Curley slams WA lawmakers over child protection policies: ‘That parent is endangering their child’s life’

As more and more bills are sorted through the Washington state Legislature, KIRO Newsradio host John Curley fired off his grievances against State Representative Roger Goodman for his assertion that the state can’t criminalize people afflicted with drug addictions — even if their behavior puts their children in mortal danger.

Due to the overrepresentation of Black and Indigenous children in the child welfare system, Washington installed the Keeping Families Together Act in 2023 in order to create a more equitable Shelter Care process that would require fewer removals of children from their homes.

“The idea was we don’t want to separate families and we keep foster care,” John Curley, the host of “The John Curley Show,” said. “We don’t take the kid out of the family and put him into foster care because if we do that, that’s a real problem. And then, of course, it disproportionately affects minorities. They wanted to try to keep kids in the house …”

“With drug-addicted parents,” Joe Wallace, the producer of “The John Curley Show,” added.

“With drug-addicted parents, right,” Curley said. “So the idea is we’re going to try to help out as much as we can. So they would come up with a plan like, OK, the mom can get high in the morning and the dad can stay sober in the morning, and then the mom can get high in the afternoon, and the dad can stay sober in the afternoon, and then you guys have this lock box, and this lock box is going to allow us to put the drugs in the lock box, so the kid’s going to be safe. Well, the numbers aren’t really working out too well.”

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Curley revealed that while the number of children placed into the foster care system is down 25%, there has been a 114% increase in fatalities and near fatalities.

“Is there any direct connection between the fact that we’re keeping the kids in the house with the mom and the dad who are doing drugs, and fatalities and near fatalities are up 114%?” Curley asked. “Hey, just look at the fact that the number of kids going into foster care has gone down 25%, but the number of kids going into the grave has gone up.”

Washington’s child endangerment laws for exposure to controlled substances include felony charges when it comes to methamphetamine, but the law does not include penalties for exposure to fentanyl. Pierce County recently made child exposure to fentanyl a gross misdemeanor, the most serious charge possible at the county level, but statewide action has stalled — and Curley is putting the blame on Rep. Goodman, the House Community Safety Committee Chair.

“By criminalizing parents, we are separating parents from their children forever,” Goodman told KING 5 regarding making exposure to fentanyl a Class B felony in the state.

“I don’t know where forever comes from, I guess forever is when the kid dies,” Curley said in response. “That’s forever. That parent is breaking the law, and that person is endangering their child’s life. That’s it. You’re not criminalizing the parent. What you’re doing is you’re enforcing a law.”

Listen to the full conversation here:

Listen to John Curley on “The John Curley Show” weekday afternoons from 3-7 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio. Subscribe to the podcast here.

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