Play all audios:
LINCOLN, Neb. — All Dan Weber wants is the right to visit his 4-year-old sister.
His parents, who placed him in foster care when he was 14 because he was “uncontrollable,” want to keep him away, but they have never said why.
Dan, now 17, is fighting his parents in court over an issue that has torn the family apart.
Peggy Stevens, a county attorney, argued on the teen-ager’s behalf before Nebraska’s Supreme Court this month that he is “suffering greatly from his lack of contact.”
“If this were a child who was into torturing dogs and cats, violent behavior or behavior problems in school, we wouldn’t be here,” she said. “But he has never involved another person in his
behavior, has never struck out at another person.”
Dan’s parents say he broke the rules, took the family car, shoplifted and smoked cigarettes.
“The courts have absolutely no jurisdiction, no fundamental right to interfere with the parents’ right to protect their daughter from her older brother,” the couple’s lawyer, James Davis,
argued.
When Dan was 14, his mother, Diane, a homemaker and former bookkeeper, placed him in foster care for “uncontrollable behavior.” He stayed with an aunt and several foster families, lived at
Boys Town for 3 1/2 months and now lives with his grandmother.
When he was first placed in foster care, he asked a juvenile court judge to let him visit Megan.
The judge arranged visits supervised by Dan’s therapist. The state court of appeals backed that ruling, but Diane Weber and her husband, Ken, appealed to Nebraska’s Supreme Court, which
could take months to rule.
Diane Weber told the Omaha World-Herald that she and her husband did not give up on their son. She said that she had hoped foster care would make him realize how good he had it at home.
He had taken the family car when he was 13, was caught shoplifting and broke a family rule by taking $2 to school, she said. She also found a pack of cigarettes in his closet, she said.
Dan said he did break the rules but has never been arrested. In an interview, he said he had “just turned 14 and couldn’t do anything” because his mother was so strict.
Dan said he doesn’t know if he’ll ever have a relationship with his parents again.
“I see them out, like in the car or something, but they don’t talk to me, they don’t talk to any family.”