The Neglected Children Behind the Headlines

Much of the country watched in surprise as Funny Cide captured the Kentucky Derby and Preakness in 2003. One of his upstate New York owners, Jack Knowlton, has pretty much been on top of the world since.

Until earlier this month, when a surprise that wasn’t funny at all came his way. He and his wife Dorothy were given custody of their 5-year-old granddaughter while their 8-week-old grandson was placed in foster care.

How did this happen to a successful businessman and his family? The same way children often are referred to Sunrise Children’s Services – parental neglect. It’s something that can happen in almost any family, regardless of class, race, education or religion. It’s a problem we as a society can’t seem to fix.

The neglect, in this particular case, was severe. Jack and Dorothy’s daughter, Wendy Cook, had struggled with drug addiction since high school. Recently, Wendy had been doing well in a local drug court program that kept her out of jail by participating in substance abuse treatment and submitting frequent drug tests. She had been clean for almost a year, her parents believe. They speculate about reasons for her recent relapse: the suicide of her husband in the fall of 2003, the painkillers she was given after her son’s birth by caesarean section, and her best friend’s unexpected death from an aneurism last month.

But they may never know exactly what led Wendy, 37, to allegedly smoke cocaine in front of her children and engage in prostitution while they were in her car. She faces a felony charge of reckless endangerment and several misdemeanors.

Wendy’s boyfriend gets to visit his son in foster care. Meanwhile, a judge has ordered Wendy to have no contact with her children.

“She put the children in danger,” Jack Knowlton told The Saratogian. “There is never, ever any excuse for that … Society has very strong consequences for that. She’ll be suffering those consequences now and in the future.”

Stories such as this are all too common all over the country. That’s why Sunrise exists – to be there for kids in Kentucky when their parents or relatives can’t give them a safe, caring home.

Please never forget that behind the headlines of drug busts, prostitution sweeps and other crimes, there frequently are hurting children who have lost their homes and everything they’ve ever known.