A better plan needed for 4-year-old panhandler (Parents refused help from San Fran)

[lindisfarne]

Little Gavin Mills, the 4-year-old panhandler who evoked so much sympathy and concern from San Franciscans, has been taken from his parents by Child Protective Services.

It is an incredibly difficult decision to take a child away from his mother and father, but in this case it is the right choice.

"Gavin deserves a chance in life," said Mary Long, who began a crusade to improve Gavin's and his mother Toni's life after seeing them at the Embarcadero BART Station. "He wasn't getting one being used as a panhandler tool by his chronically homeless mom."

City officials say the family was repeatedly offered beds, services and child care. But their offers, they say, were rebuffed, and people like Long kept seeing Gavin panhandling.
...
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/07/18/MNJ518R40V.DTL&type=printable

[EFerrari]

1. I wonder when the last time was that Gavin's parents saw a doctor.

It's must easier to make them the villians. Good job, San Francisco!

[nini]

2. They're not necessarily villians

but they're also not capable of caring for him if they're refusing help.

Sad situation.

[EFerrari]

3. At this point, we don't know what they're refusing.

People like that don't have press agents. :(

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

4. If it is a hard decision... find another line of work

Children should never be victimized because their parents are fucking morons. If this has been going on for months it needs to be MUCH easier for the state to intervene on behalf of children.

[Liberal_in_LA]

8. agreed.

[proteus_lives]

5. Put him in a foster home....

And spay and neuter the so-called "parents."

[TaffyMoon]

10. Yeah, bring back eugenics!

Really, really moronic.

[proteus_lives]

11. They made choice.

Not us. They are ones who failed.

[Liberal_in_LA]

6. Other folks offered to get them off the streets, the parents refused

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

7. not to be too cynical...

but this seems the most likely scenario...

http://flimmr.passagen.se/movie/beavis_and_butthead_beavis_can_you_spare_a_dime.action

To get to the point, skip to about 3/4 of the way through.

[Cid_B]

9. Just as an aside...

Took a weekend trip while on leave to San Francisco and while the day was enjoyable a 3 block walk in search of food at night was definitely the low point of the trip. Literally every 30 feet another person begging for cash and God help you if you stop for a bus or tram.

It really put us off the whole city and it will be a while before we go back.

[dixiegrrrrl]

12. Ca. law requires Mental Health workers/Social workers to intervene

in any situation where they even think a child may come to harm.
Most other states require reporting in cases where harm has happened or is occurring, but Ca. requires
"foreseeing the possibility" of a problem.
Thus once the situation had been reported in the paper, action was mandated by law.

I lived and worked in SF for 5 years. I could write a dozen books about the homeless, the begging,
the urine and feces on the streets, sidewalks, gutters, the complete openness of drug use, prostitution, across the street from schools, and the incredible revolving door of services which have no oversight or audits at any level.
Unfortunately, the foster home system is no better or worse than in any other state.

[kiva]

13. Several years ago in Denver,

a woman discovered that her new babysitter was using her children to panhandle, someone who knew the family asked the mother why her children were near an exit ramp with a woman and other children(kids were little and couldn't tell mom themselves). Turned out the babysitter spent a few hours a day with her own kids (and those she was being paid to care for) panhandling.

Children don't exist as a devise to make profits for adults.