Enough: Where do we finally draw the line?
BY World's Editorials Writers
Monday, April 30, 2012
4/30/12 at 2:41 AM
Tulsan Daiquiri Dawn Miller, an admitted drug addict who's popped babies out like a Pez dispenser for 17 years, is again in trouble. So too are the taxpayers who bear the cost of making sure yet another of Miller's seven children is removed from danger.
Oklahoma has licenses for nearly everything: carrying a gun, fishing, hunting, cutting hair. But it doesn't license parents. That's unconstitutional. So people like Miller keep having babies who they put in harm's way. On March 31, Miller gave birth to a son who tested positive for cocaine. The Department of Human Services stepped in and removed the infant from her custody along with two other small children. Over the years, the state also removed four other children from her custody.
When a DHS investigator appeared April 2, Miller said she'd "wondered what took so long."
The public could be asking the same question. Why has it taken so long to stop Miller's behavior, which has put seven defenseless children at risk?
This time Miller faces a charge of child neglect in connection with the three most recent births. All three children tested positive for drugs after their births. She also faces prostitution charges. Since 2006, she's been arrested five other times on prostitution complaints. Police claim at least four to six men have fathered children with Miller.
Miller's first child was taken in 1999 because of his mother's drug use. In 2006, police found Miller smoking cocaine with a man next to her 4-month-old daughter in a car parked in an alley.
The list goes on. And so does evidence that Miller has not helped herself. She has failed to complete drug counseling and parenting classes. She has spent time in prison from 2001 to 2003 for possessing a stolen vehicle.
Oklahoma law allows child abusers to be punished by one year to life in prison. If Miller is found guilty, a judge or jury needs to take full advantage of the high end of that sentencing range.
Someone needs to finally put Daiquiri Dawn Miller out of the baby-making business.
Original Print Headline: Enough
