[Jayhawk-chapter] Missouri infant returned to blind couple

Wed Jul 21 14:55:35 UTC 2010

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>Date: Wed, 21 Jul 2010 07:57:05 -0500
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>Subject: [Chapter-presidents] Fw: [Missouri-l] Infant is returned to blind
>         couple after state placesher in protective custody
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>----- Original Message -----
>From: <mailto:chip at gatewayfortheblind.com>Chip Hailey
>To: <mailto:missouri-l at moblind.org>MCB Listserve
>Sent: Wednesday, July 21, 2010 7:47 AM
>Subject: [Missouri-l] Infant is returned to 
>blind couple after state placesher in protective custody
>
>Posted on Wed, Jul. 21, 2010 12:15 AM
>Email
>Infant is returned to blind couple after state 
>places her in protective custody
>By LEE HILL KAVANAUGH
>The Kansas City Star
>Fifty-seven days after she was born, Mikaela 
>Sinnett was home for the first time Tuesday with 
>her parents, Erika Johnson and Blake Sinnett of 
>Independence. State officials had worried they were unable to care for her.
>DAVID EULITT | The Kansas City Sta
>Fifty-seven days after she was born, Mikaela 
>Sinnett was home for the first time
>Tuesday with her parents, Erika Johnson and 
>Blake Sinnett of Independence. State
>officials had worried they were unable to care for her.
>
>A folding cane used by Blake Sinnett rested in 
>the baby carrier used to carry home his daughter.
>
>On Tuesday, Blake Sinnett, guided by his mother, 
>Jenne Sinnett, carried his 2-month-old daughter, 
>Mikaela Sinnett. Behind them was Mikaela’s mother, Erika Johnson.
>Erika Johnson will never be able to see her baby, Mikaela.
>But for 57 days she couldn’t keep her newborn 
>close, smell her baby’s breath, feel
>her downy hair.
>The state took away her 2-day-old infant into 
>protective custody — because Johnson
>and Mikaela’s father are both blind.
>No allegations of abuse, just a fear that the 
>new parents would be unable to care
>for the child.
>On Tuesday, Johnson still couldn’t stop crying, 
>although Mikaela was back in her
>arms.
>“We never got the chance to be parents,” she 
>said. “We had to prove that we could.”
>Tuesday, she and Blake Sinnett knew their baby 
>was finally coming home to their Independence
>apartment, but an adjudication hearing was 
>scheduled for the afternoon on whether
>the state would stay involved in the rearing of 
>the baby. Then from a morning phone
>call to their attorney, they learned that the state was dismissing their case.
>“Every minute that has passed that this family 
>wasn’t together is a tragedy. A legal
>tragedy and a moral one, too,” said Amy Coopman, 
>their attorney. “How do you get
>57 days back?”
>Arleasha Mays, a spokeswoman for the Missouri 
>Department of Social Services, said
>privacy laws prohibited her from speaking about 
>specific cases. But she added, “The
>only time we recommend a child be removed is if it’s in imminent danger.”
>Johnson said she knew the system eventually 
>would realize its horrible mistake, but
>she often was consumed with sadness. Sinnett 
>tried his best to keep Johnson hopeful.
>For almost two months she and Sinnett could 
>visit their baby only two or three times
>a week, for just an hour at a time, with a foster parent monitoring.
>“I’m a forgiving person,” Johnson said, but 
>she’s resentful that people assumed she
>was incapable.
>“Disability does not equal inability,” she said.
>Representatives of the sightless community 
>agreed that people were well-meaning but
>blinded by ignorance.
>Mikaela was born May 21 at Centerpoint Medical 
>Center of Independence. The doctors
>let Sinnett “see” her birth by feeling the crowning of her head.
>For Johnson, hearing Mikaela’s whimpers was a 
>thrill. The little human inside her
>all these months, the one who hiccupped and 
>burped, who kicked and moved, especially
>at night, was now a real person whom she loved 
>more than anything else she’d ever
>imagined.
>In her overnight bag was Mikaela’s special 
>homecoming outfit, a green romper from
>Johnson’s mother, with matching bottoms and a baby bow.
>Questions arose within hours of Mikaela’s birth, 
>after Johnson’s clumsy first attempts
>at breast-feeding — something many new mothers experience.
>A lactation nurse noticed that Mikaela’s 
>nostrils were covered by Johnson’s breast.
>Johnson felt that something was wrong and 
>switched her baby to her other side, but
>not before Mikaela turned blue.
>That’s when the concerned nurse wrote on a 
>chart: “The child is without proper custody,
>support or care due to both of parents being 
>blind and they do not have specialized
>training to assist them.”
>Her words set into motion the state mechanisms 
>intended to protect children from
>physical or sexual abuse, unsanitary conditions, 
>neglect or absence of basic needs
>being met.
>Centerpoint said it could not comment because of 
>patient privacy laws, but spokeswoman
>Gene Hallinan said, “We put the welfare of our patients as our top priority.”
>A social worker from the state came by Johnson’s 
>hospital room and asked her questions:
>How could she take her baby’s temperature? 
>Johnson answered: with our talking thermometer.
>How will you take her to a doctor if she gets 
>sick? Johnson’s reply: If it were an
>emergency, they’d call an ambulance. For a 
>regular doctor’s appointment, they’d call
>a cab or ride a bus.
>But it wasn’t enough for the social worker, who 
>told Johnson she would need 24-hour
>care by a sighted person at their apartment.
>Johnson said they couldn’t afford it, didn’t need it.
>“I needed help as a new parent, but not as a blind parent,” Johnson said.
>She recalled the social worker saying: “ ‘Look, 
>because you guys are blind, I don’t
>feel like you can adequately take care of her.’ And she left.”
>The day of Johnson’s discharge, another social 
>worker delivered the news to the couple
>that Mikaela was not going home with them. The 
>parents returned the next day to visit
>Mikaela before she left the hospital, but they were barred from holding her.
>“All we could do was touch her arm or leg,” Johnson said.
>The couple began making calls. Gary Wunder, 
>president of the National Federation
>of the Blind of Missouri, had trouble believing it at first.
>“I needed to verify their whole story,” he 
>recalled. “We had to do due diligence.
>
 I found the couple to be intelligent and responsible.
>“We knew this was an outrage that had taken place.”
>He notified Kansas City chapter president Shelia 
>Wright, who visited the 24-year-olds.
>Hearing about the empty crib, the baby clothes, 
>Wright recalled, “I felt as helpless
>as I’ve ever felt in my life.
>“I hurt so bad for them. This is unforgivable.”
>They rallied other associations for the blind 
>nationwide. More than 100 people at
>a national convention in Dallas volunteered to 
>travel to Kansas City to protest and
>testify, both as blind parents and as the 
>sighted children of blind parents. (Mikaela
>has normal sight.)
>They also hired Coopman, who watched the young 
>couple with their baby girl on Tuesday.
>“I’m sorry,” she said, wiping tears. “But this should not have happened.”
>Johnson kept a journal that Coopman is keeping 
>closed for now. She indicates that
>legal action will be taken.
>“Whether a couple is visually impaired or deaf 
>or in a wheelchair, the state should
>not keep them from their children,” she said.
>Now breast-feeding is a lost option. And the 
>beautiful newborn clothes hanging in
>the closet went unworn, because their baby was 
>growing bigger in the arms of someone
>else.
>The couple said they had tried to prove 
>themselves to the sighted community since
>their early years. Sinnett rode his bicycle on 
>the street with the help of a safety
>gadget. Johnson graduated from high school with 
>honors. But all the challenges they’ve
>endured over the years shrink compared to the 
>responsibility of caring for 10 pounds
>of squirming baby girl.
>Johnson cuddled Mikaela. Gave her a bottle. 
>Patted her back until she burped. Mikaela
>gave a tiny smile.
>In their 24 years, the couple said, they’ve both 
>endured prejudice from others. They
>don’t want any other blind parent to suffer the same obstacle they did.
>Fifty-seven days are too precious to lose.
>The Star’s Laura Bauer contributed to this 
>report. To reach Lee Hill Kavanaugh, call
>816-234-4420 or send e-mail to
><mailto:lkavanaugh at kcstar.com>lkavanaugh at kcstar.com
>
>
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