Fuming mom claims daughter got pregnant in State care

Mary*, a St Andrew mother of four, is blasting the authorities after her 16-year-old daughter, who is a ward of the State, told her that she is now pregnant.

The child, Mary said, ended up in the child-care facility, after it was discovered that the minor was sexually active, and was deemed to be in need of care and protection.

Mary told THE WEEKEND STAR that she thought the change of environment would have helped her daughter. However, she said a phone call from the child, telling her about her pregnancy, took her back to March 12 when her daughter was placed in the care of a relative after she got pregnant and Mary told her to have an abortion. Mary was also pregnant.

"All of this did go court and I am on probation now. But the long and short of the story is that she is in state care now, because dem take her from mi, and see the same thing happen to her again. So how can they explain that to mi?" Mary asked.

Children who are deemed to be in need of care and protection are placed in child-care facilities that are operated by the Child Protection and Family Services Agency (CPFSA). There are approximately 4,800 children in state care. Mary said that her daughter was placed into state care a month after she was removed from their home.

Prior to that, Mary said her daughter had told an older sibling and a family friend that she was being molested by her stepfather. Mary said she confronted her husband who admitted that he had touched her inappropriately, but denied having sex with her.

"All now the police nuh arrest him. We not together like that and is over a year we don't have any intimate relationship," he said.

According to Mary, weeks after the teenager was placed in the care of a relative, she called her in tears relating an horrific experience.

"She tell mi say one of her relatives a molest her. It was a police who did give her the call. Afterwards she end up inna di home," she said. The child has been in State care for just more than a year. Mary said she has no idea how far along her daughter's pregnancy is.

"They had changed her school so mi feel like is when she go school she meet someone and get pregnant, but it better she was at home. She is not a bad child, enuh. She was a prefect at her first school and do well in school. Even at this school ... di teachers dem talk a lot of good things about her. She normally go church and dem ting deh," she said.

The mother said that a CPFSA officer confirmed the pregnancy to her, but that is all she knows at this point.

The CPFSA did not immediately respond to an email sent by this newspaper for a comment.

*Name changed to protect identity of mother and child.