I am very worried that the Trump administration’s asinine efforts to defend the indefensible are going to result in normalizing caging. I can imagine some misguided person, standing in partisan solidarity, caging their own child to prove it’s no big deal. I can imagine some group home worker seeing caging on the news and thinking it is a far more streamlined method of behavioral control than having to actually build positive relationships with kids.
Therefore, I would like to point out that it is aggravated child abuse under Florida law to willfully and unlawfully cage a child. § 827.03, Fla. Stat. Ann.
It is not “summer camp.” It is traumatic, dehumanizing, and illegal.
This couple was arrested for caging their daughter in a playhouse.
This woman caged her autistic daughter in a crate on a bed.
It is very serious. Subjecting any child, including a child who is not yours, to aggravated child abuse (such as caging) is grounds to terminate your rights to your own children. § 39.806(1)(g), Fla. Stat. Ann. And you do not get a case plan under that ground — “[r]easonable efforts to preserve and reunify families are not required if a court of competent jurisdiction has determined that any of the events described in paragraphs (1)(b)-(d) or paragraphs (1)(f)-(m) have occurred.” Id. If you cage someone else’s child, you can lose your own. That seems fair.
Caging a child is categorically different from sending them to their room (for parents) or securely detaining them (for the state). If you were thinking of caging your child in Florida, just don’t. If your boss tells you to cage a child in Florida, I suggest you ask them to show you the law that specifically allows it before you comply. I do not know of any.
If you know any child who has been caged, please call the Florida child abuse hotline at 1-800-96ABUSE.
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