BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU ASK FOR- WHERE WAS THE OUTRAGE?

In 2008, I wrote the following editorial.  I have made no "notations" so I am not sure if it was published but at the time, 10 years ago, the Safe Haven law became problematic for Nebraska.  If you do not know what the Safe Haven laws are, you will have to google the law in your state.

Nebraska's legal efforts to help protect the lives of infants and babies with safe haven laws are in the national spotlight because parents are choosing to bring children as old as teenagers to leave in state custody.  This might seem like a new phenomenon, but in reality, the abandonment of parental responsibility is nothing new.  Abandonment comes in many forms and is costing this nation and our culture of life.  Parenting is not for the weak.  Some adults may need assistance helping to deal with the stress involved with raising children.  Other adults need to learn that parenting involves sacrifice.  We are not a nation that values the most precious resource of all, our children.  From conception, our children are at risk of legal abandonment.
Marian R. Carlino   November 14, 2008

The following is a link to an article written in 2008.   The Aftermath

"But the story of how and why she did has taken on a freshly painful significance for her in the last two months. It is one that Byers, now the president of the board of the Nebraska Family Support Network, is hearing over and over again from other parents. In September, Nebraska enacted its now-infamous Safe Haven law, allowing parents to leave children up to age 18 at hospitals throughout the state without going through the more involved custody relinquishment process. Thirty-five kids, mostly preteens and teens—five of them from other states—were dropped off before the state legislature hastily convened to amend the law on Nov. 21. In some cases, these families' circumstances—their tragedies and unmet needs—were the same as those that had driven Byers to give up custody of her own daughter. Many of the teens were suffering from mental illness and behavioral problems; they had depleted their families' financial

and emotional wells. Two of the families sought out Byers' help. "The crisis that these children and families were in was one where the parents had gotten to the point of saying, 'Oh my God, my child is going to end up in jail or worse, dead'," she says. "They felt they had no choice but to do this."

The Aftermath.. a day after the Nebraska's amended Safe Haven law—which went into effect Nov. 22, (2008) a day after the state's Republican Gov. David Heineman signed off—now applies only to babies under 30 days old. Many child advocates applaud the fix; they say parents of older children should never use safe-haven laws, lest they scar their children with the stigma of abandonment."

(2008)- "Child welfare is one of the least-funded programs in every state," says Father Steven Boes, the national executive director of Boys Town, which has campuses in 12 states. "  

http://www.newsweek.com/aftermath-nebraskas-safe-haven-law-83271  (See link-  under The Aftermath above.

Was there outrage?

This information is vital to dealing with child assault prevention- from the womb to the classroom to the street.

Marian R. Carlino

July 5, 2018