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Sparkle (1)
A 42-year-old father in New Zealand is facing criminal charges he left his one-year-old baby alone in a car while he visited a strip club. The incident was reported to the authorities by a passer-by, who noticed the baby in the vehicle around 3 a.m. in the parking lot of the club. Authorities arrived within seven minutes, removed the child from the car and brought the baby to a hospital for observation. The child appears to be physically unharmed and is now being taken care of at another hospital while family members make arrangements for his care. The predictable route would be to rehash that a dad left his baby in a car while he went into a strip club, call out his lousy parenting, and then write it up with the requisite smug remark dooming the child's future.
I'm not going to go that route. I think we're all tired of it, and frankly, it offers nothing new to the conversation -- nor is it really news. We hear stories about kids in cars all summer long. And they are tragic stories. And they hurt our hearts -- so much so that I'm not going to link to any of them. We all know summer is heading our way, and kids dying in cars is bound to be in the news yet again. But instead of focusing on admonishing anyone, let's focus on what it takes to be a good Samaritan -- the person who makes the decision to get involved, to pick up the phone, to say a few words. In some situations, it's black and white: Witness a baby alone in a car, it's 3 a.m. and the vehicle is in the parking lot of a strip joint. But ...
What if I told you that in some states it is legal to leave a baby alone in a vehicle for up to 10 minutes? It's true. When I lived in Illinois, I watched on a lovely day in mid-May as a woman left her toddler in the back seat of her car and walked into a store. I was about to say something to her, but I noticed a police officer stood by his own car in the parking lot, not even 10 feet away. He witnessed the entire thing, and yet he didn't utter a peep. Not even a "Ma'am, your baby is in that car." Nada. Zippo. Silent. As a social worker, I am a mandated reporter, as are officers of the law. I was admittedly dumbfounded when the police officer just stood there, doing nothing and yet witnessing a potentially dangerous situation for a baby. It was a WTF moment.
I approached the officer and introduced myself, explained I had recently moved to Illinois and maybe the laws are different here. I shared with the officer that where I come from you can't legally leave your baby alone in a car. He told me, "In the state of Ilinois, you can. For up to 10 minutes. I've got my watch going on her." I believe, and you can quote me on this, I responded, "Are you shitting me?" I just could not fathom the state of Illinois could be so stupid. In 10 minutes, a child under six years old left alone in a car in the summer heat could be dead! The officer shrugged his shoulders as if to say, "I only enforce the law, I don't make the law." Holy wake-up call, Batman!
But even if the law is on your side, people are often afraid to get involved and offer assistance. Here are a few misconceptions folks have shared with me that make it difficult for them to pick up the phone when they observe a child in danger.*
"If I call the police or child protective services, that parent is going to have his or her child taken away." Well, to this I say "Thank you LifeTime Movie Network for depicting social workers as baby snatchers." The more serious answer is that typically it takes far more than one phone call to remove a child from a parent -- and even if a child is taken into custody, other family members are the first ones considered to provide temporary shelter and care. One phone call to child
