Abandoned baby on Northwest Side shows kids need to learn about Safe Haven Law

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The alley in Hermosa on where a newborn boy was reported found Tuesday. Authorities said the child was actually born two miles away | Mitch Dudek / Sun-Times

A teenager should be having fun, not facing attempted murder charges for abandoning a newborn in an alley.

Yet that is the fate of the 16-year-old girl and 17-year-old boy who allegedly left their newborn on top of a garbage can on the Northwest Side wrapped in a beach towel with the umbilical cord still attached.

Miraculously, the baby boy survived his cruel entry into the world and is now in the custody of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.

But, as we now know, that agency is overloaded with cases of neglected and abused children. Nearly 100 children involved with DCFS died between July 1, 2017 and June 30, 2018, according to the 2019 report by the state’s acting inspector general.

So this baby boy’s future still hangs in the balance.

We can hope the news coverage of his abandonment will help keep him from tumbling through the cracks at a child-welfare agency that is overworked, understaffed and under-appreciated.

Perhaps because of the spotlight that was put on our child-welfare system after 5-year-old AJ Freund was killed — a crime the Crystal Lake boy’s parents are charged with — this baby will stand a better chance of finding a guardian angel to care for him.

It was touching that hundreds of strangers lined up for hours to mourn the death of a little boy whose home life was a nightmare.

Maybe some of those caring individuals will consider opening their homes to raise a child who was unwanted and unloved.

Still, I cannot ignore that at the core of this tragedy are a 16-year-old girl and a 17-year-old boy. These teens are not evil monsters. If the allegations are true, they are children caught up in circumstances they weren’t equipped to handle.

They had an option. Illinois has a Safe Haven Law that lets a person bring a newborn to a fire station, hospital or police station and leave the baby with no legal repercussions.

But these teens likely never heard of that law. Illinois mandates that students in grades 6 through 12 be taught about the Safe Haven Law in health classes. But according to a parent of a CPS student, the subject “has never been discussed” in her child’s health classes.

“We need to start educating our children better on all levels,” the parent said in an email shared by Dawn Geras, founder of the Save Abandoned Babies foundation.

“Are schools obeying the law?” Geras said. “Did the school that this 16-year-old attends teach about this life-saving law that could have altered what happened in her case? If not, should they be held accountable for what happened?”

A Chicago Public Schools spokesman did not respond to an inquiry about efforts to educate students on this law.

What the police say happened after the child’s birth shows these teens were overwhelmed by their situation.

There’s no question they made horrible decisions.

Yet it shouldn’t be overlooked that the father did something most teenagers do when they find themselves in the middle of a mess. He called his mother.

It was Karla Antimo, the grandmother, who took the child to a fire station.

According to police, Antimo initially said she and her daughter heard the baby whimpering in the alley and took him to the fire station.

The police say that wasn’t true, though, and the grandmother has been charged with disorderly conduct for lying to the police.

There have been 131 babies saved in Illinois since the law went into effect in 2001, according to the Save Abandoned Babies Foundation.

Still, 83 babies have been illegally abandoned in the state. A little more than half of those infants did not survive.

God spared this infant.

My prayer is that DCFS does not falter in its mission to find this baby a safe and loving home.

I also pray this family finds compassion in a criminal justice system that still deals harshly with the impoverished.

This is not the Mother’s Day any mother would have wanted.


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