Woman leaves teen at hospital under safe haven law

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By JoANNE YOUNG / Lincoln Journal Star

Lawmakers were afraid this would happen: Two older children were abandoned over the weekend under the state’s new safe haven law.

In Lincoln, a 15-year-old boy’s guardian dropped him off at BryanLGH Medical Center West Saturday evening, saying she couldn’t deal with the boy’s behavioral issues, Lincoln Police Chief Tom Casady said.

He and an 11-year-old boy — taken to Immanuel Medical Center in Omaha over the weekend — are the first two to be abandoned under a Nebraska safe haven law that went into effect in July.

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Police Chief Tom Casady

Police Chief Tom Casady

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Neither was in any immediate danger when dropped off, said Todd Landry, director of the Children and Family Services Division of the Department of Health and Human Services.

Neither the guardian in Lincoln nor the parent in Omaha will be charged with a crime. Before the law went into effect, they could have been charged with child neglect or abandonment, both misdemeanors, or felony child abuse.

The Lincoln boy, a high school freshman, is staying in a Lincoln emergency shelter. The Omaha boy was admitted to the hospital for evaluation and observation, Landry said.

Both will be in 48-hour protective custody and the county attorneys in Lancaster and Douglas counties will make the determination if the boys will remain in custody, Landry said. The courts will decide what happens next.

Landry said that could include family reunification, alternate placement or a more permanent solution.

The Lincoln boy’s mother died in September 2003, and her sister assumed temporary custody of all five children in the family, including one half-sibling.

The four other youths have already become state wards.

A brother and two sisters now live in group homes. The half-sister became a ward after she broke the law.

The father has lived in Lincoln but has not had custody of the children. He is listed in the mother’s obituary as her life partner.

Casady said the boy’s aunt, when she brought him to BryanLGH, said she was having trouble supervising him because of all of his behavior problems.

Landry and the sponsor of the safe haven law, Sen. Arnie Stuthman of Platte Center, said what happened this weekend was not the intent of the law.

Stuthman said LB157 was initially intended for infants less than 72 hours old who were in danger of being harmed or abandoned in an unsafe place. That’s the way most other states’ safe haven bills are written.

But to get the bill passed, he said, he had to agree to expand the language to include all children.

“This is not intended to be used when a child is unruly or out of control,” he said. “People need to realize the effect on the child and what it will do to families.”

Other options could have been pursued, Landry said.

Jim Blue, president and CEO of Cedars Youth Services, said if a parent or guardian does not feel a child is safe in their own care, he or she can call the Cedars emergency hotline at 437-8888 and receive free temporary shelter for the child.

He was supportive of a safe haven law for younger children, even up to the age of 2, whose   young, unprepared parents cannot deal with parenting, he said.

But the emotional cuts and scars in an older child who is abandoned can be much deeper than those of an infant, he said. An adolescent’s social attachments, let alone family attachments, can be precarious, even in normal situations, he said.

“There are good organizations that can help with teens when situations become stressed,” he said.

Cedars is one of those, he said,  and has been providing shelter for more than 60 years.

Both Landry and Stuthman said they will watch closely what happens with the law in the next few months. If necessary, the Legislature could try to adjust the law, Stuthman said.

Reach JoAnne Young at 473-7228 or jyoung@journalstar.com.