How sad that a 2-year-old died in a hot car. Parents should learn from this to habitually lock their cars to prevent more of such tragedies.
To add to their grief, the Utah Division of Child and Family Services then took the family's three girls (ages 5-12) into "protective custody." Suffering an accidental death was apparently not bad enough, DCFS had to put them in fear of losing their girls or at least being dragged through costly battles with bureaucrats and judges. After all, shouldn't victims be kicked while they're down?I'm sure no DCFS workers got pleasure in doing this. There had been previous trouble with family disputes and suspicions of child abuse, such that the children had been in foster care and were back home on a "trial home placement." This gave DCFS "custody to monitor the situation."
But why impose "protective custody"? Did they believe the parents did this?
When children are forcibly taken from their parents, it is extremely traumatizing to both children and parents. To deserve such a serious family penalty, what was their crime or imagined crime? Where was due process?
What was protected here except DCFS? Do they think that using Gestapo tactics will prevent accidents from ever happening again or that they have the (impossible) duty to intimidate parents into being perfect?
God put loving but imperfect parents in charge of children, not some state agency, and U.S. parents ought to have some rights.
Steve Barrowes
Salt Lake City