OMAHA -- Parents and guardians have brought 16 children to Immanuel Medical Center here, intending to abandon them.
"We've had parents come in tearful and shaking and very upset it had to get to that point, and they didn't know what to do," says nurse Linda Jensen, who manages the emergency department. The kids were 11-18 years old.
Under a unique state law, parents may leave children 17 and under at hospitals without fear of prosecution for abandonment. That has set off a national controversy, prompting the Legislature to consider narrowing the law.
"Some children know why they're here. Some don't," Jensen says. "One staff nurse said a child said, 'I'll be good! I'll be good! I'll be good if I can go home.'"
After the parents were told about mental-health services and other support, eight of the kids were taken home, says hospital spokeswoman Kelly Grinnell. The others went into foster care.
Today, lawmakers begin a special session of the Legislature to decide the age of children to be protected by the law, which took effect in July. All states have "safe haven" laws, which allow a parent to leave a child at a designated place, but Nebraska's is the only one that covers children older than 1 year.
On Thursday, a woman tried to leave her 17-year-old daughter and 14-year-old son at Methodist Hospital.
So far, 31 other children, 17 of them teenagers, have been dropped off. Five were from other states. They have been sent back to their home states, where most were put in foster care.
Nebraska's law, meant to protect infants, has had "unintended consequences," says state Sen. Mike Flood, the Republican speaker of the Legislature. He says it also "shined a national light on a problem many states have," which is a need for mental-health services for troubled kids. He says lawmakers won't do anything about access to services during the special session, which will run at least a week, but will address it in the regular one in January.
Flood proposes limiting the safe-haven law to infants up to 3 days old. He says some people want a higher age.
The abandonments reveal the stress many families face, says James Blue, president of Cedars, an emergency shelter for children in Lincoln.
"Many of them have lived very difficult lives," he says. "We've had tough teen boys in tears."
All but three of the first 30 had previously had mental-health care, and all but three were in single-parent homes, according to the state Department of Health and Human Services.
Twenty-two had parents or guardians who had been jailed, and 17 were or had been in state care.
"None of them seemed horribly surprised" at being left, says Suzanne Haney, medical director of Project Harmony, an organization that helps victims of child abuse. She examined some of the children.
Some of the parents and guardians say they struggled with the decision. Lavennia Coover, who left her 11-year-old son in September, says she wanted to take care of him but couldn't. "I was using the law because my son is a danger to himself and the family at home," she wrote in a letter to news organizations.
The safe-haven law shows that desperate families need a place to go for help, says Jonah Deppe of the Nebraska chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness.
Todd Landry, of the state Department of Health and Human Services, says most of the parents were eligible for mental-health and other services under Medicaid.
The law has generated much debate. Every time a child is left, high school sophomore Tyler Marick says, his geography class discusses it.
"Every child needs to be treated equally," says Tyler's mother, Deanna Marick, 53. She says the law should not be changed.
Mary Scott, 66, who raised seven children while working two jobs, says the law should apply only to newborns. She says parents need to take responsibility. "They think it's a way out," she says.
Cement worker Mike Anzaldo, 18, who has a 10-month-old daughter, agrees. "How can you abandon them when they need you the most?" he asks. "If they're bad kids, get them help. ... It's not their fault."
"We need to stop this," says Jordan Johnson, 19. He says the law makes Nebraska look bad and should apply only to infants up to 3 days old.
Debra Dehning, 54, says the law should be for infants only but that families need "a place to take kids in trouble."
William Guy, 55, a martial arts instructor, says he and his wife have been "emergency placement" foster parents off and on for 15 years. Last year, they took in a 16-year-old autistic boy, and it took months to get a specialist to see him.
Guy says the law should not shield non-Nebraskans and should not be limited to infants. He says many of the families who used it were in crisis. "They just don't know where to go."
Koch reported from McLean, Va.
To see more of USAToday.com, or to subscribe, go to http://www.usatoday.com
??? Copyright 2007 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.