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Nebraska’s ‘Safe Haven’

You can listen to this show on your computer. You can and you should. It raises important issues about the lack of health care and help for desperate parents and their children. Any teacher listening will think about the demand on her to leave no child behind.

As the final caller said, "People of all ages deserve help."

On Point Radio

The state of Nebraska was one of the last in the country to pass a "safe haven" law allowing kids to be dropped off at a hospital and handed over, for good, to the state. The hope was to keep infants, new babies, from being abandoned.

Instead, Nebraska got a wave of teenagers dropped on its doorstep. Parents from as far as Miami, Arizona, Georgia — effectively abandoning their teenage children to the state.

One father dumped nine children in Nebraska’s lap. The stories are heartbreaking, sobering.

This hour, On Point: Nebraska’s wake-up call on kids, parents, and the state.

What kind of parent would give a teenage child to the state? Are you outraged? Sympathetic? What can we learn from Nebraska?

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Joining us from Lincoln, Nebraska, is Martin Wells, the former news director for Nebraska’s NET Radio. He’s covering the “safe haven” law.

From Omaha, we’re joined by Chris Costantakos, an attorney practicing juvenile court law in Nebraska for 30 years. She’s author of “Juvenile Court Law and Practice.”

Also from Omaha, we’re joined by Rev. Darryl Eure, minister at the Freestone Baptist Church in Omaha. He’s coordinator for YouthBuild Omaha, a Goodwill Industries program, and works with at-risk youth ages 16-24.

From Princeton, New Jersey, is Yolanda Pierce, professor of African American religion and literature at Princeton Theological Seminary. She’s been writing about the safe haven laws on her blog, “The Kitchen Table.”

And from Cambridge, Mass., is Jane Waldfogel, professor of social work and public affairs at Columbia University.

— Tom Ashbrook
On Point Radio
2008-11-18
http://www.onpointradio.org/shows/2008/11/nebraskas-safe-haven/

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