{"id":1247,"date":"2004-12-06T20:13:28","date_gmt":"2004-12-07T04:13:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amptoons.com\/blog\/archives\/2004\/12\/06\/protective-services-threatens-to-remove-newborn-from-blind-couple\/"},"modified":"2004-12-06T20:13:28","modified_gmt":"2004-12-07T04:13:28","slug":"protective-services-threatens-to-remove-newborn-from-blind-couple","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=1247","title":{"rendered":"Protective Services threatens to remove newborn from blind couple"},"content":{"rendered":"

This story is appalling<\/a>. In a nutshell, a blind couple in California, on the day of their newborn’s birth, were told that they had to sign a form giving the county custody of their baby, or they’d be hauled into court.<\/p>\n

Racism and classism are probably part of this story as well – it sounds like the couple isn’t rich (the mother is studying to become a court reporter, and the father sells soda at soccer games and is studying to become a massage therapist), and their native language is Spanish. The form they signed was read to them in English, not in Spanish, nor was it offered to them in Braille.<\/p>\n

It seems clear that the Zepedas were prepared to become parents; they have a good support system (not only family and friends nearby, but an online support and information group for blind parents), and they’ve given thought to how they’ll deal with any special parenting problems caused by their blindness (for instance, purchasing a talking thermometer and “pip squeaker” shoes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Thankfully, an outcry from activists convinced the government to let the Zepedas take their baby home – although they’ve had to arrange to have a sighted person check their baby every two hours (as blind people, they’re seemingly presumed to be incapable of checking to see that their baby is breathing themselves). Hopefully the government will do the sane thing and stop harassing these folks.<\/p>\n

Another article about the Zepedas is here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This story is appalling. In a nutshell, a blind couple in California, on the day of their newborn’s birth, were told that they had to sign a form giving the county custody of their baby, or they’d be hauled into … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[92],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-whatever"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1247\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}