One and done
Children's service agencies typically make it their goal to rebuild troubled families and, if children are taken from parents, to provide help to those parents with the hope that their kids can someday be returned to them. If the allegations pending against a Donora couple prove to be true, they should never again set eyes on their kids, let alone be allowed to have them in their home. Borough police and a Washington County Children and Youth Services caseworker say they found two young children living in horrible conditions Monday when they went to the home of William Edwards, 36, and Shawnte Annette Exum, 30. When a police officer and the caseworker knocked on the couple's apartment door, it was answered by a 5-year-old boy, who eventually allowed them to enter. No adults were present. In a criminal complaint, the officials described the boy as being dirty and having a strong odor of urine about him. In searching the apartment, they said they found a 1-year-old boy who was dirty and wearing a soiled diaper. The children were in the dark. Feces and dirty clothes were on the floor. There was no running water, and the only food was in the freezer. Because the officer and caseworker couldn't find any clean clothing or shoes for the boys, they had to wrap them in blankets to take them to the police station, where officers waited an hour and a half for the mother to show up. She told police that her boyfriend was supposed to be watching the children. When asked for his name, she allegedly lied to police, repeatedly. When police finally found Edwards, they say he told them that he left the apartment to sell his food stamps. And what was he going to buy with that money? Food? I suspect not. Fortunately, the children are in a safe place for now, and their parents were charged with child endangerment and put in jail, which is exactly where they belong. I don't know whether CYS will attempt to "rehabilitate" the two so-called adults, but it's my opinion that they should never get those kids back. In fact, if I had the power, I would order that they be sterilized. There's no reason to take the chance that they'll breed again.
Labels: Crime
posted by Brant at
1:35 PM
8 Comments:
I agree. Take away the kids and put them somewhere where they'll be loved, sterilize those cretinous parents, and leave them in jail. Taking away the kids is not a punishment for them since they obviously don't care about them, but maybe living in jail for the rest of their lives might make them think a bit. If they didn't want the kids, why not just give them up for adoption? Then they can sell the food stamps for whatever their drug of choice is.
The only reason those "parents" had those kids was to collect more money. I suspect they'll have more regardless of whether those two children are taken away from them or not.
It perpetuates the problem because those children then grow up thinking that's the way things should be.
A public sterilzation might be the way to go.
I would agree that these parents - if you could call them that - should not get their children back. But the problesm is there is a lack of quality foster homes and people willing to adopt older children... so there is not very much choice.
I went to High School with a girl who got pregnant & dropped out. That was 15 years ago. I ran into a mutual friend a few weeks ago who told me that this girl is pregnant with her 7th child and all 6 of the ones she has already given birth to have been taken away from her! My guess is it's only a matter of time before the one she's pregnant with now is taken too. The best part is, she has no idea why they keep taking her kids. She blames it on her mother saying that her mother is calling CYS and making things up about her.
I think your sterilization idea is the only way to keep this from happening. There is a shortage of foster homes because people like this keep having children. It's really depressing.
Could welfare be largely to blame for this type of child abuse?
I agree with all of you. As a woman that wanted children but could not have them, I find it sinful that people can treat innocent kids so horribly. I would take them in a minute if I thought I would be able to keep them but they generally don't let people adoopt the kids because the parents have "the right" to get them back. I personally think they should lose that right when the children are taken so that decent loving people can give the kids good homes. I personally would even prefer an older child but it isn't that easy to adopt them. My brother had a 6 year old foster child that our entire family loved.My brother tried to adopt him but he was given back to his mother who had previously lost custody of him and an older child (who ended up dead in a creek) and another younger child that was adopted. How could giving this child back to his mother have benefitted this child when he would have had aunts and uncles as well as grandparents to love him if he would have been allowed to be adopted into our family.
The system, sadly, seems to bend over backward to protect the "rights" of people who, by their actions, shouldn't even be allowed to walk among decent members of our society.
I can't say I agree with "sterilization," but it's situations like this that upset me when individuals scoff at the importance of birth control and health care.
I watched last week as a family doctor was interviewed on CNN, stating his right to refuse birth control to patients because of his religious and spiritual beliefs. Had he not been a practicing physician - a man dedicated to science and medicine and the health and welfare of human beings - perhaps I wouldn't have been so disgusted.
Another factor, along with wacky doctors putting their Bibles before their patients, is that many insurers don't cover birth control or contraceptives in their policies. There are programs out there to assist, but it can be a costly measure, particularly for families already struggling.
I'm not saying this particular family visited a doc who refused them, or even made attempts to curb their fertility, it's just that factors, like these, seem to contribute to a quality of life for many children that is unfair and unfit. It's upsetting.
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