Blind Couple Fights for Custody

[BC-Tracik]

This is a local story here from December... I heard on the news this morning that this poor couple is still fighting to keep their baby and are still being forced to have "observers" in their home to make sure they are caring properly their baby. There have been no incidents in the past 3 mos to concern CPS but they are still there putting pressure on the family to voluntarily relinquish the child... augh

I think it is appalling... After all this time the family should be left alone to enjoy their first child without interference from social workers or anyone else.

Thoughts?


Blind parents of newborn find support

Activists help parents keep baby out of foster care

By Nicole Neroulias, STAFF WRITER

REDWOOD CITY -- Love is blind, but some believe parenting requires visual ability.

They're dead wrong, argue enraged activists for the disabled, who have rallied around a blind couple fighting to keep their healthy newborn out of foster care.

When little Rivaldo was born Friday morning, Marco and Adelina Zepeda asked a Sequoia Hospital nurse to arrange for someone to visit their Redwood City apartment over the weekend to visually check on the baby's progress.

After observing the nervous father struggling to diaper the infant, a social worker convinced Marco Zepeda to sign a formauthorizing child protective services to take temporary custody of the baby if the couple could not care for him properly.

"This is after 48 hours of no sleep. This was not presented in Mr. Zepeda's native language, and it was not presented in an accessible format, such as Braille," said Margie Donovan of the California Council of the Blind.

An alarmed Zepeda posted a message to an Internet network of blind parents, prompting an influx of advocates rushing to the couple's aid.

County officials ultimately allowed the Zepedas to take their baby home for the weekend, with the condition that someone check on them every few hours.

On Monday, CPS officials discussed the case with the couple's attorney -- provided by the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund -- and Donovan said the immediate threat of foster care was removed.

Hardly appeased, the Council of the Blind wants every CPS and hospital employee to undergo disability-awareness training, Donovan said, and the social worker put on administrative leave.

"Our first goal was to get the family discharged from the hospital. Our next goal is to get the CPS to close the case, and then our next goal is to file lawsuits," she said.

Citing patient confidentiality, Sequoia Hospital and county officials would only comment on general aspects of the Zepeda case.

Hospital employees are required by law to report any concerns about a child's safety to CPS -- including a situation in which a parent displays difficulty giving basic care, such as diapering, said Maureen Davidson, county spokesperson.

When county authorities are alerted to a potential problem, Davidson said, CPS officials work with the family until determining that parents have made sufficient accommodations to ensure their child's safety. "Removing a child would be our last resort," Davidson said.

"Our first priority at the hospital is the health and safety of our patients," said Linda Kresge, chief nurse administrator at Sequoia Hospital. "In this case, we utilized all the available resources to ensure the success of the family."

But Paul Raskin, who knew the Zepedas through his position as a sighted supervisor at the Peninsula Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired, said he had told a social worker he would be happy to check on the new parents -- though he was confident they would be just fine. "Blind parents have babies all the time," he said, naming pro-football star Jim Plunkett as an example of a successful child of a sight-impaired couple.

Donovan, a blind single mother, said occasional help from sighted friends, combined with products such as talking thermometers and child harnesses, enable blind people to parent with ease.

The only local case Raskin knew of where authorities removed a baby from a blind parent's care was about 10 years ago, but the case involved an ailing mother of twins living in a foster home, he said.

Anxious Alabama officials took custody of a newborn from her blind parents in April, but Donovan said she had expected more of the Bay Area, where thousands of people with disabilities receive services each year.

[Suebee]

I can see why a nurse might be concerned but I think it was taken way too far. Maybe a little more help to instruct the parents would have been good, but probably by someone that worked with the blind rather then some social worker who probably had no experience in this area. Of course the father struggled with diapering his baby. All new parents struggle with diapering especially with it being a new experience. I am sure these parents will do just fine. There are many differently abled parents out there that raise wonderful children.

We were foster parents to a young boy who was taken into care while he was at a relatives. His mother was mildly mentally impaired. She is and was a great parent yet he stayed in our home for 6 months while the court figured out that she was a good parent.



Sue