A child protective services expert explains why homeless youth who act grown are still children who need protection. Mischaracterizing them as adults can fracture families and lead to tragedy, including deaths wrongly investigated as adult homicides instead of child cases.
Because y'all know that my career was based in child protective services. And at the end of the day, this is a child. That you put here. Okay, but you don't act like child behavior though.
If you gonna sit up here and act grown, then go out there and be grown then. That's not how life works. Let me tell you real quick, hold on, hear me out.
That's the type of train of thought that is breaking our families apart. Just because you acting grown, you go be grown. She's not grown. She is a child that was sleeping on the streets. And if your daughter ended up dead and the police came to your door, they're not going to say, we found this adult woman. They're going to say, we found your child dead in the streets. Let that sink in for a second.