to his rescue never came.

As to who precisely is to blame here, I don’t think we have a firm enough grasp on what happened to pinpoint responsibility just yet, but I do think someone should be looking at not only the relatives some of whom were aware of the boy’s plight and yet did nothing, but also whether or not “attachment” quackery played a role in his suffering, as it has in a number of adoptees’ deaths to date.

Herrman later explained Adam’s disappearance away as him having gone back into the child welfare system, and thus family members such as Winslow made the erroneous assumption that he was “safe.” While this was perhaps an excuse in line with the Herrman’s previous history with Irvin/Adam’s biological sister having been removed from the Herrman home, (see Adoptive mother denies she abused missing boy.)

At one point when Adam was younger, around 1990 or 1991, the Herrmans said they lost their foster care license after an investigation, which they declined to discuss in detail. They said authorities removed one of Adam’s younger sisters, then about 2, but said she was not removed because of child abuse.

It is still yet another of those adoption related excuses/lies that made it easier for friends and family to excuse the boy’s absence.

Herrman’s former sister in law, Linda Bush described the excuse thusly:

Bush said the Herrmans told other family members that they had turned Adam back to the Department of Social and Rehabilitative Services. She said she had no reason to believe otherwise because the couple had other foster children who went back to state custody.

“They had turned other children back, whether voluntary or mandated,” Bush said. “Nobody had any reason to disbelieve. Who would think of something so heinous happening? Nobody did.”

Irvin/Adam’s adoption saga is very much in line with what many foster/adoption kids experience.

Born in born in Wichita in June 1987, he was removed from his parents’ custody after his mother bruised an older child, his parents were divorced. At about age 2, Irvin came to live with the Herrmans first as a foster child, then later her was adopted and renamed Adam.

His father, tried to regain custody, but despite being cleared of any wrongdoing, his parental rights were terminated (see this good AP story from 2 days ago, Boy’s 1999 disappearance raises questions, regrets.)

The boy’s biological father, Irvin Groeninger II, also expressed regret. The Indiana trucker was divorced when authorities took Adam and his siblings from their mother’s home after alleged abuse. He says he was cleared of any wrongdoing and tried to get custody of his children, but child welfare officials terminated his parental rights.

“Basically, I have lost him twice,” Groeninger said.

The boy — whom he knows only by his birth name of Irvin Groeninger III — was 18 months old when Groeninger last saw him. He had hoped his son would try to contact him when he was old enough to search for his biological family.

He says he wishes he could tell his son: “I love him and I wish I had fought harder back then to get him and keep him in my custody.”

While Adam and two younger siblings were adopted by the Herrmans, Adam’s older biological sister, Tiffany Broadfoot, was adopted by another Wichita family. Broadfoot has not seen her brother since a birthday party when he was 7 or 8 years old.

Broadfoot said the first time she called Adam’s adoptive mother she was told everything was fine and Adam was doing well. Other times she was told not to call again because Adam and his siblings did not know they were adopted.

In August or September, she called Valerie Herrman again. “The last time I talked to her she was very in my face and very adamant: `You have no business calling here. You have no right. That is not your family. Don’t call here. Don’t talk to us. Don’t do anything. That is not your concern. Back off,’” Broadfoot said.

Naturally, as the boy had been missing for the past 9 years, Broadfoot’s call last August or September apparently unleashed quite a reaction.

The same article contains yet another account, this time from Linda Bush, of how Valerie Herrman mistreated Irvin:

Linda Bush, a former sister-in-law of Valerie Herrman, remembered Adam as a timid little boy. She has not seen him since he was at least 6 years old.

“He wasn’t boisterous, running around making a lot of noise like other children. And he stared a lot. That was strange,” Bush said. “He gave me the creeps sometimes because he would stare. But it was nothing to hate him for.”

Bush said she remembered Valerie Herrman telling the boy he was stupid.

“It was the tone. It was constant. She constantly berated him and put him down, a hateful tone,” Bush said. “It was constant and we couldn’t figure out what that boy had ever done to make her hate him like that.”

The Herrmans did not treat Adam’s two younger siblings the same way, she said.

In my initial post, I brought up the repeated accounts of “missed opportunities.” While we have multiple perspectives/police statement from relatives admitting they failed to report what the boy was enduring:

Winslow, now living outside the Wichita area, and some of Herrman’s other close relatives said they saw Herrman abuse Adam other times over the years but for the most part didn’t report it and now feel terrible that he is missing.

There were also instances where clearly there was some interaction with external authorities, only one of which seems to have resulted in the Herrman’s losing the boy, and in that case, he was removed for a mere two days:

• “In at least one instance, a relative reported alleged abuse to authorities.” from Relatives say missing Butler County boy was abused
• “Justin Herrman said he called to report it and Derby police officers came to the home. But he said his mother persuaded him to tell the police that he lied. He said the officers lectured him about lying and left.” also from Relatives say missing Butler County boy was abused
• “In the Christmas Eve conversation, Valerie Herrman told her former sister-in-law “that she beat Adam once with a belt” and that Valerie had gone into her room and cried about it, remorseful. … Bush said Valerie Herrman told her that that after she used the belt, someone at Adam’s school saw bruises, and authorities were called to investigate.” also from Relatives say missing Butler County boy was abused
• “At one point when Adam was younger, around 1990 or 1991, the Herrmans said they lost their foster care license after an investigation, which they declined to discuss in detail.” from Adoptive mother denies she abused missing boy
• “Around 1996, she said, she spanked Adam with a belt, and his psychological counselor saw bruises and called police. … Adam went to the Wichita Children’s Home for two days, then came home, she said. … Doug Herrman said: “I don’t think they felt he was in any danger. They just told us we couldn’t discipline him with a belt.” also from Adoptive mother denies she abused missing boy

Within the past 24 hours, articles such as these have come out, I’d advise readers go through all three:

• Police & SRS Investigations Cleared Herrmans Of Abuse
• Investigators Found No Abuse at Missing Boy’s Home
• Missing Kan. boy was once briefly in state custody

The first article includes:

Since the news of Adam’s disappearance several weeks ago, Ponce says the agency is now involved in a full-scale review and investigation of both Adam’s and the Herrman’s history with SRS. Ponce says that includes a review of how the Herrman’s were able to continue receiving state subsidies for Adam’s adoption years after he vanished.

The third article, we also find details of the state subsidies:

The Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services confirmed Thursday that the Herrmans continued to receive adoption subsidy payments for Adam after he was missing, but the agency could not immediately determine how much. The department said it was researching the case.

Such subsidies generally are given in situations where the children are difficult to place or in cases in which several siblings are adopted by the same family, she said.

The Herrmans adopted Adam and two of his younger siblings, family members have said.

Families receiving adoption subsidies are required to file a yearly report to verify ongoing legal and financial responsibility for the child, she said.

“If there were a situation in which an individual would knowingly supply false information to the state in order to receive benefits, that is a crime,” Ponce said.

***

Please see these two action alerts on what can still be done about the Nebraska dump law, there is still time to demand nothing short of a full repeal/age it down to Zero!

• Bastard Nation Action Alert- URGENT: REPEAL NEBRASKA LB 157. STOP CHILD DUMPING!
• End of Tuesday’s session- contact legislators ASAP

***

See the Omaha World-Herald article, Hall County teen is 36th ’safe haven’ dropoff.

A 15-year-old girl has been dropped off at St. Francis Medical Center in Grand Island — the latest child left under Nebraska’s safe-haven law.

The Hall County teenager was taken to the hospital Tuesday afternoon by her guardian, a relative, says Todd Landry, director of children and family services for the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services.

She’s in a foster home now, Landry says.

She is number kid number 36 in the Nebraska DHHS official tabulation (link opens a PDF) but the 45th “safe haven” related case if you count the 12 “attempts” Marley and I have documented to date. These uncounted cases in the NE DHHS tabulation included “Self havens” i.e. kids who have turned themselves in under the safe haven law only to be turned away, 18 year olds and others.

Here is the Nebraska DHHS press release (link opens a PDF) about the incident.

While “debate” continues inside the Capitol’s halls, kids continue to be dumped outside the walls…

…and at least one teen whose parent attempted to dump her is still on the run. to the best of my knowledge she hasn’t been found yet. (I hope to find time to blog about her separately, later.)

Again, I urge readers to contact the Nebraska legislators and call for and end to all child dumping in Nebraska.

***

Another day, another out of state dump, this time, a boy from Florida.

The AP has an article out, just a couple hours old at this point, 11-year-old boy is 31st Nebraska ’safe haven’ case.

 Todd Landry, director of children and family services for the Department of Health and Human Services, said the boy’s father left him at Boys Town National Research Hospital on Wednesday afternoon.

The latest Nebraska DHHS summary of the officially counted dump cases (link opens a PDF) lists the boy as being from Miami-Dade County, FL. How he was transported to Nebraska remains to be seen.

***

Also, here on the eve of the beginning of the special session, Nebraska DHHS has compiled a chart detailing some basic statistics on their official count (link opens a PDF) now at 31 though the chart only covers the first 30 .

The chart while not counting a number of attempted “safe haven” and self “haven” cases, is still an incredibly useful tool.

For example, we learn 11 of the 30 were either adopted/guardianship or relative placements, what I had been terming “returns department” dumps. 17 of the kids have been previously or currently are state wards.

28 of the kids have endured prior allegation(s) of abuse neglect.

Perhaps most importantly, NONE of these kids were at risk of immediate harm.

The chart shows check marks alongside all 30 kids as assessed as safe from immediate harm, though the tabulation at the bottom of the page reads 29 instead of all 30. If the raison d’etre for the dump law was to protect kids from immediate harm, the Nebraska case study shows a unanimous failure.

27 of the kids had experienced some level of prior mental health services. 7 had had prior mental health treatment listed as “higher than outpatient”.

27 of the kids came from single parent homes.

As to the dumps themselves, 25 of them came in on weekends after 4pm. (this was precisely the pattern Marley/Bastardette and I were noting.)

Currently

• 11 are in foster care
• 8 are in a relative’s home
• 6 are in the temporary emergency shelter
• 2 are in hospitals
• 1 is in a group home (* see below)
• 1 is in a treatment group home
• and one kid has returned to their own home

Going by the check marks on the chart, 9 are classified as “Black, 1 is classified as “White/Native”, and 20 are classified as “White”, and “. (The summary at the bottom of the chart says “8 Black, 1 White/Native, 20 White” which only adds up to 29, not 30.)

(I’m unclear on how the Staton kids are being classified, apparently as mostly “White” though that has been an important question, see my piece Nebraska- the Staton abandonment and the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) for further discussion of such and how the Staton abandonment raises questions of Nebraska’s ICWA obligations.)

Both Marley/Bastardette and I have been working up our own tabulations statistically, particularly as relating to the number of child dumps that Nebraska is refusing to count in the official tally.

The official count now stands at 31, our count now stands at 42. (See my earlier piece Nebraska- another ghost in the machine dump (unoffical total 41, the official count reaches 30 for further details.) roughly 1/4 of the abandonment cases are not included in the state’s tally.

We had been tracking many of the same kinds of details about the case studies (whether in the official count or not,) particularly some of the outcomes on the out of state dumps and the 18 year olds.

Allow me a few examples to scratch the surface of just a few of the more interesting ‘undercounts’ and possibly incorrectly tabulated:

• The plight of the 18 year old uncounted Grand Island self “haven” boy- Therapist: Safe-haven hubbub shows families need respite help
• * The Iowa dumpee who after being shipped back to Iowa by Nebraska (a “return to sender” out of state dump) went on to become a teen runaway, Girl now a runaway after safe-haven stint and ‘Safe haven’ runaway found, police say. Being 14, she was included in the official count, (she was the initial out of state dump case.) Nebraska shipped her back home to Iowa ASAP so as to avoid the precedent of out of state kids being able to land in the Nebraska system. You tell me, does it sound like she got the help she needed? As I don’t see ‘teen runaway’ under the options listed in the “current placement” column, she is clearly being counted as something else. The second article says she had been ” placed in a home for troubled youths” prior to running away, so perhaps she is still inaccurately being counted as being in a “group home?”
• Here, for example is yet another 18 year old abandonee left out, not in the official tabulation- Two more teenagers dropped off.

The list of examples goes on and on. My point is, many are not even in the stats and of those that are, Nebraska may for example think the Iowa girl is still in a group home outcome when in fact she’s been a runaway.

It’s a disaster, and the actual follow up with the kids seems to not fully be in place even on the 42 cases to date.

Perhaps Nebraska legislators would care to deal with the mess they’ve already created before they go creating yet still more (and a whole new class of) dumped kids?

Aging down to newborns under dump law 2.0 cannot and will not deal with the fundamental flaws and problems inherent to all legalized child abandonment laws.

***

Repeal the dump laws now.

Nebraska’s record of failure is no foundation to build upon.

***

Addendum- just as I came to the end of this post, I ran across the Omaha World-Herald’s piece, There are common threads in haven drop-offs. Apparently they’ve been crunching the numbers provided by the Nebraska DHHS as well.

According to the article:

HHS officials provided the analysis, along with a letter, to state senators Wednesday.

Here are the key sentences:

Nebraska’s law was intended to protect children in immediate danger of being harmed, Landry said in the letter to senators. The HHS analysis found no threat of immediate harm in any of the 30 cases.

and

“The role of the state’s child welfare system is to protect children who are fundamentally unsafe,” Landry said. “For children or youth who are otherwise safe, it is not the role of the state to intervene in a family’s life.”

So the only question that remains is, will Nebraska state legislators listen to those most intimately acquainted with the dump law;

• the kids themselves
• child welfare experts
• Nebraska’s own DHHS
• parents and other relatives
• adoptee rights experts
• First Nations peoples’ ICWA concerns
• etc

or will they continue on, closing their eyes, covering their ears, hell bent upon their fantasy of making the dump law “work?”

One can only hope cooler heads will prevail.

***

I’m going to work chronologically, (yet in inverse order from the Nebraska DHHS safe haven page’s latest press release.)

Firstly, there was another uncounted in the official tabulation dump the Sunday night:

In addition, there was a report that the safe haven law may have been used in Lincoln last night regarding an 18-year old. DHHS has investigated and confirmed with the Lancaster County Attorney’s Office that a juvenile petition will not be filed in this instance. As a result, Landry said DHHS does not consider this a use of the safe haven law, but is providing assistance to the young woman on a voluntary basis.

Once again, another 18-year old fell down the dump slot, 18 being that age that Nebraska won’t provide foster care etc to, nor count as an official dump, yet still legally classifies as a “child”, not yet an adult.

KCCI has a report, Another Teen Abandoned In Nebraska. She was another adoptee, “returns department” dump:

The woman told officials at BryanLGH Medical Center West that her daughter, who was adopted, is bipolar and has a learning disability, Assistant Police Chief Jim Peschong said Monday. The girl was left at the hospital at about 11 p.m.

“The adoptive mother says that the daughter refused to take some medication for some conditions that she has,” Peschong said. “She won’t listen to her, can’t control her.”

Marley/Bastardette has a post up about the incident as well, MORE NEBRASKA FIASCO: WOMAN ATTEMPTS TO DUMP ADOPTED DAUGHTER.

Her tabulation of the dumped adoptees, “returns department” dumps to date:

So far, one other dumpee has been confirmed as adopted, 2 others reported (but not confirmed) as kinship adopted. I believe there are more.

Then secondly, yesterday (Monday) morning, a 17 year old boy was abandoned. According to the Nebraska DHHS safe haven page’s latest press release, his mother left him off at Creighton University Medical Center. He is counted as the 30th officially counted dumped kid in the Nebraska DHHS count. (Link opens a PDF)

Both Marley and I have been tracking the number of kids not included in official Nebraska DHHS count as well. She’s found an additional 11 cases of what she’s terming “attempted dumps.”

So DHHS count aside, the kid-centric count, actually stands at at least 41.

As I’ve said before, mine is a Bastard blog. I care about what the kids themselves are experiencing. Some of the uncounted, “unofficially” dumped kids are every bit as separated from the world they once knew as any other counted dumped kid, they just don’t match the state’s dumper criteria or age limit criteria.

Some are self “haven” cases wherein the kids themselves have reached out for help, only to find no “haven” on the other end.

Those 11, roughly 1/4 of all the Nebraska dump cases are rendered invisible. The kids are treated as mere ghosts in the machine, the memories of their dumps kept alive only by those of us who continue to insist, they are no less dumped, they are no less in need.

Yet as Nebraska legislators gather to age down to the next version of dump law failure, a Nebraska dump law 2.0, a full quarter of the cases, a quarter of the dumped kids, will likely never even be considered, because they don’t apparently count.

***

Repeal the dump laws now.

For the moment, the ballots are still being counted.

According to a study by the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law, approximately 18,000 same-sex couples had married in California prior to the election. We don’t know the number of kids within those families and whether or not the constitutional amendment will or will not be applied retroactively to those couples and those kids, but the scale of the problem is daunting; the potential creation of thousands of “overnight bastards.”

If the law is applied retroactively, kids in Queer families will be stripped of their status as children of married couples and then reclassified as “illegitimate.”

Even if not applied retroactively, going forward, kids in Queer marriages from this point on in California will be treated as they are in most states as “illegitimate.” Florida and Arizona yesterday ensured that Queer couples’ kids there will not be treated as married couples kids as well.

Few people think of Queer couples’ kids as legally “illegitimate” yet that’s exactly how they are classified in states where Queers are barred by law from marrying. These kids are a huge almost invisible swath of modern bastardy.

While the term “bastard” is no longer in legal usage, it is certainly still in common parlance and I can think of few things more “bastardizing” than having the state dismantle your parents’ marriage via constitutional amendment in the wake of a ballot measure.

In other anti-Queer bastard related election news, Arkansas passed its measure prohibiting Queer couples or straight unmarried couples from adopting or fostering, thus doing an end run around the Arkansas Supreme Court ruling.

Naturally this will screw with parents’ ability to decide who will raise their kids. Take for example, a parent who wanted to place their child with a Lesbian aunt instead of a complete stranger. Now as Queers are legally prohibited from adopting in Arkansas, the aunt is now deemed “unqualified” to adopt, based purely upon the very nature of who and what she is.

Even beyond what these states have done to Queer couples with these insipid homophobic measures, these states are effectively sewing the scarlet “b” on kids raised by Queer couples.

This is one set of “pro-marriage,” “pro-family,” “pro-child” assholes, kids can do without. (Orwell must be spinning in his grave.)

***

(Note that throughout this piece, I use “bastard” (small “b”) as the social convention and “Bastard” (capital “B”) as a means of political expression. See my (capital “B”) Bastard definition over here.)

Also note that I’m Queer. I support Queer Nation’s concept of “full spousal equivalency” rather than “gay marriage.” If you’re really all that interested in my views on such, wander of to my dKos diary over here, though note, my relationship with my ex-wife has changed quite a bit since this piece was written.

***

So I’m behind but trying to catch up.

Tuesday another teen showed up at a hospital turning herself in under Nebraska’s “safe haven” law. Making this the second “self haven” case. See Teen Cites Safe Haven.

Tuesday night the teenage mom walked into the hospital after she says her mom hit her and kicked her out. The North High sophmore also claims her mom steals her welfare checks, meant for the baby. The teen’s mother insists she’s never abused her daughter or taken her money. “I shouldn’t have to explain my financial situation to anyone, even my child, as long as she got a roof over her head. She’s not neglected, she eats whenever she wants to, she take a bath whenever she wants to. Her job is to go to school and come home and take care of her child, now that she has a child,” says Portia Crawford.

Crawford claims this whole thing started over a fight with her daughter who wanted to go out for the night and leave her baby.

This is the second teen who has turned themselves in, the first was back on September 22rd, an 18 year old boy who walked into Grand Island hospital. He was turned away as too old for foster care and given a referral to services, whatever that entailed.

The news story continues:

A petition was filed to charge Crawford with neglect, her daughter is not protected under safe haven.

Welcome to the grand irony of Nebraska’s “safe haven” law, anyone with physical custody of a kid when dumping is protected under the law, but kids themselves trying to access help are not.

Neither of the two teens are being counted in Nebraska DHHS’s official dump statistics (link opens a PDF.) This is important, as clearly these self “havens” are falling through the cracks. As they simply fall out of the history, no one can get a handle on what’s been happening. They’re absolutely happening, but hidden.

The local news, for example knew nothing of the earlier instance. (Should we sooner or later expect yet a third “bizarre new twist” story when another kid does the same?)

No age is reported on the girl beyond “sophomore” and “teen,” but we can safely assume she would likely fall within the age range covered by the law.

The bottom line is these two have become invisible self “havens”. Ghosts in the machine.

Nebraska thinks these kids don’t count.

Perhaps most importantly, despite asking for help under the law, there is no “haven” on the other end for them.

Then Wednesday, another kid was abandoned at Immanuel Hospital in Omaha, a 17-year old boy.

See, Another Safe Haven Drop in Omaha

and

KETV’s New ‘Safe Haven’ Teen Has Criminal Record

Investigators said it appears to be a case involving a mother who decided she could no longer handle her teenage son.

and

According to juvenile court records, the mother told a social worker that her son “needed to be a state ward now.” She said she was exercising her right under the Safe Haven law.

Perhaps one of the more interesting details in the piece is the boy’s lack of educational history:

Omaha Public Schools said her son has never been enrolled in a district school, even though he lives in the district.

Whether this means the boy was home schooled or in a private school or simply never educated at all remains to be seen.

Once again, we have those actually dealing with the practical application of the dump laws unhappy with the lack of preventative structures long before a kid reaches a dump site:

“There needs to be a better way to address these issues,” said assistant Douglas County attorney Nicole Goaley. “I think there needs to be a preventive way to assist families in getting their children the resources they need without making them wards of the state.”

Naturally, per the title of the piece, the focus is also on the boy’s previous “run-ins with the law:”

Court records show the teenager in this latest case has had several run-ins with the law. Earlier this year, he pleaded guilty to marijuana possession and being a minor in possession of alcohol. Last year, he was charged with misdemeanor theft and failure to appear in court.

The boy is in temporary, emergency custody with the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Service. His case will be heard in Douglas County Juvenile Court next week.

So let’s talk numbers again.

While the Nebraska DHHS count stands at 19 kids, as I’ve said before, this is a Bastard Blog so here, I focus on the experiences of the kids themselves in relation to the dump law. My count is well above 19.

Nebraska may not count for example, the kid left at the Police station as it’s not an authorized dump site under the law, but that kid himself is no less abandoned. To the best of my knowledge he’s still in foster care. He is every bit as dumped as the rest of the kids on the official tally, but not counted.

So let’s go through my non-state approved count of dumped kids:

• 9/1- 14-year old boy dumped at an Omaha police station (not an approved dump site)- NOT COUNTED
  
• 9/13- 11-year old boy
• 9/13- 15-year old boy
• 9/20- either a 13 or 14-year old girl (conflicting accounts)
• 9/22- Self haven- 18-year old boy- NOT COUNTED
• 9/24- 9 siblings: 1-year old girl, 6-year old boy, 7-year old boy, 9-year old girl, 11-year old boy, 13-year old girl, 14-year old girl, 15-year old boy, 17-year old boy
• 9/24- 11-year old boy
• 9/24- 15-year old boy
• 10/5- 15-year old boy
• 10-5- 12-year old boy
• 10/5- 15-year old girl brought to the hospital by her mother to be dumped, police talk her into committing her to the psych ward instead (see my blog piece) – NOT COUNTED
• 10/6- 14-year old girl (Iowa) NE DHHS has her listed as 10/7
• 10/13- 13-year old boy (Michigan)
• 10/21- Self haven- “sophomore/teen” girl – NOT COUNTED
• 10/2- 17-year old boy

(Again, see my Nebraska tag for my previous writings about many of these.)

Which is to say actually 23 kids have either been dumped , are attempted dumps, or self “haven”ed, (only to find no haven there for them.)

On this blog at least I do my damnedest to ensure “nobody gets left behind or forgotten.”

As I said back on October 6th,

If there’s any one thing my blog tries to do consistently, it’s remember those so often forgotten or hidden in (or out of) the ‘official’ tabulations.

…

In Nebraska with its child-dump law the casualties to date have been kids. In states with baby-dump laws, the casualties are babies. Whether newborn or child, abandonment deprives these people of building blocks necessary to them, particularly later in life. The state should never set out to set up systems that intentionally deprives a subset of citizens of basic things other citizens not only have, but consider the bedrock their lives are based on.

No matter what pretty language child-dump advocates attempt to wrap their toxic legislation in, the bottom line is child abandonment is never good for kids.

As I’ve said so many times before, there’s only one thing to do a legalized abandonment law, repeal it.

***

No blogger could begin to keep up with the mess Nebraska legislators have made. Instead, this post will focus on some of the raw sources dealing with the recent dumps. I’ll slide in a little commentary, but mainly I urge readers to go look at the articles and the videos in my links, they spell out a long sad story of failure. But then when it comes to the dump laws there’s rarely any good news, for the kids anyway.

Here is an Omaha World-Herald round up of many of the recent stories they’ve done relating to the dumps and the aftermath. Lots of links, well worth the read.

As but one example, see their Oct 9th story, Grandmother: Help, not haven, sought for boy which details how one of the kids abandoned was supposedly never intended to be such:

An Omaha grandmother says she wanted to hospitalize her suicidal 12-year-old grandson — not use the safe haven law — when she asked the boy’s aunt Sunday to take him to Immanuel Medical Center.

But instead of receiving help, the boy was placed in a foster home. He is scheduled to move to a group home this weekend.

And the grandmother has been ordered to show up in court next Wednesday for reasons she says she doesn’t understand.

That her grandson is considered a safe haven case is a “misunderstanding,” the woman said.

Regardless of the intent behind each and every single dump, one thing remains perfectly clear, Nebraska’s law is for the first time putting America’s catastrophically broken child welfare system on display while simultaneously putting a spotlight on many of the problems inherent to the legalized child abandonment laws. Additionally, due to the age problems unique to Nebraska’s law, this is all playing out upon kids old enough to remember every sorry detail of it.

But EVEN IF THEY COULDN’T, THE DAMAGE ABANDONMENT DOES TO KIDS, THE KNOWLEDGE THAT THEY WERE ABANDONED, AND THAT THE STATE ACTIVELY ENCOURAGED THEIR ABANDONMENT is still a lifelong betrayal. Child abandonment produces scars time doesn’t heal.

The dump laws make a mockery of any notion of child welfare best practices. Nebraska is merely the most visible and extreme example thereof. By creating the non-anonymous and aged-up version of the laws Nebraska put the full ugliness of the dump laws on international display.

Now that we begin to see the full horror of these legal atrocities there’s only one thing left to do, REPEAL them.

One by one, state after state, pull these abominations back out of the code.

Which brings us to the Michigan boy dumped by his mother in Nebraska, make that adoptive mother, because you see, he was an adoptee.

The Michigan to Nebraska dump was not only a ‘teach you a lesson’ dump, it was also a ‘returns department’ dump. An adopted kid, no longer wanted by his adopters.

Teri, left, and Terrence Martin of Southfield, Mich., the adoptive parents of a 13-year-old boy abandoned in Nebraska under that state’s safe haven law.

(AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

I’m not going to get into every twist and turn of the Mess from Michigan, but I’ll provide a few links worth looking through.

October 13th-

Video from CBS 3 in Omaha (see * below)- Michigan Mom Drops off Son Under Safe Haven. While local news stations are calling it “safe haven crisis” Nebraska politicians still aren’t getting the message.

The video piece includes parts of an interview with State Sen. Brad Ashford:

We passed the law to protect Nebraska children. We didn’t pass the law to protect children from other states.

and

I don’t think it’s a crisis. I, again, it’s not a bad thing that children are being protected.

While Sen. Ashford may personally characterize being abandoned in the Nebraska’s ‘returns department’ as “being protected” there are at this point a number of kids who have actually been through the process who may have a bone to pick with him. Kids like this pregnant 14 year-old girl abandoned through the Nebraska system who had this to say about being dumped:

“I don’t want anything to happen to kids like it happened to me, …”

(She has since been returned to her home.)

October 14th-

Let’s start back here with New Details On Safe Haven Child From Michigan. Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine,

… also says the state of Nebraska is not going to take in children from all over the country. He plans to work with child protective services in Michigan to send this kid back, while at the same time making sure the child is in good hands.

(Never mind the fact that the Nebraska law says nothing about ‘no out of state dumps allowed!’ The way the law is written it’s a free for all, anyone with physical custody can dump a kid, be that domestic or even international!)

The AP did a piece, the morning of the 14th, (this by way of WXYZ in Detroit, Michigan) Local Mom Abandons Teen in Nebraska. (Also see related video on upper right hand corner.) Once again, we see a kid not in any immediate danger-

There was no sign the boy was in immediate danger before he was abandoned early Monday, but an investigation into the boy’s situation was still continuing, Landry said.

A second piece, also from WXYZ, Michigan Mom Who Abandoned Son Identified.

KETV- Court Docs Reveal Story Behind Latest Safe Haven Case This piece goes into just a bit more detail about the ‘teach ‘em a lesson’ aspect of this dump and makes clear, the adoptive mother never intended to actually lose custody of him:

Martin told workers she would come back to get her son and now her son would know she wasn’t kidding.

As to the Judge’s comments in this piece, I don’t think loss family bonds should ever be the ‘cost’ of gaining access to support systems or mental health care. Everything he discusses in this piece can be done WITHOUT the state legalizing child abandonment.

October 15th-

Omaha World Herald-

Michigan boy left at Omaha hospital to stay in Nebraska – for now

and Michigan mother may have used safe haven law as lesson which includes:

“She told hospital staff that since local police were included she would just come back to get (her son), since now he would realize she wasn’t kidding anymore,” the affidavit says.

Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services officials confirmed that the mother had second thoughts about leaving her son. But once a child is left under the law and the state has taken custody, parents or guardians lose their right to make decisions about what happens to the child.

WXYZ, Michigan Mom who Abandoned Son Identified also see video.

October 16th-

KCBY (Oregon), Parents of Mich. boy left in Neb. lose custody.

Three Faux/Fox Detroit links, the first two are AP stories;

Court: Mom Who Abandoned Boy Can’t See Other Kids,

Official: Mich. Mom Neglected Boy She Left in Neb.,

and Children Taken from Mother Who Abandoned Son.

According to the video segment, on the third piece, the adopters were receiving (federal) adoption subsidies for the two kids to the tune of $900 a month. The adopters had apparently “tried for years” to get rid of their two adopted kids.

Note that once again, the adoption subsidies mess that I’ve already blogged about in relation to the dump laws is right in the middle of all this.

Also see, Michigan Prosecutors Don’t Want Mom to Use Nebraska Safe Haven Again

The grandmother said good-bye to the boy before his mother drove to Omaha. She left him Monday morning at the hospital with a packed suitcase and a ten dollar bill. Grandmother says, “She was taking him to a boys’ home that’s what she said a place to take boys with problems.” the grandmother says the boy’s been trouble and they tried to get help for years.

But the Michigan prosecutor found a report from 1999 accusing the mother of burning the boy with a curling iron. For some unknown reason, the state dropped the investigation.

This last bit is particularly important, it implies Michigan dropped the ball long before the dump in Nebraska. Which is to say, this may very well have been an abandonment that never would have happened had there been intervention back at the point where the adopted kid was accused of being burned by his adoptive mother.

All of which points back at the larger problems involved in follow up post placement for adoptees and how over and over again, these kids are simply left to suffer while the adopters collect the federal checks.

Oct 17th

AP by way of CNN- Parents who left teen under safe haven law lose custody

The report said Terri Martin told Nebraska officials that she took the boy there to “scare him,” yet she denied incidents of aggression.

It also said state records showed evidence that neither parent wanted the 13-year-old, who was adopted along with his 10-year-old brother.

AP by way of Faux/Fox Detroit, Court Grants State Temporary Custody of 4 Children

The report also cited a history of referrals to child-welfare officials because of reports of injuries to the teen. Carley is seeking to eliminate the Martins’ parental rights over the 13-year-old. The next court hearing is Nov. 7.

“We think there are some possibilities they could learn to parent the other three safely,” Carley said.

Nebraska has agreed to drop jurisdiction over the teen and let Michigan help him.

Yeah, that would be the Michigan child-welfare system that has apparently already failed him spectacularly. But right back in he goes, ’cause Nebraska doesn’t want him either. This is a kid who has been abandoned not merely by his adopters, but by every state tasked with helping him.

If there was an ongoing history of injuries to the kid, I ask again, what was the deal on his placement? If the adopters were receiving subsidies that would usually mean they took in an older child or sibling group or ’special needs’ kid out of the foster care system. If he was interacting with the system repeatedly due to injuries and burns, who was the person or agency responsible for keeping him with this set of adopters?

Just dumping the kid back into the broken Michigan system ‘disapears’ him right back in.

If Nebraska was at all serious about ’saving’ kids, they might not be so quick to hand over jurisdiction.

But that’s not what Nebraska’s dump law is about. Clearly.

Getting him and his siblings away from the adopters is one thing, getting him away from the system that sent him right back to those adopters after injuries and burns is apparently quite another.

Be sure to see the video piece related to this link, as there are many new details in it, including allegations of the boy having endured sexual abuse.

More video, (again see below *) New Details in Michigan Safe Haven Case, The piece details the adopters charged in Michigan with abuse and neglect.

They claim the boy was abandoned in Nebraska after being advised to do so by a therapist and that his adopters…

…tried to find him a new home again and again.

So once again we have a ‘therapist’ whatever that might mean and whatever qualifications that might entail, telling the guardians to use the dump law.

State Sen. Stuthman (the longtime supporter and sponsor of the Nebraska dump law) wants her prosecuted in Michigan to send a message to the rest of the country.

The ‘message’ of course being that no matter how broadly the Nebraska law was written, everyone involved is now shitting bricks at the prospect of hoards of dumpers crossing state lines to bring their potential dumplings to Nebraska. Gee, usually that’s the kind of thing one might want to think about BEFORE such gets signed into law.

So now we’ve got legalized child abandonment/ ’safe haven’ advocates like State Senator Stuthman trying to close the barn door long after the fact.

It’s important to keep in mind that Sen. Stuthman and other such advocates are precisely who and what got Nebraska into this mess in the first place, all based upon their blind insistence that Nebraska ‘needed’ such a law.

Hint, no kid ever NEEDS to be abandoned.

Also note,

… the court papers outline how the family tried to give back the troubled boy since he was four even going to the birthmother.

This is interesting as it means the adopters had some form of access to the original mother.

(Nebraska) DHHS News Release Safe Haven Youth Returns to Michigan

Also importantly, NPR has a five minute All Things Considered piece, Neb. Safe Haven Law Draws More Than Infants, along with links to past stories about the Nebraska disaster.

It goes into detail about some of the kids themselves reactions to being dumped, describing the extreme duress this law is putting some of the kids through.

October 18th-

Omaha World-Herald, Teen to go home, but state will have custody

Oakland County, Mich., prosecutors are seeking temporary custody of four of the 13-year-old’s siblings still living at home. Deb Carley, the county prosecutor, said an investigation found that the parents had neglected all their children.

Well, mission accomplished, eh?

Right back into the system that didn’t think his adopters were bad enough to warrant losing him prior to the dump.

But Nebraska understands the precedent that would be set by accepting even one out of state dump, so ‘what best for the kid’ be damned. Quick! Get ‘em on a plane!

I can’t wait to see what his next digs are going to be like, foster care? Group home? Think the siblings will get to stay together?

Yeah, well, somehow I doubt wherever Michigan decides to park him until he ages out will be making CNN anytime soon.

This boy is dumped alright.

Nebraska’s washed its hands of him and the odds of him finding ‘a loving adoptive home’ back in Michigan aren’t looking so hot.

* FINALLY-

I’m having some difficulty linking the individual videos, but you can use the search feature on the homepage of CBS 3 news in Omaha to pull up the video links, just search by the video segment names:

Michigan Mom Drops off Son Under Safe Haven 10/13/08 6:44pm

Michigan Boy Latest Safe Haven Drop-Off 10/13/08 11:48pm

Safe Haven Case in Michigan Reveals Child in Trouble 10/14/08 11:44pm

New Details in Michigan Safe Haven Case 10/17/08 6:55pm

***

I suppose the next question should be how many more kids, unwanted, adopted, or otherwise are going to be taken on 12 hour or more car rides to be dumped by those who have physical custody of them?

If Nebraska legislators think this is “not a crisis” perhaps that has more to do with it not being a crisis for them.

For the kids, they can’t wait until January for the Nebraska legislature to step up and begin to tackle (or perhaps if they have the courage, ‘undo’ to the extent they can going forward) the crisis they created.

They can’t wait while legislators hem and haw and contemplate the possibilities.

They need an end to legalized abandonments.

And they need it now.

To date 21 kids have undergone some form of abandonment in Nebraska, even if NE DHHS only formally counts 18 of them (link opens a PDF), (see my earlier blogging on the numbers game being played here.) That’s 21 kids who would not have had to endure the turmoil of being abandoned but for the short sighted and ill-advised actions of the Nebraska legislature.

At what point do they finally recognize their little social experiment is causing harm to the kids?

What will it take before legislators finally show some spine and put an end to the mess they’ve created?

Legalized child abandonment laws need to be REPEALED. Period. No state should ever be in the business of actively encouraging child abandonment.

The kids can’t wait another day, …another hour, …another minute.

Only Nebraska legislators hold the power to put a stop to this, it’s long past time they realized their mistake and worked to prevent further damage.

As for the 21 kids already enduring the effects of this legislation, they’ll be living with it the rest of their lives.

For each and every one of them, trust me on this, I think they’d be the first to tell you, it was absolutely a point of crisis.

A crisis they will be enduring the consequences of from now on.