Petition created for Miya’s Law to help protect children

(ABC 36 NEWS NOW) — It’s a case that’s left us with more questions than answers.

“Sometimes we have to set aside certain things and say, hey, we have to create some policies to protect ourselves, children. And, it may come at a cost of some backlash,” says Eric Williams, who created a petition for Miya’s Law.

The case of the disappearance and death of 8-month-old Miya Rudd of Ohio County.

“My thought was, I’ll just go online real quick. I’ll create a petition, you can sign electronically, and I’ll just release it on the internet, and let that do its thing,” says Williams.

The case sparking national attention.
But also igniting Eric Williams to do something rather than just talk about change.

“You’re hesitant to do stuff a lot of times, especially when it comes to the internet, because you’ll get backlash. And I just thought about it, and I thought, I’m a father, I’ve got a big family. And it just somebody’s got to stand up and do something, somebody’s got to advocate for some change,” added Williams.

Eight-month-old Miya Rudd was reported missing in June, but was allegedly last seen at the end of April.
Her remains were believed to be found on June 14th.
Upon learning about the case, Williams decided to spring into action. That’s when he created a petition to strengthen laws and advocate for the safety of children.

“A lot of people think that maybe that’s a life sentence, if you’ve lost custody of your children. Now, you can never have children again. But it’s not, if you basically have lost custody of that child due to those unsafe conditions, and you never went back to regain custody of that child, then you still are deemed unsafe. And you need to prove yourself, kind of like a sex offender registry. You are now registered as an unsafe parent, it doesn’t have to be public, and you don’t have to stay on it. But you have to do your due diligence to get off of it. If you want to have children in the future,” added Williams, regarding the goal of his petition.

The petition has a goal of 7,500 signatures and at the moment Williams is very close to it.
He says he has already started speaking to lawmakers in the area of Western Kentucky ahead of the next legislative session.
Williams says he hopes Miya’s Law will help prevent situations like this from happening again in the future.

To sign the petition, you can click here.

In the Miya Rudd case there have been 8 arrests so far, that includes Miya’s parents and both sets of grandparents.