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Show The Salt Lake Tribune UTAH/WORLD A7 Friday, February1, 2002 U.S. Infant Mortality OPENING PRAYERS Decreases 20 Percent BY ERIN McCLAM THE ASSOCIATED PRESS ATLANTA — Infant mor: tality in the United States dropped 20 percent in the 1990s, health officials said Thursday, crediting a push for prenatal care and new technology that helps keep low-birthweightbabies alive. Nearly 28,000 infants died in 1999, or seven for every 1,000 live births, the National Center for Health Statistics said. The rate in 1990 was 8.9 deaths for every 1,000 live births. Hundreds of Jain Nuns,the Hindureligioussect,takepart in the inauguration prayers of the 27-dayiongreligious celebration of the Smrutimandir Temple in Ahmadabad,India, on Thursday. Jain nuns and monks are known for their very strict ascetic Mexico: Women Led Adoption-for-Cash Ring BY MARK STEVENSON far backas 1998. ‘THE ASSOCIATED PRESS reportedly offered a $10,000 bribe to offic- MEXICO CITY — A child-smuggling ring uncovered here may have involved as many as 100 children, enticing some of them with promises oflife in America with ers who detained herat the Tijuana airport, suggesting “that is how much they could earn byselling one child.” Mexican authorities think they have relatives. Others may have been kidnapped,police said Thursday. Butotherdetails remained unclear, as cracked an adoption-for-cash scheme. But illegal butless sinister attempt to reunite U.S. and Mexican authorities gave differ- families ofillegal immigrants. The woman,Virginia Barajas Perez,43, U.S. authorities portrayed the ring as an ing versions of the cross-border scheme, Mexico said Barajas sent ‘six children uncovered when Mexican police caught a pair of women. working with a U.S. accomplice to move six Central American children from Tijuana to Los Angeles. “The two women detained in Tijuana may have transferred setveral dozen children to the United States,” Mexico’s Federal Preventative Police said in a newsre- on a Los Angeles-bound flight. A spokes- lease, noting they believe one of the womenattempted to steal a child here as woman for the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service said, however, that only three children were found coming in from Tijuana, adding that two women who metthem in Los Angeles were detained. The children were found in the company ofrelatives, and the two women are believed to be relatives as well, leading U.S. authorities to decide to leave the Teachers’ Role warnings. “ryan“aownslayedthe . % = In Ritalin Use Te,bit,Zao protets Is Attacked “If sometype of behavior is perceived in a classroom . . . communicate with the parent andthen the parent can make a Continued from A-1 to have a child labeled,” Bryson decision” whether to seek medical advice. Mincing few words, Bryson smoke died at a 59 percent higherrate in 1999. And seeking care in thefirst trimester of pregnancy appeared to cut the risk of infant mortality by nearly one-third. Prenatal care was a key part of health officials’ battle against infant mortality in Federal police grew suspicious when the two womenflew to Tijuana on Monday, children from a Guatemalan woman. Police searched the younger woman’s homeonthe outskirts of Mexico City, ar- rested her husband and found six Salvadoran children living in “deplorable conditions.” All of the children said they had been ‘THE ASSOCIATED PRESS knocking out power in hun- dreds of thousands of homes in a swath that stretched from OklahomaCity to Tole- do, Ohio. Thebeltof ice and snow at one point wreaked havoc from the Texas Panhandle to upstate New York, and nearly all points between. Atleast 15 deaths were blamed onslick told they were goingtolive with relatives roads or freezing temperatures. At airports around the Midwest, passengers were barelythe tip of the iceberg,police here said. stranded by the thousands. in the United States. Theninechildren — three confirmed in Los Angeles and six in Mexico City — are lawmakers whomaintainstate caseworkers are overzealous in their jobs. “We're talking about school personnel making a report to DCFS,” Bryson said. “It’s the psychological, or behavioral treatment” for a child,or if a parent declined to seek a “psychiatric, or behavioral health evaluation ofa child.” Unless conveyed in letter, parents’ responsibility to guide the child, not anyoneel Under HB123, school pe sonnel would making a report on child aie teachers would be prohibited from recommending that a parent consider undertaking or neglect to authorities, including DCFS, if a parent or sician, psychologist or other a “psychotropic drug to a psychiatrist, acknowledged that Ritalin and other drugs were overprescribed. behavioral treatment or contacting a specific licensed phy- Services (DCFS), an agency underfire this legislative session from a host of Republican child,”ifthe parent refused any sort of “psychiatric, for women who smoke.” The report illustrated somedisturbing disparities. Infant mortality continues white mothers. And Southern states crowd the top of the list of highest infant mortality rates. Mississippi had the highestrate, at 10.3 deaths for every 1,000 live births from 1997 to 1999. New England and Western states had the lowest, with New Hampshire at 4.8. Health officials said those racial and geographic gaps reflect a muchlarger medical trend: Blacks and Southerners tend not to have access to —orin somecases notto seek — high-quality medical care. More than foot of snowfell at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, causing cancellations, delays and headaches. Oklahoma and Missouri were hit the hardest, with an icy rain lacquering everythingin sight. Utility officials in Kansas said it was the worst storm in memory and warned it could be days before power everyone. is restored to Atleast 15 people died in traffic accidents blamed on the weather, including three people each in Nebraska, Oklahomaand Mlinois. Missouri Gov. Bob Holden declared a state of emergency. Buthe said the bill was far too broad. If a student is suicidal, he number of special needs students taking Ritalin, because their education is supple- said, “a teacher has no recourse. Sending letter might mented with federal dollars. “Most of the [parents] go along because they feel they have no choice,”she said. “This bill will not prohibit school personnel from commu- be too late.” Sandra Lucas ofthe Citizens Commission on Human Rights was among those speaking in favorofBryson’sbill. “We've got schools that should be centers of learning turning into behavior modifi- health specialist. said. “We're talking about psy- also took a swipe at Utah’sDiLouis Moench,a Salt Lake cation centers,” she said. chotropic drugs as a condition vision of Child and Family guardian refused to administer ofattending school.” After more than an hour of spirited debate Thursday —including charges that teachers were prescribing drugs without a license and counterclaims higher Winter Storm Hobbles Midwest rolled out of the nation’s midsection and toward the Northeast on Thursday, Mexico City. Barajas and herniece, Estela Barajas Gonzalez, 27, said they had gotten the is a treatable item,” Mathews said. “The rate is so much to strike black mothers dis- A crippling winter storm turned thechildren over to someoneelse, then immediately booked a return flightto “There continue to be women who smoke during pregnancy, and that proportionately — 14 deaths for every 1,000 live births in 1999, compared with 5.8 for children — aged 4 months to 3 years — temporarily with therelatives. The story on the Mexican side of the border appeared grimmer. 1999 alone,the infant mortality rate for babies born at less than 3.3 pounds fell by 8 percent. “This ii s very good news,” births, according to UNICEF. The study found that babies born to women who lifestyle. Hindus make up around 80 percentof India’s population of more than billion citizens. pital technology advances to keep low-weightbabies alive paid off as well: From 1995 to NCHS demographer TJ. Mathewssaid.“Buttherateis still too high in the U.S.” The U.S. infant mortality rateis still higher than that of many other developed countries. In Sweden, for example, the rate is roughly three deaths for every 1,000 live ‘Siddharth Darshan Kumar/The Associated Press the 1990s, Mathews said. Hos- Bryson also claimed that schools even havea financial incentive to increase the nicating with parents about perceived problems.” Rep. Lamont Tyler, R-East Millcreek,disagreed. “A teacher is going to have to hire a lawyerjust to send a letter,” he said. gburton@sitrib.com Private the House Judiciary Standing Committee delayed a vote until next week. Under Bryson’s House Bill 123, a teacher would be guilty of a misdemeanorif he or she im- an mens tran as a condition for attending school.” VA (ela) CET Cela) Lake City, called the measure “overkill.” “T've never heard of somebody being criminally liable, stfor making a report,” he Membership Special! Rep. 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