Children Floating In Plastic Bins

The Rocky Mountain News today has a story (not yet online) about a little girl's body washing ashore in a plastic bin near Galveston, Texas. The mother has already confessed that she and her "partner" beat the little two-year-old girl with leather belts, held her head underwater in a bath tub, and then Mr. Partner threw the child across the room, slamming her head onto a tile floor.

The plastic bin in water reminds me of a case I had in my career as a child protection worker. A cocaine dealer was married to a woman who had bipolar disorder. I found the child in squalid conditions.

To get a child to safety, you must appear before a judge and present evidence. I met with the father right before the temporary custody court hearing. He proudly showed me pictures of him and his wife placing the two-year-old in a plastic bin that appeared to be a small wading pool, and floating her down a roiling mountain stream. The photos showed the man placing her in the bin about 100 yards upstream from the mother, whose job it was to catch the child when she came downstream. I asked the man if I could have the pictures. He said, "Sure!" I then gave them to our attorney, who put the man on the stand and questioned him about the pictures. The judge removed the baby from this couple. I placed her with the woman's brother and his wife, a loving couple with two small children.

The father was later arrested and jailed for some other crime in another county. The mom got appropriate medical treatment, including the right drugs (not cocaine), got a good job, and, with help from her mom, got stable enough to resume caring for the child.