Fighting Child Abuse : Agencies Extend Helping Hands to Teen Mothers

When 18-year-old Lajuna Shanetta Hayes gave birth alone in her cousin’s Tustin apartment 3 1/2 weeks ago, she said she felt she had nowhere to turn.

Police said Hayes was so confused and scared at the prospect of raising a child on her meager salary as a drugstore cashier that she placed 2-day-old George into a paper bag and left him in the bushes at her cousin’s apartment complex. On the bag was a note reading, “Whoever finds this take care of this baby please!”

Amid pessimistic reports from police that little can be done to prevent such actions, several county groups whose goal is to prevent child abuse said that child abandonment can be stopped if the public is aware of services available to low-income teen mothers, who are most likely to cast off their children.

George Hayes--who was found by Hayes’ cousin shortly after he was abandoned and now is being cared for by his grandmother--was the third baby in three weeks to be abandoned in Orange County, according to county officials.

An unidentified male infant was left in a Garden Grove trash bin near Crystal Cathedral on March 13, the same day that 1-year-old Joshua Walsh was abandoned in bushes near a Garden Grove home. Both babies are healthy and are being cared for at Orangewood, the only county-run facility for abused, abandoned or neglected children.

“I’m really sorry I did it--it was a big mistake,” Hayes said in a jail interview shortly after her arrest April 3.

Needed Help

She had moved to Tustin from Florida two months ago to live with her cousin because, she said, she believed neither her parents nor George’s father (who is still in Florida) would give her financial help in supporting the baby.

“I would have had help (from her parents and cousin), but I didn’t know that then,” Hayes said. She is now seeking custody of George, and a hearing on that issue will be held May 5 in Juvenile Court.

Hayes’ mother, Faith, arrived in California to take temporary custody of her grandson, and she plans to remain until the case is resolved.

“We’re pleased because this is the first step toward returning the baby to his mother’s care,” said Myles A. Lenhoff, deputy public defender.

Parents’ Group

Hayes also has support from a local group of parents. Sally Nava-Kanarek, president of Mothers (and Others) Against Child Abuse, heard about the abandonment and encouraged fellow parents of children attending Coastline Community College’s preschool to form an informal support group for Hayes and her son.

In addition, the Buena Park-based Exchange Club for the Prevention of Child Abuse, with which Nava-Kanarek also is involved, has assigned Hayes a social worker who will visit regularly to help her develop parenting skills and to provide information on job-training programs.

Hayes pleaded guilty April 9 to felony charges of child endangerment and abandonment, was released on her own recognizance and is awaiting sentencing May 16.

Although she could receive a jail sentence of up to six years, Hayes has a better chance of getting custody of her child and a probation sentence, Nava-Kanarek said, because the court is aware there are relatives and others who will provide support.

Feels Like Punishment

The Coastline parents already have given Hayes a crib, clothing and formula for her baby, Nava-Kanarek said.

“Teen mothers feel like they’re being punished (by their pregnancy),” Nava-Kanarek said, adding that these mothers, in turn, may punish their children through abandonment or abuse.

Had Hayes known about Child Or Parental Emergency Services (COPES) in Santa Ana, she could have left her child there for up to 30 days while receiving counseling on handling her new child and information on where to get help in supporting the baby, said Milly Carota, a medical social worker at COPES.

“Sometimes you get frustrated because you can’t reach out to enough people,” Carota said, explaining that the COPES shelter can house only six children at a time and all must be age 5 and under.

If the shelter is full, as it often is, COPES workers will refer parents to Orangewood. However, that step usually involves forcing the parents to admit to authorities that they have abused their children, Carota said. “Once they get into the system, they lose control of the children,” she said.

Orangewood often takes in children whose parents don’t want them, said Dorothy Hayward, an aide to Orangewood’s deputy director. “Usually (the children) come here from the hospital until they can be placed (with an adoptive or foster family),” Hayward said.

The county also sponsors Upbeat, a month-old referral service that directs pregnant teens and young mothers to child-care services and parenting classes.

Under the pilot program, girls age 17 and under can receive counseling, job training and information on such basic needs as housing or birth control until they are 20 years old, said J.J. Alboney, a spokesperson for Upbeat.

The Exchange Club Child Abuse Prevention Center works with parents who, like Hayes, have been involved with the justice system because they abandoned or abused their children but since have been reunited with them.

Nava-Kanarek said there’s a risk that some of these parents may once again abuse--or abandon--their children unless they receive help in dealing with parenting problems.

Regular Home Visits

Acting on referrals from the county Child Abuse Registry, Exchange Club social workers make regular home visits to counsel both the parents and children. They also are instructed to be alert to any signs of recurring abuse, and to inform county authorities if they spot any.

These parents, who often are impoverished and may have been victims of child abuse themselves, “have got nothing to give,” Nava-Kanarek said. “We go in and love the parent to give them inner strength.”

Nathan Nishimoto, supervisor at the Child Abuse Registry, agreed that working with the parents as well as the children is a key to preventing abuse.

“We try to relieve the factors (such as lack of care for children of working parents, inadequate housing or stress) that may lead to more abuse.”

Lack of Facilities

The dearth of child-care facilities in the county, especially for low-income families, only increases the chances that parents will abandon, abuse or neglect their children, according to child-abuse experts.

Among the organizations working to establish more child-care facilities and to help families find available resources are Child Care Advocates of America and the Children’s Home Society of California.

Linda Farnell, executive director of Child Care Advocates of America, said the group was established three years ago in response to the death of 5-year-old Patrick Mason, a Stanton “latchkey child” shot and killed in a dark apartment by a police officer who had mistaken the child for an armed adult.

Called 11 Programs

His working mother, Patricia Ridge, had called 11 child-care programs, but could not find an affordable facility for her son, Farnell said.

“What we’re doing is a way of getting where we need to be (in the availability of child-care facilities) so that something like this doesn’t have to happen,” Farnell said. “Lots of tragedies can be prevented with child care.”

The group uses community task forces to help establish facilities in churches and schools, and also puts needy parents in touch with child-care sites that give care free or provide it at reduced costs.

“We give out information on how to get a child-care program started in your area” using existing facilities such as churches and schools, Farnell said.

3,000 on Waiting List

The Children’s Home Society of California also refers parents to low-cost child-care programs, but the society has a waiting list of 3,000 children, said Diana Kirk, program supervisor for the child-care resource and referral department.

The society also refers needy parents to programs providing food, clothing and housing and can subsidize child care in some cases, Kirk said.

In addition, the society has developed a high school education program explaining options available to pregnant teen-agers while “not placing a value judgment on (teen-age pregnancy),” Kirk said.

For Hayes and other teen-age mothers, these programs offer some hope, but officials in the programs agree that the need for more facilities and funding is overwhelming.

“Many parents call us and just have no idea that there’s help out there for them, but we definitely need more funding,” Kirk said.