By Gana Wettasinghe

First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton came to visit campus last Monday (Nov. 24) in order to discuss a recently signed federal bill designed to promote the well being of foster children. She gave a presentation on the Adoption and Safe Family Act, which her husband signed into law last Wednesday.

"The act aims to achieve helping foster children because every child deserves one permanent family. Children's health and safety should come first," Clinton said.

I guess she did not learn at Yale's Child Study Center that not all children who have been abandoned or chronically abused are part of the foster care system. In the state of California any child at the young age of 14 can become an emancipated minor. If one proves himself to be responsible enough to support himself, the government can terminate the parents' rights and the emancipated child will not be a ward of the court.

Emancipated minors differ from foster children because they proved themselves to be responsible enough to independently care for themselves. Instead of rewarding these youngsters for their responsibility, the government is ignoring them and granting others with adopted parental support more benefits. Is this how we teach our children to be responsible?

I became a emancipated minor a couple years ago because I was in a family situation I felt I had to get myself out. I have been working and going to school since I was 14 years old. Because I am not a ward of the court, the government has no responsibility toward me and I am without parental support. The health and education benefits received by foster children will not be offered to emancipated minors.

I could tell a lot of stories about how hard it is to raise yourself at such a young age. It would of been nice to have (adoptive) parents guide me through my adolescence and also receive all the benefits from the foster care system. But those like me who prove to be responsible at such a young age must pay the price. This is not to say that foster children do not deserve the benefits they receive. But the law seems to suggest that 14-year-old children who prove responsibility are not as vulnerable and fragile as 14-year-old foster children.

I could not ask her what she thought about emancipated children after the presentation, but I talked to Durrel Demings, the former foster youth who greeted Clinton before she made her speech, he said when he was 16 years old he tried to become emancipated but could not. Now that he looks back on it, he is glad he did not. As a ward of the court he could receive more benefits than emancipated minors.

The Adoption and Safe Family Act is discriminatory towards emancipated children. I feel sympathy for all those innocent young 14 year olds who try to do the responsible thing to help improve their lives but blindly end up making the wrong decision. Either the age limit should be raised or the process of becoming emancipated should be changed. As Clinton said "this is only a strong beginning."

Gana Wettasinghe is a UC Berkeley extension student. Respond to opinion@dailycal.org