On top of all the other harm done
to children when they’re torn needlessly from everyone they know and love – the
terrible
outcomes for foster children, the high rate
of abuse in foster care itself, and so on – now there’s a new threat. Consider how taking away a child can increase
the risk of that child contracting the coronavirus. Look at the process of removal and placement
step-by-step:
Step
1: The child may
well physically resist removal – that means the ultimate in close contact with
the strangers who have come to the door to take her or him away.
Step
2: The child is
forced into the car of caseworkers or police officers who may have transported
any number of others.
Step
3: The child
waits at an office while a foster home is found.
Step
4: If no foster
home is found, the child is put back into a car and transported to the worst
option of all – one of those godawful
parking place shelters,
where they will be thrown in with scores of other children and youth. And every time the shift changes at the
shelters – or at other institutions – the children are exposed to another set
of strangers.
Step 5: When a foster
home is found, it’s another car ride to another set of strangers.
And to top it off, if courts are
continuing to hold hearings to take children away, but refusing to hold
hearings to send them home, all those foster homes and shelters are likely to
get more crowded.
So now there is one more reason to
stop and think twice – then think again – before taking children from their
parents.
