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Friends of the Fourth
District:
On Wednesday, May 31, 2006, a simple but incredibly important event
happened at a small Los Angeles County Fire Station in South
Whittier – a baby girl, just a few weeks shy of her first birthday,
was introduced to a group of fire fighters.
The previous 11 months of that little girl’s life and the important
role those firefighters had in her life is just the most recent
example of the success of a Los Angeles County program called Safe
Surrender.
I led the effort to launch the Safe Surrender program locally after
the Legislature approved a Statewide Safe Haven Law in 2001. Under
Safe Surrender, someone can drop off a newborn baby at any fire
station or hospital in Los Angeles County without fear of
prosecution or questions. As long as the baby is no more than 72
hours old and shows no signs of abuse, a mother can hand over her
baby and not worry about what will happen to her. No shame. No
blame. No names.
Safe Surrender came about in response to the tragic and unacceptable
growth in the number of newborns who had been discovered abandoned
and deceased in Los Angeles County. We needed to give mothers who
thought they had no other choice but to abandon their baby another
option. That better option became Safe Surrender.
In 2001, the first year of the program, there were no safe
surrenders in Los Angeles County and 11 newborns were found
abandoned and deceased. By 2005, the program had become so
successful that there were 8 safe surrenders and only 3 deceased
newborns. Each year the program has existed, the number of
surrenders has grown and the number of abandonments have dropped.
All told, as I write this, 44 newborns have had their lives saved by
Safe Surrender – newborns whose lives might have ended up as a
tragic statistic.
On June 19, 2005, a baby girl became the 35 th safely surrendered
newborn in Los Angeles County. The crew on duty that day at Fire
Station 15 in South Whittier thought their dinner was being
delivered when they heard the station doorbell ring that afternoon –
but they received a big surprise when on the other side of that
door, they found someone wanting to surrender a healthy girl, born
about 18 hours earlier.
As has been the case with all babies safely surrendered, the little
girl was placed with an adoptive family by the Department of
Children and Family Services. Today, she’s a beautiful 11-month-old
named Tessa and I had the chance to meet her when her new parents
brought her to Fire Station 15 for a reunion with the firefighters
who were on duty the day she was surrendered.
Last June, Tessa’s hours-old life could have taken a tragic turn,
but now she has a wonderful life ahead of her with a wonderful
family because an important decision was made for her – the decision
to make her part of the success of Safe Surrender.
My ultimate hope remains what it did five years ago when Safe
Surrender began, that not one baby will ever be abandoned again in
Los Angeles County... not even one. But until that day comes, there
are a few things we can all do. It takes the commitment of a
compassionate community to know when young mothers may be in trouble
and know when they may need to know about programs like Safe
Surrender. If you want more information about the program or tips on
how you can help, visit the Safe Surrender website at
www.babysafela.org. You can also call (877) BABY-SAFE for more
information.
DON KNABE
Supervisor, Fourth District
County of Los Angeles
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