Rajahnthon’s Law

The death of one-month-old Rajahnthon Haynie, whose body was found in Druid Hill Park in Baltimore on Sunday, is just another incidence of violence against children which begs the age-old question: How can child abuse be stopped? Peter Jensen of the Baltimore Sun writes that in a peculiar twist of fate, a law recently approved by the General Assembly should provide provision against such horrors occurring in future. Last year the state authorities approved a law that makes it paramount that the health department notify the Social Services Administration when a mother whose parental rights have been taken away gives birth to another child. This law could have save little Rajahnthon as the infant’s 28-tear-old mother, who has been charged with first degree murder, had a history of child endangerment and had had her previous four children taken away by social services. But the change in the law that might have safeguarded Rajahnthon had been pushed back over concerns that about privacy and maternal rights. Jensen says that with the economic downturn putting more and more children at risk of abuse, it is time to take whatever measures to prevent it.