Author Questions Way Authorities Treat Parents of Runaways
An Oregon woman whose two teenage daughters ran away from home has written a book questioning the way legal authorities treat parents of runaway children.
“I am asking for more compassion for parents who are legitimately searching for their kids, more information, more support, and for the end of a facile vilification of people who may be flawed but are not evil,” said Debra Gwartney, author of Live Through This: A Mother’s Memoir of Runaway Daughters and Reclaimed Love.
Gwartney’s book recounts how her daughters, ages 14 and 16 years old, jumped on a freight train and disappeared, plunging her into a struggle with authorities who assumed she was an unfit mother. While Gwartney acknowledges the grim statistic that 43% of all runaway children are sexually, emotionally, or physically abused by their parents, she points out that social workers and police are likely to accept a teenager’s version of life at home and assume the worst of parents.
Gwartney’s eldest daughter came home after three months, and the younger one returned after a year. According to their mother, they have become healthy, happy and stable adults.
Live Through This has been nominated for the Book for A Better Life Award.
Tags: law enforcement, parents, runaways
