The man who is single-handedly responsible for legislature amending the Safe Haven Law is back in the news today…
He is having twins.
“Gary Staton, 37, became a single father in February 2007 when his wife, RebelJane, died of a cerebral aneurysm shortly after giving birth to the couple’s ninth child. Unable to handle the burden alone, Staton made national news more than a year later on Sept. 24 when he dropped off his children — ages 1 to 17 — at a hospital in Omaha. According to the law at the time, parents could hand children up to age 18 over to state custody without prosecution.”
Gary Staton’s mother stated that the youngest seven of his children are living with their mother’s aunt, who is planning on adopting them, and the older two, are staying with an elderly woman in Omaha so that they could finish up at their high school.
Staton refused to comment.
When the children received news of their father having more kids, they reportedly weren’t angry.
“They don’t seem to be, they’re doing fine… He goes up there for visits — they still have a connection. They kind of understood what he did, he was stressed with everything else.”
Stressed with everything else? What kind of backwards red-neck logic is that? THOSE ARE YOUR KIDS!!
“In November, after its first special session in more than five years, Nebraska’s legislators revised the safe haven law to apply only to babies up to 30 days old. Gov. Dave Heineman said the original law had “serious unintended consequences” after 36 children — ranging from 1 to 17 years old — were abandoned at hospitals, including children brought to Nebraska from as far away as California and Washington. Twenty-two of the 36 children were age 13 or older, and eight were ages 10-12, according to state records.”
“Revising the law to create a ‘baby safe haven’ in Nebraska does two things,” Heineman said in a statement last November. “First, it puts the focus back on the original intent of these laws, which is saving newborn babies and exempting a parent from prosecution for child abandonment. It should also prevent those outside the state from bringing their children to Nebraska in an attempt to secure services.”
The last use of Nebraska’s Safe Haven Law was on November 21st, the last day the law was being applied to children up to 18, when a 14 year old boy was driven 1,200 miles by his mother from Yolo County California to be abandoned at Kimball County Hospital.
I just don’t get it. People jumping at the chance to abandon their kids without fear of prosecution. Horrible.
Click to check out the Father Who Ditched Nine Kids and now Has Two More on the Way.
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