Chris Clegg,
Editor, SPN
“There are lots of things in your life you have a right to be angry about …”
– Judge D.R. Shynkar
A girl appeared in High Prairie youth court Oct. 17 to answer to two criminal charges. She pleaded guilty to one and was given a reprimand.
The history of this girl, who just turned 14, prompted provincial court Judge D.R. Shynkar to make the statement above.
What was it that prompted the judge to say what he did? At the age of seven weeks, the girl became a permanent ward of the state.
Seven weeks! No mother! No father! No one left to nurture and love this child! Not even a family member, for heaven’s sake!
Sometimes, life just isn’t fair.
When horrific cases like this occur, the state does step in with trained professionals. They do the best they can under terrible circumstances. Often, not always, the children are bounced around from foster home to foster home. I remember a case a few years ago when one teenage boy appeared in youth court. He had lived in over 30 foster homes! Thirty!
How does a child possibly believe that anyone loves him/her under circumstances such as that?
Many of us take for granted the basic right that every child should have: to grow up and be nurtured in a loving, caring home with two parents.
It’s not to say that one parent cannot succeed. Often they do. Many are against the idea, but the fact remains that homosexual couples also can raise wonderful foster children in a loving home.
The key component here is love, hence Judge Shynkar’s comment that the child has a right to be angry. Every child, regardless of the circumstances, has a right to be loved.
It was reported this girl is perhaps a “partial” FASD victim. An expert can better tell you what “partial” would mean but that would entail diving into the child’s file.
Nonetheless, this child faces a difficult future. She will be given extensive counselling and therapy. She will even be given love by those who care for her. The state will do its best to guide this girl on the right track.
It deeply saddens me to hear about these types of cases. I was lucky to grow up in a home with a mother and father, plus five loving siblings. Many of us take this basic right for granted.
We shouldn’t!
After a similar case a few years ago, I told my mother how lucky I was – my father passed away in 1982 – and how many of us are blessed take such an ordinary right for granted. Growing up, a loving family was normal.
In the real world, for far too many children, it is not.
There will come a time when this child and others like her will have to make very tough decisions on which way their life will proceed. It is far too easy for the average citizen to say, “Suck it up, girl, quit crying and get on with your life.”
While that statement is true, the rest of us who were so lucky should understand that the circumstances these children must overcome, is huge.
Until we walk in their shoes, and experience the difficulties and hardships they face every day, perhaps we should take a long, deep breath before we criticize.
I, for one, would never want to experience what life has dealt this unfortunate girl.