TRAUMATIC

Re: "Grow op kids need help," Editorial, July 30.

I must take issue with your editorial regarding the removal of
children from homes where there is illegal marijuana being grown.

You spoke of the authorities and the parents, but you forgot the
children themselves. What impact do you think it has on a child when
the police storm a home, arrest the parents and then tell the children
they are being taken away to a strange place by strangers for an
unknown length of time? Where are those children going to be placed?
Who will be caring for them? When can they see their parents again?
Can you assure them the parents still love them? How do you assure
those children they have done nothing wrong and are not being
punished, as you hand them over to strangers?

To remove a child from his or her known world is one of the most
frightening things one can ever do to a child. It has a far deeper
traumatic impact than does parental neglect or punishment and once it
happens, that emotional trauma can never be erased. These are a few of
the factors your editorial neglected to consider.

Grace Isaak

Calgary