Academic

Sad Or Sick? Nebraska Parents Rush To Abandon Teens

By Dan Filler

Surely the headline of the day:

Nebraska Parents Rush to Leave Kids Before Law Changes

In the one of the most stalwart family values states, parents rush to dump their teenage children.  This clip of the story is so depressing, I don't even know how to react:

The mother was running out of more than patience when she abandoned her 18-year-old daughter at a hospital over the weekend under Nebraska's safe-haven law. She was also running out of time: She knew that state lawmakers would soon meet in a special session to amend the ill-fated law so that it would apply to newborns only.

"Where am I going to get help if they change the law?" said the mother, who lives in Lincoln and asked to not be identified by name to protect her adopted child.

To the state's surprise and embarrassment, more than half of the 31 children legally abandoned under the safe-haven law since it took effect in mid-July have been teenagers.

But state officials may have inadvertently made things worse with their hesitant response to the problem: The number of drop-offs has almost tripled to about three a week since Gov. Dave Heinemanannounced on Oct. 29 that lawmakers would rewrite the law.

With legislators set to convene on Friday, weary parents like the Lincoln mother have been racing to drop off their children while they still can.

On Thursday, authorities searched for two teens ? a boy and girl, ages 14 and 17 ? who fled an Omaha hospital as their mother tried to abandon them. The mother was trying to take them from the car to the emergency room when they took off.

Full post as published by The Faculty Lounge on November 14, 2008 (boomark / email).