The dead cannot cry out for justice; it is a duty of the living to do so for them.
Lois McMaster Bujold, Diplomatic Immunity, 2002

So this woman asks for help with her bipolar and the help is given in the removal of her daughter who was placed in foster care. So everything is great right? Well the mother worked to get her medication and qualify to get her daughter back. She met all the requirements. She applied and was scheduled for a hearing on the 16th of this month (although according to the public defender, she had met all the requirements a while ago.) Sounds like a lifetime movie about a woman’s struggle for her child.

However, she isn’t getting her baby back, or least not alive, and this is real life. The foster mom went the the doctor, was given some medication, came home with the baby and two other children, got them into the house, and promptly fell asleep on the couch. She woke up about two hours later, rushed outside, and found the baby still in the car, unconscious. She didn’t recover.

So, the baby was taken away from a mother, for the good of the child, and given to another who killed her. Explain to me again how the system is so much better? Please?

Want to take it up a notch? The police haven’t decided whether to charge her because they want to see the toxicology report on the foster parent. She took the drugs, she is responsible. Why is this even a question? I love this line cause it just makes it all better. When speaking about the foster mother, one woman said, “She acted more like a parent, really, than a foster parent.” So what exactly does that mean? Another person commented on Bastardette’s blog about how this foster parent had given Bibles to foster kids. So how many gift Bibles wipe out the death of a child? The agencies response? Nothing. However the State Child Advocate stated, “I usually look at these kinds of situations as there but for the grace of God go I.” Wow, isn’t that just awe inspiring.

This situation is bugging me to no end and I don’t know why. There are others cases like this out there and I don’t know why this one sticks in my craw so badly.

I read about this initially on Bastardette Blog, specifically her entry entitled Somebody needs to be held responsible and the follow up Jessica Scovil update grandmother and the article on the Athens Banner-Herald.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 9th, 2008 at 10:43 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.