36 year old mother, from Utah, Kathy Sherrer, with four special needs children, left her 8-year-old son with special needs at Jordan Valley Medical Center, claiming she was overwhelmed by him constantly calling her foul names and pulling his pants down in public.
Sherrer said she left him there because she was making use of Utah’s Safe Haven law.
Under the law, parents can drop off a baby up to three days old anonymously at a hospital or fire station with no questions asked or consequences. However, her child was 8 and not a newborn baby.
According to KSL News, Sherrer tried to justify what she did by saying:
“I thought that it was okay that we could drop them off and it was a Safe Haven place,” Sherrer said, “I don’t think I’m necessarily a bad mother. I got more like overwhelmed. I wasn’t sure about the Safe Haven laws or what it meant… I really did not know any other way to go about it.”According to police reports, her son walked up to the reception of the hospital building with a note from his mother which read, “This kid is rude and ungovernable! I do not want him in my house at all!”
The Hospital called the police who took the child into protective custody.
The police were able to track and arrest Sherrer who now faces child abandonment and child abuse charges.
Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill said:
“You don’t get to arbitrarily drop children off at certain institutions,”. “You reach out to that organization, that organization helps process your child, there’s an understanding. Everybody understands what everyone’s role is. But you don’t simply say, ‘I’ve had enough and I’m going to drop off this child and no one knows who I am.”’The boy is still being cared for by social services.