California artist to head home

PLATTSMOUTH, Neb. — A young award-winning artist and her brother are expected to return to California after spending a month in Nebraska foster care.

"This is absolutely the best outcome that could have happened," said Sharon Silverman, one of more than a dozen friends and supporters who flew from California to attend a Wednesday hearing in Cass County Court.

Alice Fuzi Wang, 12, the artist, and her 13-year-old brother have been in a Nebraska foster home since an argument during a family trip a month ago.

The family had traveled to Omaha for an art exhibit that features Alice's painting, which won the North American division of the International Children's Painting Competition. The family was scheduled to go to an Aug. 17 award ceremony in South Korea.

Instead, the children were put in a foster home after parents Suwen Wang, a physicist, and Charlotte Fu, a paralegal, were accused of hitting their son June 6 in Plattsmouth. The parents deny the allegation, and feared their daughter would miss the trip.

Cass County Judge John Steinheider approved an agreement to send the children home in the care of California's social services department.

Attorneys on the case came to the agreement this week after Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services staff and their California counterparts developed a plan.

The children got to visit their parents and friends at an Omaha hotel Tuesday. "The children really want to come home," Fu said, her lip quivering, before the hearing.

The parents' attorneys have said the case was moving too slowly. HHS attorney Susan Buettner said: "The most important thing has been lost: This is a case that involved alleged child abuse."

California authorities proposed requiring the parents to complete a 16-week parenting program, continue family therapy, allow social worker visits and refrain from corporal punishment, according to a copy filed earlier in Nebraska court. Lawyers did not say in court whether those were the conditions of the new plan.