NO HELP FOR OUR MEGAN MENDEZES

When a drug-addicted mother was sentenced to jail a few years ago in
Stanislaus County, it was the equivalent of sentencing her young daughter
to death.

The murder of 4-year-old Megan Mendez brought the case to light here. And
reporter Michael Mooney's subsequent stories showed how it could be
happening again anywhere in the state. The latest coverage is on Page A-1
of today's paper.

The system meant to protect Megan and other children of convicted parents
is flawed. It was a fatal failure for Megan; it must be repaired -- as soon
as possible -- to prevent additional tragedies.

It's not that lawmakers and Child Protective Services aren't aware of the
problem. But they want to study it for a while before doing anything about
it, passing over some common-sense interim fixes. With children's lives at
stake, that's what gives politicians and bureaucrats a bad name.

Megan's mother, Laura Gunter, who had a long history of drug-related
problems and child neglect, gave her to neighbors Josephine and Margarito
Origel in 1997 before Gunter was sentenced to jail on drug charges. The
Origels are awaiting trial on charges of beating her to death in 1998, the
same year Gunter died of a heroin overdose 13 days after her release from
Stanislaus County Jail.

When Gunter was arrested for drug possession, she apparently never told
authorities that she was a mother. By giving Megan (and two more of her six
children) to neighbors to care for, Gunter apparently hoped to keep her out
of foster care. Without knowing Gunter had children, authorities had no
reason to contact Child Protective Services -- which did know something
about the problem though it had failed to correct it.

Between 1997 and 2000, according to Yolo County Superior Court Judge Donna
M. Petre, "18,560 women were incarcerated in California jails. These women
were responsible for 27,800 minor children."

But there's no coordinated way to know what's happening to those children,
Petre said.

Aware of the danger to children like Megan, the judge asked for legislation
that would have required judges to ask about parental status when
sentencing felons. Many judges do just that, but it should be part of the
law. So should adoption of standardized guidelines -- for law officers and
agencies such as Child Protective Services -- on how to handle the children
of jailed parents. Judge Petre asked for that, too.

Then-Assemblywoman Kerry Mazzoni, who is now Gov. Davis' secretary of
education, introduced the kind of legislation the judge recommended.

But the provision requiring judges to ask about parental status was
stripped from the bill before it ever got out of committee. And Davis
trumped that mistake by vetoing the provision for standardized guidelines.

Only a third component, a recommendation for a two-year statewide study of
the problem, made it into law.

"We're learning that there are thousands and thousands and thousands of
these (at-risk) children," said Charlene Simmons, assistant director of the
State Library's California Research Bureau, who is helping to direct the
study in conjunction with the University of California at Berkeley.

The study will try to determine just how many children are involved, where
they are living and what is happening to them.

What no one seems to have learned is that implementing the simple
provisions suggested by Judge Petre might make the difference between life
and death for more children. Shame on the system for not responding more
quickly.