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Authorities have charged a Utah mom with child abuse after prosecutors say she abandoned her 8-year-old son at a hospital.
According to court documents, the terrified little boy walked into Jordan Valley Medical Center in West Jordan on February 21 all by himself.
The child reportedly handed hospital employees a note from his mother that said he was so rude and ungovernable that she no longer wanted to care for him.
"The note went on to describe the failings of the child and gave his name," the charges state.
When the young boy spoke to investigators, he revealed that his mother had hit him with a spoon prior to abandoning him, according to the Associated Press.
The boy’s mother, later identified as 36-year-old Kathy Sherrer, told KSL-TV on Wednesday that she assumed the state’s Safe Haven laws gave her the legal right to abandon her child at any hospital.
"I thought that it was OK that we could drop them off and it was a Safe Haven place," Sherrer admitted. "I wasn't sure about the Safe Haven laws or what it meant. … I really did not know any other way to go about it."
"(The idea) kind of behind that was to get him the help he needed from (the Division of Child and Family Services) and to go from there," she added.
Division of Child and Family Services spokeswoman Ashley Sumner explained that Utah’s Safe Haven law only applies to newborn babies—between 1 and 3 days old—not 8-year-old children.
While there are crisis centers in Salt Lake City put in place to help overwhelmed parents in need, Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill said Sherrer completely abused this idea.
"You don't get to arbitrarily drop children off at certain institutions," he said. "You reach out to that organization, that organization helps process your child, there's an understanding. Everybody understands what everyone's role is. Everyone knows what they're supposed to do. But you don't simply say, 'I've had enough and I'm going to drop off this child and no one knows who I am.'"
