Changing Laws, Changing Lives
Hi friends,
A few months ago, I was invited to write a chapter for a reference book on American foster care. I’m thrilled to share this sneak peek with you in advance of publication. Here is my chapter, "Changing Laws, Changing Lives".
Thank you for helping America’s abandoned and abused children.
~ Darcy
P.S. Thanks to my friend, renowned photographer Sandra Tenuto, for this snapshot of my son Michael, adopted from foster care in 2018.
In January 2020, Phoenix police responded to a report of child abuse. This was not the first call for this address, and when the officers arrived, they found five children, ages 6, 4, 1, and two newborns. They were infested with lice, wearing diapers wet with urine and soiled with feces. They had insects crawling out of their ears.
One of the infants couldn’t breathe due to a brain bleed. The toddler had multiple skull fractures. Police immediately removed four of the children for medical treatment.
The fifth child, a baby born just weeks before, was not taken for help. This baby was taken to the morgue.
Like the Arizona infant, thousands of children die every year in America despite being known to authorities.
In Ohio, we read about Dylan, a 2-month-old, tortured, chained, and thrown down a well after the child protection agency returned him to his meth-addicted father.
In California, we read about Anthony, age 10, who, despite a long history of being abused, was returned to his California parents to be tortured, beaten, starved, and ultimately murdered.
Every one of these kids – just like the five Phoenix children – were known to their local child safety agency. Authorities knew these children and had multiple opportunities to keep them safe...and failed.