A recent shooting incident at a Seattle school is once again raising questions about the state supervision of vulnerable children. Those concerns are similar to the ones that Seattle family lawyers had raised after the Josh Powell tragedy earlier this year.
On February 22, a 9-year-old boy at a Bremerton elementary school brought a gun to his class. According to police, he had accessed the .45 caliber handgun at his mother’s house. When he slammed his bag on the table, the weapon discharged, injuring one of the girls in his class. The third-grader suffered serious injuries, and has been in a hospital since.
Her family has been criticizing the state’s child supervision system, which they say failed their daughter. In this case, the boy accessed the gun when he went to visit his mother, who had had her parental rights terminated. His mother struggles with drug abuse, and has a criminal record. The boy’s mother and her boyfriend have been charged with possession of firearms, after police found a number of weapons in their home.
The boy has been sentenced to probation and counseling, but the family of the young girl who was shot, has raised questions about the consequences of returning the boy to his uncle, who happens to be his current guardian, and who failed to prevent the child from accessing the weapon. The girl’s parents are considering filing a lawsuit against state agencies, and have called on Child Protection Services to take all steps to make sure that the boy does not visit his mother unsupervised.
Earlier this year, Seattle child custody lawyers had similar concerns about parental visitation rights and child supervision, after murder suspect Josh Powell killed his 2 children and himself. At the time of the deaths, the children were on a supervised visit with their father.
The Seattle child custody lawyers at the The Seattle Family Law Group are dedicated to the representation of persons in divorce, child support, child custody, alimony and other family law issues across Seattle.
