NEBRASKA UPDATE: INDIANA, FLORIDA, TIME MAGAZINE

Here's a quick update for this afternoon. Things are popping so fast, it's hard to keep up. I'd like to write about what happened yesterday on Day One of the lame duck special session of the Unicam, but I've absolutely got to finish my testimony today.

In the meantime:

The Tate-Mote case continues to be in the news.
Ronnie Tate, (left) father of the 8-year old dropped off in Omaha last week, has announced his intention to seek custody of the boy He is well aware that his 1988 child molestation conviction will hinder his chances of getting custody. Tate maintains he was innocent of the charge.

The article and a video of Tate are here.

Tate's case bring up the untouched subject of what are the rights of the non-dumping parent.

Yesterday Tate and his ex-wife Stephanie Mote and Mote's father appeared in Wabash County Juvenile Court for a hearing to determine temporary custody of the boy. Mote's attorney, not surprisingly, said that "it is extremely unlikely" that any of the boy's relatives will get custody.

Juvenile Court Judge Robert McCallen III has barred the press from the courtroom and ordered all parties in the case to halt interviews with the press. Mote had planned a 7:30 pm press conference which was subsequently cancelled.

Moving on...
The 11-year old boy flown in from Florida has been ordered to return to Miami-Dade County. He will be placed in the custody of the Florida Department of Children and Families. No details are available. The boy and his father flew to Omaha on November 12.

Some parents cry...others are angry
Time Magazine continues its coverage of the Nebraska Fiasco in The Abandoned Children of Nebraska. Today's entry includes the poignant observation of Immanuel Hospital social worker, Courtney Anderson:

For each abandonment, there are just as many parents who arrive at the safe haven but, in the end, don't carry through, says Courtney Anderson of the Immanuel Medical Center in Omaha. As a medical social worker, she has been on duty in the ER when some of the abandonments unfolded. "Some parents want us to threaten the child — they feel that would set them straight." Some parents cry; others are merely angry. Some children begin to cry when they figure out what's going on, says Anderson, while others are hardened veterans of the foster care system and "are used to these ups and downs."

Addenda: After posting this, I found this Washington Post article also featuring Ms Anderson:

Courtney Anderson and her seven fellow emergency room social workers at Omaha's Immanuel Medical Center have seen 11 children surrendered to state custody. They found children who had no idea that they were being turned over to the state.

"I'll go in and say, 'Do you know why you're here?' " Anderson, 29, explained in her first interview with a reporter. "If they don't know, I'll say, 'We don't know all the details of what's going on, but you're safe.'

"We offer them a blanket, something to eat and turn the TV on."

The reactions from the teenagers vary.

"I'm struck by the ones who say they are fine," Anderson said. "I've had " some say, 'I don't want to go home. Just admit me. Get me a bed.' "

NEBRASKA: BROKEN KIDS, BROKEN FAMILIES, BROKEN POLITICIANS

(NOTE: I intended to include this story in the second part of my piece from last weekend, still on the burner, on the voices of "safe haven" victims, but this seems like a good place to put it now since there is new information today. As I wrote it, it became longer and longer, included more and more, and the rathole got deeper and darker.

Words fail me when I try to write about these cases, but I think it's important to know them. These kids cannot be forgotten and written out of the history of the Great Dump Experiment, nor can the politicians and do-gooders who engineered this experiment be hidden.)

*****

Remember the Indiana case of the 8-year old left at Bergan Mercy Medical Center?

To refresh your memory, the boy was dropped-off in Omaha on November 6. The next day, after negotiations with Indiana authorities, the boy was returned to Wabash County and put into protective custody. Officials refused to tell the parents his location. I found that a bit odd--that he was being held in some secret location--but the reasons soon became abundantly clear.

The Indiana press picks it up from there with two significant developments:

(1) The boy’s father, Ron Tate, of Kewanna, Ind., said he did not know his ex-wife had taken the boy to Nebraska until he received a phone call from his mother Friday morning telling him Wabash County Protective Services was seeking to talk to him about the matter.

Tate said he called his ex-wife, who confirmed she had taken the child to Nebraska.

Tate said when he asked her why she didn’t leave the boy with him, Stephanie Tate told him it was because he couldn’t afford to take care of his son. When Tate asked why she didn’t leave him with Tate’s mother, who lives in Rochester, the woman said she didn’t like her.

"I’ve been crying my eyes out over this since Friday morning," Tate said. "I haven’t had too much sleep. My family is tore up over this."

Tate and his ex-wife finalized their divorce Sept. 15, at which time the mother was given full custody.

"I had no problem letting her have custody of him," said Tate, who split up with his ex-wife three years ago. "I’m disabled and waiting on Social Security to go through."

When I ran a check on Mr. Tate, what popped up immediately was his sex offender record. (Go to the Indiana Sex Offender Registry You'll need to sign in, and then type Tate's name in the appropriate area). Ronnie Dean Tate, 48, was convicted in 1988 of child molestation and did about 4 1/2 years. (Go here
for the Indiana Prisoner Locator for offender data.)

Today's Indianapolis Star goes into this a little deeper:

Mote's son, whom The Indianapolis Star is not naming, lived with his father, who was convicted of child molestation in 1988, for two years after the couple separated. The child was sent to live with his mother in April after officials in Miami County, where the father formerly lived, arrested him for failing to register as a sex offender and notify authorities that he had changed addresses to nearby Fulton County. There was no response to a telephone message left for the father Thursday.

And it seems that the ex-Mrs Tate, now using her maiden name, Stephanie Mote, ran into a little bit of trouble herself after her road trip. On November 7, the same day the boy was returned to Wabash County:

(2) Stephanie Tate was arrested Friday in Wabash County on suspicion of maintaining a common nuisance ( Class D Felony), possession of a controlled substance and possession of marijuana, said Mark Henderson, jail commander with the Wabash County Sheriff’s Department. She posted a $900 bond that day and was released.

Today's Indianapolis Star (see above link) features an interview with Mote's roommate and "spokesperson," Rhonda Shea. According to the Star, Mote's abandonment of her son was "an attempt to get him help for his severe behavioral problems and reflected her lack of confidence in Indiana's child services--the same system she said failed her when she was abused as a child.":

Shea said the boy's behavior overwhelmed his mother. At 8, he is not fully toilet-trained. He is quiet but can act destructively, clawing paint off the walls and intentionally clogging the toilet. He has problems with schoolwork.

They talked to teachers at school, who suggested he receive counseling.

Mote was adamant that the boy not become a ward of the state, which she thought had failed her because she had been put into foster care after she was sexually abused and then was further abused.

"She thought the only option she had was to take him to Nebraska," Shea said.

Indiana officials, of course, denied the allegation, claiming DCS is now a separate agency from the old Family and Social Services administration that handled Mote's case, and a "huge transformation" has taken place. (Is that an admission they screwed up with her?)

Mote says she fears her son will be placed with relatives and wants him returned to Nebraska--something Nebraska says "is not a possibility."

To be honest I wouldn't want the kid with relatives either. Go to the Indiana Sex Offender Registry again and type in the name Carl Elmer Mote. It looks like he didn't do any time.

The boy is now in foster care and facing a hearing today. Mote says she'll be there. I'll post the results if they're published.

There's some questions here that nobody is addressing:

Why didn't the boy live with his mother 2 years prior to the divorce?

Why would a mother, a victim of multiple sexual abuses, permit her son to live with a convicted molester (her marriage to him aside).

Why was a convicted child molester allowed full custody of a 6-year old boy?

Why have no questions been raised about the paternal rights of Tate (despite his record) regarding the transfer of his son into the "safe haven" program without his knowledge? Surely, other non-custodial parents, or custodial or joint-custodial parents, have been affected by this unilateral rush to dump. Whether a "safe haven" parent is sympathetic or not is irrelevant. Where are their rights? In the dumpster, too?

BROKEN FAMILIES
The Mote-Tate family drama is not isolated. Virtually all of these Nebraska cases are the culmination of family dysfunction, disruption, domestic violence, abuse, mental illness, and poverty. Here is a September 28 Omaha World-Herald profile of early cases that should make you weep.

And here is an interview with Karla Zimmerman, the biological mother of #2, left by his grandmother who reportedly adopted him.

Zimmerman wears the burn scars on her arms she believes scarred her son for life.

"My son watched me get burned when he was 2, he has tried to light fires, he has been kicked out of schools, kicked out of every daycare."

Karla says a boyfriend set her and her eight month old daughter on fire and burned down the house. After ten years of medication and trouble, her only son is one of Nebraska's safe haven kids. Karla says she gave up custody to his grandmother after that incident. He recently spent 11 months in psychiatric treatment at Immanuel, was released and back home only seven days before his grandmother returned him to Immanuel October 5th. "They didn't come into the home to transition him back. They didn't show my mom what needed to be done or how to handle the triggers, the behavior if it happened. They just let him come home."

On November 12, Nebraska DHHS director Todd Landry issued a report/letter to the Unicam and a Matrix of Commonalities of Safe Haven Cases that covered cases up to that date. He emphasised that upon investigation NONE of these children were in immediate danger, none were "saved" from caretaker abuse.

Among its findings:

***Excluding the sibling group of nine, 95% (20 of 21) were 10 years of age or older

***93% (28 out of 30 youth) were residing in or near an urban community

***90% (27 out of 30 youth) were previously involved in some type of mental health service.

***93% (28 out of 30 youth) were living in single-parent homes.

***73% (22 of 30) had a parent/guardian with a history of prior incarceration.

***57% (17 of 30 youth) were previously, or are currently, a state ward, either in Nebraska or another state. (One youth was a current a state ward at the time Save Haven was enacted.

***Excluding the sibling group of nine, 52% (11 of 21) were in the care of a surrogate parent, either adopted parent/legal guardian or a relative.

***67% (20 of 30) of the youth were White, 30% (9 of 30) were Black/African American, and 3% (1 of 30 youth) was White/Native American.#

And the legislature of the State of Nebraska believes that way to fix this mess is to take broken kids and break them some more by tossing them into a safe haven hole. Make them better with repeated abandonment's.

BROKEN POLITICIANS
How did this bar get so low? Clearly the Unicam played "me too" when it passed LB 157.

Anything was better than nothing. Politicians who knew as much about broken families, child welfare, and adoption as I do about heart surgery, embarrassed that Nebraska had refused to keep up with the Joneses, and pressured by do-gooders, amateur baby savers and baby pimps, rejected the advice and knowledge of dozens of experts. The state's adoption professionals, child welfare workers, medical associations, lawyers, and adoptee rights advocates, warned them against (1) passing any "baby safe haven law" and (2) the consequences of passing their shotgun 47-word, 2-sentence LB 157. The politicians brayed back:

If it saves just one...politician.

Starting today the Unicam meets in special session. Senators will probably age down their law to anything from 72 hours to 1 year. Supposedly babies won't mind being disappeared, annomized traumatized, or thrown out like Big Kids do. Read what Tim Jaccard, founder of New York's AMT-Children of Hope, confessed baby snatcher, and president of the National Safe Haven Alliance said, about that--a la-la fantasy that I've heard echoed by numerous politicians since:

It affects children. When children are older they have the ability to understand what's going on and they're thinking, "Mommy and Daddy don't want me anymore, so they're throwing me in a hospital." That's a psychological blow.

Tim, I know you, and I thought you'd have better sense than to say something so totally clueless, so totally insulting about adoptees. You know, those statutory units and your fellow travelers are to eager to create with no thought out how the objects of your benevolences might feel about it--could they speak.

Tim, I challenge you to repeat this remark to the face of Nebraska's adoptees. No wait! Stay in New York where you can cause less harm to Nebraska families, and say it to your own state's bastards, locked in a sealed records system that tells them to shut up, be grateful for what was done to them. Yeah, it's funny how babies have memories and feelings and personhood until, as Triona Guidry points, out, those attributes don't suit somebody's baby-redistribution agenda. Apparently, only memory and articulation is what makes one class of dump "ethical" and "good" and the other not.

Passage of the first Baby Moses law in Texas signaled a swift backward turn in child welfare which has struggled over the last 100 years to build an environment of rights, responsibility, and education. Child abandonment, a heinous crime throughout history, was suddenly OK in the US as long as it was done within rules--or close to it--set by the government. No longer would child abandoners be stigmatized and shamed; they would be congratulated for doing "the right thing," called courageous; heroes with kind and loving hearts. It's sort of patriotic.

Aging down LB 157 does nothing to change the message: it's OK to dump your child. By continuing to promote child abandonment at any age, the message will remain: it's OK to dump your child. No blame, no shame, no name. Or as AMT-Children of Hope likes to say now: No cost. No parents. No cops.

The only way to get out of this mess is to repeal LB 157. No tweaks. No fixes. No amendments. No reflies.

Nebraska had it right the first time. Exactly two years ago today, November 14, 2006, Bob Brandt, then executive director of the Nebraska Children’s Home Society spoke out against “safe havens” at a National Adoption Month get-together in North Platte:

Nebraska is not behind when it comes to legislation. We are ahead.

Bastard Nation warned that once the "safe haven" door opened, it wouldn't shut. Dumping your kids has now become "just another option." Nebraska now has the opportunity to shut that door. Nebraska can get back to where it was earlier this year. It can lead the country out of this moral quicksand by repealing LB 157 and not looking back.

Anybody care to make a bet?



#WOW-TV reported an ICWA claim might be made in the Staton case (9 siblings), but nothing has been reported since then.

NEBRASKA FIASCO: #29 DOESN'T DISAPPOINT; NEITHER DO DR. PHIL AND DR. LAURA

I knew they wouldn't let us down!

Nebraska DHHS reports that an 11-year old girl from Douglas County was left by her mother today at Bergan Mercy Hospital. No details. She is the 5th child this week to find a new home at a Nebraska hospital.

Only one more to go and we'll hit 30! The weekend, with its leisure time activities, usually marks an upturn in dumps. Hey! let's take a drive in the country!

UPDATES:
Nebraska and Indiana officials spent the day discussing the "best options" for the 8-year old boy left at Bergan Mercy yesterday. Late afternoon they announced that the boy will be returned to Indiana and placed in the custody of The Indiana Department of Children's Services while the investigation continues.

And remember the poor rejected adoptee from Michigan? The Detroit Free Press reports that his adoptive father, Nathaniel Martin, (earlier referred to as Terrence) has regained custody of his two biological children, but the adopted siblings remain in foster care. Their adoptive mother, Teri Martin, who dumped her son and claimed she was forced to adopt him seven years ago so she could adopt his brother, is not allowed in the couple's Southfield, Michigan home while the petition of neglect filed against her remains unresolved.

DR. LAURA AND DR. PHIL
Gee, would you be surprised to learn that these media whores support unregulated child dumping and want YOU to meet them at your local dumpster...er...I mean hospital.

Dr. Laura's, in her incredibly stupid November 4 blog , manages to exhibit a cellular ignorance of baby abandonment in general, "safe haven" laws and adoption in particular, and to insult Nebraska parents and guardians who have utilized this odious law to boot, implying that they are drug addicts, alcoholics, and mentally ill. Apparently in a moment of lucidity between pipes, these incapables have gotten it together enough to drive to the nearest hospital and save a life. The fact is, though I disagree with their decision to use LB 157, none of the people who have utilized this ill-conceived law appear to be genuine knuckle-dragging tweakers and winos. (though a couple lack common sense). Enough newspaper articles have appeared to indicate that "safe haven" consumers are well-intentioned but desperate people who have reached the end of their rope with state and private agency screw-you services that offer plenty of family help on paper, but don't deliver the goods. (Here is a good example. Also read Lavennia Coover's experience and her letter to the Omaha World-Herald in which the mother of #13 describes her frustration with the child welfare system and the whole "safe haven" procedure. )

Read Dr. Laura pontificate:

I had fits hearing criticism that this is abandonment or passing on responsibility. Children in the hands of parents addicted to drugs or alcohol, suffering from various mental illnesses and overwhelmed, barely functional and generally desperate, or simply unwilling are at great risk - and if even one of them has the compassion and good sense to make use of a safe-haven…then we have saved a life…not only from death…but from abuse and a childhood leading only to troubles and problems.

Society is always better off when unwanted children have opportunities with adoptive families, quality foster-families, or placement with relatives who might not even have known there was a problem. These children will have a better chance to grow up more adjusted, and that will obviously minimize bad “acting out” (sexual or criminal variety) or substance abuse to quell emotional pain.

Unfortunately, because of criticism aimed at parents who take advantage of protecting their children rather than harming them, the Governor of Nebraska, Dave Heinemen, is calling a special session of the legislature to change the state’s unique safe-haven law - amending it so that it applies only to infants up to 3 days old. I believe this is a HUGE mistake.

Not to be out done, Dr. Phil, went on TV today and recommended that stressed-out parents drop off their kids at dump-friendly environments. Due to the vagaries of my TV, I was unable to watch the show, but you can see a trailer and "Dr. Phil Uncensored" here. I should have a copy of the show next week and have a better idea of what went down. Reportedly, the show was emotionally manipulative and abusive. Included was a tired-out young single mom who Phil thinks would be better off as a perky birthmother if only she'd be unselfish enough to toss her kids into the adoption spammer and get a life.

Just what we've come to expect from America's favorite TV do-gooder.

Nebraska DHHS announces that earlier today an 8-year old boy from Wabash, County, Indiana was handed into the beneficient hands of the State of Nebraska at Bergan Mercy Hospital in Omaha. No details have been released. Outside of the anomalous Staton case, this is the youngest child dropped off in Nebraska. He is the 28th dumpee since the law went into effect on July 16, and the fourth this week. (There was also an attempted dro-off of an 18-year old on November 3 at Immanuel MC).

For some reason this case upsets me more than the routine upset of each case. Eight years old. When I was that age I was planning my career as an Egyptologist (obviously, that didn't work out), reading Miss Pickrel books, and playing one of the Cookie Children in Hansel & Gretel. Even if this child is mentally ill, how must he feel?

I'm sick.

And just when you think it can't get any worse:
In other news, Douglas County Juvenile Court Judge Vernon Daniels has ordered two 15-year old girls left at Omaha hospitals on October 28 to remain in state custody pending further investigation. The cases are unrelated.

I don' even know what to comment on these cases other than the trite, some people just shouldn't breed. From the Omaha-World Herald:

For the first girl, a "big argument" with her aunt led her to being left Oct. 27 at an Omaha hospital.

The girl told a police officer that her mother picked her up from the aunt's home, where she had lived for 13 months, took her to Creighton University Medical Center and told her to go inside.

"I'm done with you," the mother said before driving away, according to the girl's account.

In court, a state caseworker said the girl had been prescribed medication and was in therapy five years ago when she lived with her grandmother.

The girl's mother didn't believe the girl needed the treatment. When the girl moved home again, the therapy and medication ended, the caseworker said.

The girl will receive updated mental health evaluations. Daniels also approved giving her mother supervised visits.

As for the second case:

On Oct. 23, the other 15-year-old girl entered Immanuel Medical Center's partial hospitalization program. She was hospitalized for psychiatric care during the day and went home in the evenings.

The father was to pick her up at 6 p.m. Oct. 28 but instead said he wanted to invoke the safe haven law, according to court records.

He told police at the hospital the girl needed 24-hour care that he could not provide. In court, his attorney said the girl has "learning disabilities and extreme psychiatric problems."

Her parents have fought each other for custody in court several times over the years, court records show.

In 1996, the father accused the mother of a history of drug, psychiatric and alcohol problems, while the mother accused him of using drugs and belonging to the Hell's Angels gang.

They had joint custody, with the girl mainly living with the mother, until 2004, when the mother was accused of abusing and neglecting the girl.

The girl told police that her mother had punched and strangled her, leaving bruises. She also said her mother drank heavily and smoked marijuana. The girl was put in foster care and received therapy and medication for ADHD.

The mother was ordered to take medication and get therapy for psychiatric and substance abuse issues.

A judge gave the father custody in 2005.

The next year, the mother sought custody and child support, saying the girl was living with her. However, the mother never finished pursuing it in court.

The girl will remain in Immanuel's program until a doctor says she has improved. Her parents can visit her, Daniels said, but she will live in foster care.

On Friday, that's where the girl celebrated her 16th birthday.

The entire child welfare system in Nebraska--and every other state--is broken beyond repair. Can any more lazier and uncaring solution be found than "safe havens"? Repeal this pieceacrap law now. Everywhere.

And, of course...Dr. Phil weighs in...

Friday - November 7, 2008 Child Abandonment Abandoning a child is largely considered the worst thing a parent could do … or is it? As an alternative to leaving unwanted babies to starve in dumpsters and alleys, many states have enacted a safe haven law, which provides the option of leaving the child in a safe place, such as a hospital or fire station, with no questions asked. Nebraska was the last state to enact the law; and did so without an age restriction. As a result, there has been a recent spate of parents dropping off grown teenagers to the care of the state! Should an age limit be set? When Courtney, 34, became overwhelmed with caring for her 15-year-old daughter, she says she used the loophole in the law to get her daughter the care she needed. Was this an act of abandonment, or a mother’s last resort? Next, abandoned at an airport at just 10 days old, Elizabeth was given the nickname “Delta Dawn” by the pilots who found her, and Michael, left in a trash can by his birth mother, was saved by a night watchman. Learn how their lives played out and hear the lasting repercussions of their abandonment. Then, meet Elizabeth, a 20-year-old mother of two who says she is considering giving up her daughters. Would her decision be in the best interest of the children? And, when Maria, at age 16, unexpectedly gave birth on her bathroom floor, she says she stabbed the baby with a pair of scissors. Find out what drove her to such drastic measures.

******

Children of the Corn will be updated shortly.