Deputies raided Pastor Gary Wiggins’ religious boarding school in rural Alabama after two boys escaped to a neighbor’s house and said they were victims of […]
Category: Child welfare
Paddling is legal, but teachers still get arrested for it
In 2015, the assistant principal at Escambia County Middle School was indicted for child abuse after paddling a fifth-grader. The boy had been disruptive during […]
A boy’s death + the law that left his daycare unlicensed
On Monday morning, Jasmyn Johnson dropped off her 5-year-old son Kamden at the Community Nursery & Preschool Academy in west Mobile, according to the day […]
Alabama law reins in religious boot camps
Less than a year after my religious boot camp story published, Alabama lawmakers passed a law that requires these schools to be licensed and regulated. […]
Black babies die at 3x the rate of white babies in Alabama
An overall improvement in infant mortality rates in Alabama may appear as welcome news, but there are troubling findings within recent state health reports. The […]
86 kids hospitalized for food poisoning at day care, Alabama could change church loophole
When Angela Foster arrived at the Sunnyside Child Care Center to pick up her kids on June 23, 2015, she found the front door locked […]
Christian boot camps and Alabama loopholes
I spent a couple of months researching and interviewing for this piece, which I posted last week. Former students share harrowing stories of life inside […]
Autism therapy costs are steeper on Alabama families
It was a bad morning. After months of work, Ashley Sparks had finally gotten her 5-year-old daughter Brinley to a point where she could put […]
‘Our practice may not be a good fit’: LGBT child unwelcome at Christian pediatrician’s office
(column) Mike* is the kind of precocious kid you often find in literature but rarely meet in real life – almost adult-like in his mannerisms […]