Brittany Harris, 25, is the latest parent to be arrested for going to a concert or casino and leaving kids in the car. In this case, Harris went to a Lil Wayne rap concert and left her two children — ages 3 and 5 — in a parking lot with hundreds of strangers milling about, including a large number of drunken people.
harris was arrested Sunday on two counts of child neglect after an employee spotted the children left in the car for hours. The kids are now in the custody of the Florida Department of Children and Families.
These case always raise a difficult question over the proper level of punishment for the parent and protection for the children. Should the children be placed in foster care temporarily (that seems clear) or permanently. It is a huge punishment to take someone’s children away from them even though this is an outrageous decision. are there any mitigating factors that would be to leniency in such a case? Would it be mitigating to learn that she was a single mother? For a young single mother, child care can be difficult to secure. That does not excuse this dangerous and foolish act. However, what would you order as a judge in such a case?
Source: WPTV
Placing children in Florida with Dept. of Children and Families is a nightmare for those children as well as their parents. The State of FL should advertise how they managed the Barrahona rent-a-child program as a strong message against poor parenting decisions. Our tax dollars endorsing the criminal State.
Reblogged this on The Promiscuous Writer and commented:
See? Florida…just STOP. Just. Stop.
ok there must be something huge about to happen in florida there is to much devilment coming from that one state non stop everyday… is that the portal for his crapness to begin waging his war on us….??? is the corporation about to pulverize florida for the aliens to land on? come on somebody knows what the heebie geebie is going on down there smh
From my experience this is clearly a case of child neglect, not abuse. Had I supervised this case I would have placed the children. The mother is certainly neglectful and her overall ability to care for the childrpen requires investigation. However, for those so quick to want to keep the kids in child care I would caution them to not be so quick in judgment. The child care systems in NY, which I’m quite familiar with, are at best mediocre and at worst horrible. In Florida…..God knows.
blhlls, It all depends on the type of neglect. You’re correct, severing parental rights, from my experience, almost always involves physical abuse. However, there were a couple cases I remember during my tenure @ the Juvenile Court in KC where a pattern of neglect resulted in severing. In one case the mom had been found twice to be neglectful. Kids were taken into foster care. Evaluations of mom and kids, w/ counseling and supervised visitation. The kids eventually were returned to her w/ supervision. Then, because of her neglect, one of her kids[~4 years old] was playing in a busy street. The kid got stuck by a car and was seriously injured. The police found mom passed out drunk on the sofa w/ the other kids having the run of the house. Her rights were severed.
Nick S.: Would Florida permit them to move to sever based on prior neglect allegations? I wouldn’t have thought that would pass constitutional muster in the absence of actual injury or prior failure to reunify.
Thoroughly realistic parenting classes should be given top priority and required of every student all the way through high school.
blhlls, If she has a prior record of abuse or neglect the court may move to sever her parental rights. However, what they will probably do first is try and find a solid family member to take the kids. If not, foster home for the kids, w/ supervised visitation @ either placement. If this is her first violation the court will demand a psych evaluation and counseling, along w/ the kids living elsewhere. If she is shown to be a continuing danger, then they will move to sever rights. Those hearings are a pretty big deal, as they should be. For the state to take your kids is maybe more serious than taking away your freedom via incarceration.