Cursing Toddler in Viral Video, and 16-Year-Old Mother, to Stay Together in Foster Care (VIDEO)
A toddler cursing in a video posted to the Omaha Police Officer's Association website and then went viral is now facing the possibility of being placed in foster care, along with his 16-year-old mother. Police say the two are living in a dangerous situation and it's likely they will be placed in the same foster home, while the mother has defended her son's actions and said her son was perfectly safe.
The video went viral and showed a toddler being encouraged to curse by adults and giving the finger to them as well. The language was vile and caused concern among many, leading the toddler and three other children to be placed in child protective custody by the state of Nebraska. The police initially posted the video to their website in order to show the dangerous home environment, but after the video went viral, the police took the video down.
The ACLU argued that the police had violated the family's right to protection and antagonized minority communities, but police argued that the video was not meant to disparage any certain group of people but highlight the dangerous lifestyles of known gang members.
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"The focus here isn't on any particular ethnic group," Sgt. John Wells told CNN. "The focus here is on the troubling behavior toward this child. This behavior is going to potentially lead this child down a path that is completely unhealthy."
Yet the boy's mother defended her parenting skills and said the video was in no way a true reflection of her lifestyle.
"He's a smart little boy," she told CNN. "All that cussing that he did, he doesn't do that. Somebody told him to do that. My son doesn't do that. I don't allow it. He was wrong for doing that," she said of a friend who filmed the ordeal. "Everybody that thinks I'm a bad mother, I'm not. I'm a good mother to my son. I teach him a lot. He's very smart."
According to a petition filed by KETV, a social worker has made notes that adult relatives frequently allowed known gang members into their home while the children were present. The toddler featured in the video was one of five persons injured in October when someone fired shots through the front door of the home, and the boy's grandmother was arrested in December on weapons charges.
A judge recently ruled that the teen mother and the boy will be kept in the same home while in foster care.
Watch a video of the ordeal HERE:
