By Regina Sassoon Friedland

UW News Lab

On the night of March 25, a newborn was found alive in the dumpster of an Everett apartment complex. A month later, Everett police identified the infant’s mother as an 18-year-old high school senior in the Everett School District.

This is not the first time a newborn has been discarded in the region in recent years. In February 2014, the body of a newborn baby was discovered in the woods, 10 feet from the road near North Bend. Police never identified the baby’s mother.

But there have been laws on the books in Washington since 2002 that allow parents to leave their babies in designated places where the baby will be safe and the mother will not face prosecution.

In 2000, Virginia Pfalzer and Joan Dedmann, two retired Bothell nurses, heard of a baby being discarded in a dumpster. This was so upsetting to them, they felt there must be a preventative measure to save other babies from this outcome. They learned at the time that only 17 of the 50 states had Safe Haven Laws and Washington was not one them. Pfalzer and Dedmann sought guidance from a group in Minnesota that helped pass the law in that state.

In their first year, these women lobbied repeatedly in Olympia and the legislature decided to study the issue. In December 2002, then-Gov. Gary Locke signed the Safety of Newborn Children Laws, allowing a newborn up to 72 hours-old to be left in a designated location without the parent facing legal penalties for abandonment.

Safe Haven Laws, in effect in all 50 states and Washington D.C., vary by state and infant age. Some allow 72 hours and some allow 90 days from birth.

Designated places include hospitals, fire stations and federally designated rural clinics. According to the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services, 57 infants have been left in these secured spots since the passing of these laws.

The efficacy of these laws are dependent on the public being made aware of their existence. To ensure the viability of their undertaking, Pfalzer and Dedmann and their husbands formed a corporation, Safe Place for Newborns of Washington, a non-profit run entirely by volunteers. The organization’s mission is to save the lives of newborns in danger of abandonment and to help preserve the health and future of their mothers.

Leo O’Dore, the agent of record and treasurer of SPNW, says state funding has not been available to market the existence of these laws to the public.

The organization received a sizable donation from the Muckleshoot Casino recently, and that enabled the purchase of signs for every fire station in the state, to be placed at the entry identifying it as a designated Safe Haven.

The group makes regular contact with the head nurses in each of the state’s school districts to foster promotion and awareness of the laws within area schools.

The Snoqualmie Valley School District, proceeding from statistics that show most newborns are abandoned by teenagers, takes proactive steps in health class curriculum of high schools district-wide. Their head nurse has information on Safe Haven Laws posted right on her door.

Dr. Thomas Numerych, a pediatrician at Virginia Mason University Village Medical Center, helped with the implementation and establishment of Safe Havens in all of the Group Health emergency rooms and facilities.

“I think Safe Haven is a wonderful idea. There is no downside,” Numerych said. “Hearing the stories where a baby is found in a trash bin somewhere is tragic. I am all for social awareness on this topic, the more it can be promoted, the better.”

In part of a statement released by Everett Schools Superintendent Gary Cohn after the abandonment earlier this year, he mentioned resources available to those students in crisis such as the 2-1-1 crisis line. The 2-1-1 number is a 24/7 hotline to connect an individual in need to one who can provide help.

But Cohn never mentioned Safe Havens.

Everett Fire Marshall Eric Hicks says that the incident in their community has spurred the department to do all it can to promote awareness of Safe Haven Laws and drop off sites through social media. They are committed to getting the word out to any who might find themselves in such a desperate situation, before this happens again.

Regina Sassoon Friedland is with the Unveristy of Washington News Lab and a contributor to the Bothell Reporter.