A bill that deserves to become state law is based on crimes that took place in northeast Indiana.
In 2014 and again last year, the foster parents for a Noble County child became the targets of anonymous threats — in one instance threatening to shoot the foster mother.
State Rep. Dennis Zent (R-Angola) has responded with a bill aimed at increasing protections for foster parents.
Zent’s bill allows a petition to be filed with a juvenile court to order a person to refrain from contact with a member of a foster family home.
It also makes it a Level 6 felony if battery is committed against a member of a foster family home by a relative of a person living in that foster family home.
In the case that inspired the bill, much more than battery was threatened against the foster parents, who also live in the four-county region of northeast Indiana.
On May 13, 2014, the foster father received a phone call from a person threatening to harm him because he was caring for the child.
Then on April 17, 2015, the foster mother received death threats in text messages and was stalked in person while she was shopping at a Home Depot store on Lima Road in Fort Wayne.
The text messages to the foster mother indicated she would be shot if she did not give up the child. The messages gave very specific details about her whereabouts, which could be known only by someone who was stalking her.
In November, Noble County Crime Stoppers offered a cash reward for information that would help police find the people responsible for the threats. Anyone with tips may call the Noble County Sheriff’s Department at 636-2181.
Oxygen therapy could help veterans
Another bill from Zent that deserves attention would authorize hyperbaric oxygen therapy for military veterans who suffer from traumatic brain injury or post-traumatic stress disorder.
“What we’re hoping to do is get the legislation through the state to recognize that there’s potential for this kind of treatment,” Zent said recently.
Without a state law endorsing oxygen treatment, he said, the Veterans Administration will not authorize it. He characterized the VA as slow to adopt new treatments.
If Indiana endorses oxygen treatment, Zent said, a charitable organization led by actor Gary Sinese will provide seed money for a program testing the effectiveness of 100 percent oxygen treatment.
The oxygen treatments could be much more effective than drugs now used for brain injuries, Zent said.
“Let’s give it a whirl,” he said. “If it’s got any potential at all, it’s less costly than what we’re seeing on the drugs.”
The treatment holds potential to reduce the tragic rate of suicides among veterans, Zent added.
Even if oxygen treatment does not work as well as hoped for a particular veteran, it also can’t harm anyone.
Last year, Zent’s bill on oxygen treatment attracted 54 co-authors, but it did not make it through the Legislature because of its financial implications, he said. This time, money is not a factor if a charitable organization will pay for the treatments, he said.
So far, the House Committee on Public Health has approved the bill and moved it forward in the legislative process.
Zent added, “We at least owe it to our veterans to step out in this area, because the downside is minimal. The upside is huge.”