[Nfbmo] [Chapter-presidents] responseRe: Fw: [Missouri-l] Infant isreturned to blind couple after state placesher in protective custody

Gary Wunder gwunder at earthlink.net
Thu Jul 22 11:03:06 UTC 2010



 ---- Original Message ------
From: "Donna Posont" <donnabutterfly50 at gmail.com
Subject: [Chapter-presidents] responseRe: Fw: [Missouri-l] Infant 
isreturned to blind couple after state placesher in protective 
custody
Date sent: Wed, 21 Jul 2010 22:04:25 -0400

I was finally able to read the article of baby coming home 
without crying
this time.  I have felt great pain for the couple, but I have a 
nagging
feeling that something deep inside of me was being stirred up.  
Atwenty-two
year old memmory has surfaced and demands to be shared.  When our 
first son
Peter was born in 1988 a social worker visited me in the hospital 
because it
had come to her attention that both parents of the new baby were 
blind and
she had concerns of how we could care for our new child.  
Thankfully we took
our baby home, but a few days later a child protective services 
worker
appeared at the door.  She wanted to be sure that Peter was being 
cared for
properly.  After noticing my older daughter Katie and her lovely 
hair that I
had braided and the fact that I was babysitting another five year 
old the
worker indicated that she wasn't sure what she was doing there.  
I was glad
when she left and did not try to take my baby , but it was a long 
time
before I could take my children to a doctor's appointment without 
wondering
if someone was going to find something that they had thought I 
had done
wrong because of my blindness.  After raising five sighted kids I 
am so
shocked that these negative attitudes still exist and must be 
dealt with.  It
shows me that we still have much work to do in the National 
Federation of
the Blind and we can never give up until we live in a world that 
does not
allow a baby to be taken from a mother's arms because the mother 
happens to
be blind.
----- Original Message -----
From: "James H.  "Jim" Canaday M.A.  N6YR" <n6yr at sunflower.com
To: "NFB Chapter Presidents discussion list" 
<chapter-presidents at nfbnet.org
Sent: Wednesday, July 21, 2010 12:00 PM
Subject: Re: [Chapter-presidents] Fw: [Missouri-l] Infant is 
returned to
blind couple after state placesher in protective custody


I hope that NFB can push for greater protections
so that this doesn't happen again.  I do agree with you.
jc

At 10:37 AM 7/21/2010, you wrote:
Joyous and yet still infuriating!



On 7/21/10, James H.  "Jim" Canaday M.A.  N6YR 
<n6yr at sunflower.com> wrote:
 wonderful news!
 hurrah!
 jc

 At 07:57 AM 7/21/2010, you wrote:

----- 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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--
Sponsor me in this year's National Federation of the Blind Race 
for
Independence!
Visit my Race Page at:

http://www.raceforindependence.org/goto/dan.burke

Dan Burke, President
Montana Association for the Blind,
An Affiliate of the National Federation of the Blind

My Cell:  406.546.8546

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