Staggering Number of Parents Abandoning Teenagers at Nebraska Hospitals
Poorly Written Safe Haven Laws to Blame
"Please don't bring your teenager to Nebraska," Gov. Dave Heineman says, as quoted by CNN.
One interview revealed a mother from the non-neighboring state of Georgia asking people "Not to judge her", and that "There is just no help.". The woman, identified as Tysheema Brown, drove her teenage son to Omaha with plans to leave him in the care of the state, totally abandoning him.
A report published by The Department of Health and Human Services reveals the following statistics based on information gathered from 30 of the 34 reported cases:
· 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
It seems as though Nebraska's State Legislature has its work cut out for it right now in a rush to avoid more of these cases arising, as many fear there will be an urgent rush to dump off more children in the coming days before the law has been changed to a more reasonable age limit of around 30 days.
There's one way to get your kid to eat his veggies. Book him a flight to Nebraska.
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5 Comments
Post a CommentThis is a horrible situation. It seems to be no-win...Nebraska has their hands full.
WOW, this is like getting a 45th trimester abortion! These people are losers. To be honest, I thought this was a joke at first. Thanks for the info!
Excellent write up. For the sake of the kids, I think it would be detrimental to have the law rewritten. After all, if these parents -- who are willing to drive to this location -- could not surrender their kids there, what would happen to them? Would they get kicked out of the parental home and become street kids? On a different note, across the border in Mexico there is an orphanage where parents who can no longer provide for their children take them. The kids cannot be adopted, since the parents have not relinquished their parental rights. Instead, the kids are in a holding pattern until their parents come back to reclaim them, presumably when they are able to once again put a roof over their heads and food on the table. Sadly, for some kids their 18th birthday comes and their parents never returned.
When they made this law, they must not have thought about the many families who would use a perfectly LEGAL (unfortunately) way to dump their kids. Until the law changes, desperate parents - or those who feel they can't provide their children with a safe home - are turning to this alternative. I'd love to know more about WHY they are doing this. The economy? Feeling they can't handle their kids? Both? Mental illness? Thanks for writing about this, such a sad situation.
I think I saw that lady on the news. It was at the gym, so it was subtitled. I figured something got lost in translation. Apparently not. Nuts.