In Utah, authorities reportedly left a malnourished child in the “care” of the mother’s boyfriend – while her mother was stationed out of state in the armed forces.
The five year old girl reportedly weighed only 12 or 13 pounds.
The girl was later removed from the mother’s boyfriend’s home, but only after her grandfather sought a protective order. Then the boyfriend was arrested.
Authorities did not act due to fear of civil liability.
Recent Utah legislation reportedly makes it riskier to remove a child from a parent or legal guardian.
Unfortunately, the legislation appears to have had the unintended effect of paralyzing child protective services from protecting children.
Read more in this Utah Deseret News article: Child welfare can be full of land mines.
