Los Angeles holds adoption ceremonies for more than 130 children each year.
So far, 20 of them have lost their parents or had an adoption made in error.
These children should be getting an education, not the death threats,
furious phone calls and even the physical threats they’ve endured.
When a child’s parent, guardian or birth mother makes a mistake, they are
right to be angry, says L.A. County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas.
“It’d be difficult if they were adopted at 6, 7 and 8 to keep track of where they were being taken to and what the school
was like,” Ridley-Thomas said.
“I’m going to fight to see that this doesn’t happen again. This is one of the
difficult parts about life in America. There are lots of bad things about
America, but nothing compares to the way a child is treated in this country.”
Ridley-Thomas says he’ll be meeting with federal officials and working with the governor and others to ensure
no one is making these kinds of mistakes.
“I’d like to work with the Department of Health and Human Services, the
Department of Justice and whoever else we can reach out to to make sure that
if someone is harmed or emotionally hurt by something that’s coming out of the
system, that that child has a great advocate,” Ridley-Thomas said.
Ridley-Thomas says this is a difficult time not just for the children, but
for the birth mothers.
“They have enough on their plates, trying to raise children. So when all of
a sudden they have their child taken out of their hands, I can understand it.
And there’s a whole lot of pain involved,
