Friday, November 14, 2008

When You Just Don't Feel Like Being a Parent Anymore...

Nebraska fears rush to drop off kids before haven law change - CNN.com:

"Tysheema Brown drove from Georgia to leave her teenage son at an Omaha hospital.

'Do not judge me as a parent. I love my son and my son knows that,' Brown said. 'There is just no help. There hasn't been any help.'

Safe haven laws allow distraught parents, who fear their children are in imminent danger, to drop them off at hospitals without being charged with abandonment. Nebraska was the last state in the country to pass such a law. But every other state included an age limit.

The Department of Health and Human Services published a background profile on 30 of the 34 safe haven cases. The report found:

# Twenty-seven children have received mental health treatment;

# 28 children come from single parent homes;

# 22 children had a parent with a history of incarceration; and

# 20 of the 30 children are white; eight are black.
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There are 6,600 children in state custody, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. Per capita the figure is one of the highest rates in the country, Landry said."

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