This is the latest in a series of posts I have done criticizing Nebraska’s legalized child abandonment laws. You can find my earlier posts via my Nebraska tag.

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Thursday November 13th, before the Nebraska legislature’s special session began, two siblings about to be legally abandoned by their mother at Methodist Hospital decided they didn’t want to be among Nebraska’s dumped kids statistics. The brother and sister ditched the dump and ran.

The boy, age 14, was found pretty quickly, but his 17 year old older sister proved to be elusive.

Within hours of their attempted escape, the first newscast hit.

Methodist Hospital Confirms New Safe Haven Case; Children Flee KPTM(Fox/Faux news)
Posted: Nov 13, 2008 04:51 PM

Updated: Nov 18, 2008 04:46 PM

Methodist Hospital confirms to KPTM FOX 42 that it received the state’s latest safe haven case Thursday afternoon.

A hospital spokesman says a mother left her 14-year-old son and 17-year-old daughter at the hospital between 3:15 and 3:30pm.

The pair ran from the hospital some time after they were dropped off. The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services says the girl left the hospital, but the boy is in the state’s custody.

Nebraska DHHS counted both of the kids as “safe haven” cases, (link opens a PDF) even though the girl had fled before law enforcement could arrive. The Nebraska DHHS press release about their case and the incident, labels them the 32nd and 33rd kids in the official count.

Whereas usually, I’d call the Nebraska official stats too low, undercounting many instances of kids interacting with the “safe haven” systems out of the official tabulation, this may be the one and only instance of an overcount, the count going one kid extra high due to counting a kid who escaped before law enforcement could arrive and she could become an official “safe haven” case.

As we would later learn, her brother only entered the system after being tracked down off hospital premises by police and taken into custody.

My co-author on Children of the Corn, Marley Greiner picked the story up that evening, giving it the headline on her evening update piece:

BORN TO RUN! TWO ESCAPE SAFE HAVEN MOM November 13, 2008

We made the decision that in our Nebraska unofficial statistical tabulation based on media reports, that she was more aptly characterized as what Marley has labeled an “attempted” dump. Based on the numbers we’ve uncovered, her brother was at minimum kid number 43. She would have been at least the 44th kid to interact with the law at least on the level of being taken, in this case under flase pretenses, to a hospital for the purposes of dumping them.

(Naturally, as time has gone on, and we’ve started to hear directly from staff at the hospitals themselves, it’s become readily apparent both of these tabulations are gross undercounts. Numerous kids had been taken to hospitals with intent to dump and in one form or another never made it into the official tabulation, be that because the kids were later taken back home, or simply considered disqualified from the official count.)

By the following day, the story was getting still more coverage. The legislative special session began on the 14th, and so in many ways, the fact that she was still on the run got overshadowed.

Unlike the girl from Iowa who had been legally abandoned in Nebraska only to be returned to Iowa (as such was Nebraska’s policy towards out of state dumps) who went on to become a teen runaway, this 17 year old girl had refused to be dumped in the first place.

Girl Runs During Safe Haven Drop Attempt WMUR November 14, 2008

According to the staff at Methodist Hospital in Omaha, the girl ran off before reaching the emergency room. Her 14-year-old brother stayed. He’s now in state custody, reported television station KETV in Omaha.

Video- Teen Runs After Drop

On Monday the 17th, in the public testimony portion of the Judiciary Committee hearing we heard testimony from Sara Juster of Methodist Hospital. She spoke briefly to the case.

I’m paraphrasing as I don’t have the hearing transcribed yet, but going from my own personal memory and notes, she felt hospital ERs were inappropriate settings for older kids dumps, specifically because hospital staff could not “forcibly restrain” kids being dumped. Kids were able to get away before law enforcement could arrive.

By the time Tuesday the 18th rolled around, we learned these two had an older sister who was not happy with the fact that her mother had tried to dump her siblings. In this interview with her more details came out:

Sister wishes teenagers hadn’t been left Omaha World-Herald November 18, 2008

The 28-year-old sister of two Douglas County teenagers left last week at Methodist Hospital doesn’t think her mother should have used the safe haven law.

The mother told the teens, ages 14 and 17, that they were going to the hospital to visit another sibling, who she said had suffered a serious allergic reaction, the older sister said Monday.

The teens ran from the hospital Thursday when they figured out the real reason.

Police found the 14-year-old boy at a house a half-mile away. His 17-year-old sister still is missing.

To date, the mother herself has not spoken out.

The children’s mother said Monday that the situation was complicated. She said she did not want to speak publicly until her younger daughter has been found.

The 17-year-old girl has been in the juvenile court system. In December 2005, she was placed on probation after being caught shoplifting. Her probation was revoked when she refused to obey a curfew, left home for 10 days and tested positive for drugs, according to court records.

She was sent to the Douglas County Youth Center and a home in Sarpy County for troubled girls, but got into more trouble – skipping curfew and not going to school. A year ago, she spent time at the youth treatment center in Geneva, Neb.

Despite that, she isn’t a bad kid, her older sister said. The 17-year-old held a part-time job and was expected to graduate from high school, her sister said.

We also learn a bit more about what happened to the brother who was caught.

The boy, who is a high school freshman, was taken into foster care but has been placed with relatives, his sister said. He has had no serious behavioral problems, she said.

“He can be annoying sometimes,” his sister said, “but even that doesn’t give you the right to give up on him.”

Not surprisingly, none of the three kids are any too happy with the mother.

After talking to her mother, she still doesn’t understand why the teenagers had to be left at the hospital.

“She knows that we’re mad at her,” she said. “I asked her if she feels guilty, and she does not feel guilty about it.”

By and large Nebraskans and the world for that matter were focusing on the special session. The girl, who remained ‘on the run’ throughout the week the legislature met, was paid little attention.

That said, the Omaha World-Herald stayed on the story and when word came that she had finally contacted other relatives, it too was overshadowed.

Safe-haven runaway contacts her relatives Omaha World-Herald November 20, 2008

A teenager is safe and plans to reunite with relatives after fleeing from an Omaha hospital when she realized her mother was abandoning her and her younger brother under the state’s safe haven law.

Relatives reported they had heard from the 17-year-old runaway Wednesday, the same day a Douglas County Juvenile Court judge worried aloud about the girl’s safety during a court hearing.

“She needs to know she’s not in trouble here,” Judge Elizabeth Crnkovich said. “She needs to come forward so we can take care of her.”

We also get a little more detail about the younger brother, he was found by the police at a relative’s house.

It must have been pretty harrowing to be taken from such into protective custody. One can’t help but wonder what went through his mind, did he feel he had done something wrong? If so, well, ironic that.

It used to be those who abandoned children were the ones taken away by the cops, not kids themselves trying to avoid being abandoned.

Police soon found the 14-year-old at a relative’s house and placed him in protective custody.

Crnkovich ruled Wednesday that the mother wouldn’t immediately be allowed to visit the two children. The judge ruled after a caseworker told her the 14-year-old boy was angry with his mother and didn’t want to see her.

It’s believed to be one of the first times a judge didn’t grant visitation to a parent or guardian who used the safe haven law.

“Can you blame him? Of course he’s angry,” said an adult sister of the two siblings dropped off.

Makes you wonder if the kids could just abandon the mom, you know, drop her off somewhere safe and never have to see her again.

As for the girl herself?

To date I haven’t found any articles saying she’s no longer on the run, though I suppose that could either be a failing on my part or a lack of interest on the part of the media.

Wherever she is tonight, I hope she’s ok.

And no, I won’t count her as a “safe havened” case.

She and her brother did exactly what any kid would, they said no to being abandoned.

“Safe Haven” through the eyes of the kids being dumped is clearly anything but.