Familes abandon their teens in Nebraska

Give me a break! I am a parent of three teenagers who have done the normal teen things that try all parents but to abandon them? That is beyond my comprehension. These parents need to step up and be parents not abandon their responsibilities as parents. What am I venting about? Frustrated parents are dumping their teenagers at Nebraska hospitals. Nebraska's "safe haven" law, intended to allow parents to anonymously hand over an infant to a hospital without being prosecuted is being misused. Now for that facts before you think this is an epidemic. Of the 17 children relinquished since the law took effect in July, only four are younger than 10 -- and all four are among the nine siblings abandoned by a man September 24 at an Omaha hospital. On Tuesday, a 14-year-old girl from Council Bluffs, Iowa, was abandoned at Creighton University Medical Center in Omaha, Nebraska, just across the Missouri River from Council Bluffs. The case marks the first time a parent has crossed state lines to abandon a teenager in Nebraska, authorities said.

Nebraska's safe haven law needs to be changed immediately and these parents need to be parents. The purpose of these laws was to protect an infant in danger. All 50 states have safe haven laws, but only Nebraska's lacks an age limit. Nebraska's part-time Legislature is adjourned until January, but two state legislative committees will hold a joint hearing November 13 to discuss a remedy.

So why are these parents doing this unconscionable act? A woman who dropped her 15-year-old nephew at a Lincoln, Nebraska, hospital told CNN affiliate KETV last month that she and the boy's guardian could no longer handle his behavior problems. The woman, Cathy Poulin, said she tried discipline and medication, but nothing worked. The boy's mother died several years ago, and his father left him, she said. "We had to go to the next level," Poulin said. "He can be made to get help."

The Omaha man who left his nine children, ages 1 to 17, at Creighton University Medical Center was overwhelmed by the sudden death of his wife after the youngest child was born, he told KETV.

"I was with her for 17 years, and then she was gone. What was I going to do?" Gary Staton said. "We raised them together. I didn't think I could do it alone. I fell apart. I couldn't take care of them."

There are resources in the community and churches etc to assist parents like those above. They need to avail themselves of the resources in the community NOT abandon their children. The emotional scars from abandonment these children suffer will be tremendous.