Couple lose custody of children due to 'low intelligence'
A US couple have been forced to give up both their children after they were deemed not intelligent enough to care for them.
Amy Fabbrini, 31, and Eric Ziegler, 38, from Oregon, lost custody of their older son Christopher not long after he was born, and then five months ago the state took their second child, Hunter.
Ziegler and Fabbrini were required to take an IQ test after a number of allegations were made against the pair on their parenting style.
A relative to the couple had made a complaint to authorities about Christopher's well-being under the care of the pair, The Oregonian reports.
In a child welfare report, it was alleged Ziegler had been "sleeping with the baby on the floor and almost rolled over on him".
Another complaint made by Fabbrini's father, Raymond, said he and his wife were acting as primary caregivers at the time because he felt his daughter didn't have the "instincts to be a mother".
Ziegler scored 66 in the IQ test, Fabbrini 72.
The IQ of the average person ranges from 90 to 110.
Ziegler's test score place him in the mild "intellectual disability" range and Fabbrini's place her in the "extremely low to borderline range of intelligence".
Ziegler had been receiving financial aid through the Social Security and Supplemental Security Income program due to the mental disability he was diagnosed with.
A Change.org petition has since been set up on behalf of the couple by their coach and mentor Sherrene Hagenbach, who says there isn't enough justification to take the children away.
"In my professional opinion, after multiple sessions observing Amy and Eric interact with their son for hours on end, I found no reason they should have had their child taken from them and placed in the State’s care," Hagenbach, who is also a board member of Healthy Families of the High Desert, said.
"Any reasonably trained and educated CPS worker should have arrived at the same conclusion, as I documented in the session notes of every visit.
"The couple demonstrated competent parenting skills with Christopher, had no history of abuse or neglect, and expressed a deep desire to have Christopher returned to them to raise him along with the mother’s twin boys."
Fabbrini's aunt, Lenora Turner, told the Oregonian she doesn't think the decision is fair.
"I honestly don't understand why they can't have their children. I go to the grocery store and I see other people with their children and they're standing up in the grocery cart," she said.
"I think, how come they get to keep their children? How do they decide whose child they're going to take and whose child can stay?"
The parents continue to campaign to have their children returned to them but for now, they will have supervised visits.
