MARCH 18, 2004—When Sheryl Coe Hardy abandoned her toddler at a shopping mall in Florida in the 1980's, he was put in foster care. When the child was returned to her, she and her husband abused, humiliated, tortured and killed the child. She was convicted and given 30 years in prison. She got out in 9 because of  “overcrowding.”

Last week the 4^th District Appellate Court of Illinois—disregarding the opinions of the Illinois Department of Children and Families and the Jersey County State's Attorney—ruled that another of Hardy's children—a three year-old—should be taken from a foster family where he lives with siblings and given to Hardy.

The Department of Children and Family Services and State's Attorney Mary Kirbach have fought hard to protect this child and they should not give up now. PROTECT members in Illinois and across the U.S. are deeply grateful to every adult who has worked to keep this boy safe, and we know that they are all heartsick at this decision. However, their work so far is not in vain, and it should not stop until every avenue to help this child is exhausted.

We ask the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, State's Attorney Mary Kirbach and Attorney General Lisa Madigan to appeal this decision to the Illinois Supreme Court.

If the people of Illinois allow their judiciary to take a child away from a loving home where he lives with siblings, and place him into the care of a known child murderer—all in the name of biological ties—then legal protections for all vulnerable children in Illinois are in danger. Millions of loving step-parents and foster parents should be outraged at the Court's position that the rights of biological parents—no matter what their behavior—come before the human rights of children and their rights to safe, protective families.

Love, protectiveness and nurturing relationships make a family, not biology.

PROTECT also calls on Illinois citizens to hold Jersey County Judge Thomas Russell and the members of the 4^th District Appellate Court accountable for their role in placing this child in danger. The last time a court ordered a child to be ripped from a foster home and returned to Sheryl Coe, that child was brutally murdered.

Now another child is being thrown about like a ping pong ball by the State, this time in Illinois. The court's opinion that Sheryl Coe Hardy has been “rehabilitated” amounts to experimenting with the life and safety of a child. The State of Illinois should be experimenting with ways to protect children, not experimenting on them!

Sheryl Coe Hardy's history of child abuse is lengthy. According to a 2001 Associated Press report, that history includes: abandoning her child at a shopping mall; running a fork with feces over his mouth; cleaning him with a garden hose when he soiled his pants; and finally, smoking a cigarette and watching while her husband rammed her two year old's head repeatedly into a toilet, then helping him beat the child with sofa cushions. The toddler died the next day of head injuries.

If that is not enough evidence of an inability to safely parent, God help the children of Illinois.