An American Tragedy

Friday's Rocky Mountain News has a story that is heartbreaking. A father, who was a police officer, was accused of physically abusing his infant daughter. The three-month-old child had eleven fractures on her tiny body. Child welfare workers removed the child from her home, causing unspeakable trauma to the parents and child. The baby's mom was hysterical. Child welfare workers told her that if she ever wanted to be reunited with her baby, she would have to divorce her husband, whom she loved.

Pressured by authorities to confess to crimes he did not commit, seeing his wife inconsolable, suffering unbelievable despair with no hope for the truth to prevail, the man shot his wife to death as she slept, then put two guns in his mouth and pulled both triggers, ending his life. These actions, of course, most likely caused authorities to be smugly certain they had accused the right man.

At a court hearing two days after the deaths of the parents, the foster mother told the court that something else was wrong with the baby. Genetic tests were ordered. Two days after the baby's mother was buried, the test results came back. The baby had spinal muscular atrophy, a genetic disease that prevents muscles from developing. The diagnosis explained the fractures. They were not caused by the father.

This case is just one more illustration of what is wrong with our child welfare system. Innocent people are judged guilty by child welfare workers, who assume for themselves the powers of judge and jury. Prejudged as guilty, parents have to spend months or years trying to prove their innocence. If the child welfare worker is sadistic, untold psychological damage is done to the innocent parents. It is an American tragedy that is not being addressed.