Posted on 10/30/2008 2:26:54 PM PDT by Hugin
...since the law took effect in July, none of the children dropped off at hospitals were newborns and three of them were from out of state. The reason: Nebraska's law provides safe haven for any "child." It doesn't set an age limit.
Some have taken the word "child" in the law to mean "minor," which in Nebraska includes anyone under the age of 19. Others have adopted the common law definition, which includes those under age 14.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Anybody who has raised a teenager has to see the humor in this.
There, I fixed it for you! ;)
“Hey Son lets go for a little ride.”
I don’t see any reason the law should be changed. Parents (or in several of these cases, custodial grandparents) who just can’t cope with these kids should not be forced to keep them. They’re not allowed to administer serious physical punishment, even to large and violent kids, without risking arrest and criminal conviction. Some of these kids are really unmanageable and terrorizing their parents/guardians. In other cases, the parents/guardians are just totally unable cope on account of their own problems.
Remember the case in NJ a few years back, of the adolescent boy who murdered a little boy who came to his house selling something for a team or troop fundraiser? The adolescent boy had previously been sexually abused by a non-relative, and had developed serious behavior problems. The parents had tried to get a court to commit the boy to a psychiatric institution, saying they just couldn’t handle him anymore, but the court refused. So the parents basically gave up, and look what happened. But if the parents had chained him up whenever they were away from home, they’d have been hauled in on criminal charges.
There’s no benefit to keeping kids with parents who don’t want them and/or are simply unable to handle raising them. The proposed alternative to this safe haven drop-off is endless government services provided to the child and/or parents. But if the home situation is the problem, then the taxpayers’ money is basically going down the drain. And if the problem is that the kid is just fundamentally crazy, then an ordinary home setting with frazzled parents and other siblings and neighbors constantly in danger, is not a reasonable answer, and is not cheaper in the long run. The worst part is that it often amounts to the government forcing parents to keep kids on the government’s terms: no physical punishment, mandated participation in counseling that may fly in the face of the parents’ beliefs, mandated psychoactive drugs even if the parents don’t agree they’re appropriate for the child, mandated school attendance even if parents think the school environment is a big part of the problem, etc.
Now they're going to be meeting in special session. They're going to change it from 18 years old to 3 days now. typical govt over reaction to something they've screwed up in the first place.
Can’t imagine just ditching a teenager of mine.
Could never leave my wife or son nor my GOD.
do they take In-Laws????
Years ago families used to drop children off at public institutions, such as schools for the retarded, because the family was too poor to care for them. This really isn’t anything new.
I’ve got a 28 year old about to drive me crazy - is she too old?
Somebody from my state (Georgia) drove their kid to Nebraska and dropped him off, I think he was 12.
Now that’s funny.
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