Smyrna boy, 12, dropped in Nebraska ‘safe haven’

A Smyrna mother traveled nearly 1,000 miles to abandon her 12-year-old son at a Nebraska hospital Saturday night, authorities said.

Tysheema Brown, 33, left her child at BryanLGH Medical Center East at 9:50 p.m., said Chief Tom Casady of the Lincoln, Neb., Police Department.

Brown was allowed to leave her offspring at a hospital without threat of prosecution. Nebraska’s “safe haven” law, unlike those in other states, has no upper age limit.

Efforts by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution to reach Brown by telephone Sunday night were unsuccessful.

Todd Landry, director of the Division of Children and Family Services for the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services, said in a statement that the boy has been placed in a residential shelter.

State officials are gathering information from Georgia and Nebraska, Landry said.

Nebraska’s safe haven law was intended to protect children who are in immediate danger of being harmed. It took effect in July.

Under the law, 20 children ranging in age from 1 to 17 years have been abandoned in the state since Sept. 13, Landry said. Sixteen youths were older than 10.

About half of all safe haven cases involved children who are former state wards, officials said.

Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman said last week that the state legislature intends to amend the safe haven law so that it only applies to infants up to three days old. Unless a special session is called, though, the next legislative session does not begin until January.

“This law has had serious, unintended consequences,” Heineman said in a statement. “It needs to be changed to focus on its original intent — protecting infants. I also want to make Nebraskans aware of our efforts to ensure that families and children in need know about the services available to them.”

Casady said authorities were not surprised when people started abandoning older children.

“There’s a lot of desperate and frustrated parents who are at their wits’ end, dealing with behavioral and emotional issues,” Casady said. “Some kinds of services are hard to get and afford, so if you provide an easy button, you shouldn’t be surprised it would be hit.”

Brown traveled the farthest of any parent to date to leave a child in Nebraska. Two other children came from out of state, from Iowa and Michigan.

Casady said the county attorney’s office will file a petition in juvenile court and a judge will decide whether to keep Brown’s child under state protection or reunite the boy with his family.

Every state has a safe-haven law meant to save the lives of unwanted infants.

Most states let parents and guardians drop off children up to a month old at hospitals or other safe places. Sixteen states including Georgia have the 3-day-old age cap.

A national expert on safe-haven laws commended Nebraska officials for moving to impose an age limit, but he said action should be taken now to prevent older children from abandonment.

“When children are older they have the ability to understand what’s going on and they’re thinking, ‘Mommy and Daddy don’t want me anymore, so they’re throwing me in a hospital.’ That’s a psychological blow,” said Tim Jaccard, president of the National Safe Haven Alliance.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.