Did Santa Fe Springs Really Just Force A Family To Remove Daughter’s Make-A-Wish Gift From The Yard?

News recently erupted that Santa Fe Springs officials issued a citation ordering a California family to remove a backyard play structure that was was a gift from the Make-A-Wish Foundation. 10-year-old Tiffany Miranda suffers from a severe seizure disorder. Tiffany’s mother told CBS Los Angeles that the disorder prevents Tiffany from playing on public playground equipment. The Make-A-Wish Foundation granted the girl playground play set for her back yard to make play-time easier and safer. The Santa Fe Springs government officials, according to CBS, said that the play structure is an eyesore.

“When I asked the city, ‘So where do you expect my daughter to play?’ they said ‘Well, the city’s not responsible for your daughter’s disability…’ They said ‘Your Tiffany is not our problem,'” Jessica Torres, Tiffany’s mother explained to CBS. “I’m not going to let this go. I’m not going to remove the playhouse and I’m not going to remove her canopy and I want them to stop picking on my Tiffany.”

Torres told CBS that the playset from the Make-A-Wish Foundation makes her daughter feel like a normal girl. News like this travels fast and it wasn’t long before other news sources reported on the story as well. The Daily Signal, The Blaze and many others featured the story about Tiffany’s Make-A-Wish gift.

Santa Fe Springs city manager Thaddeus McCormack told CBS Los Angeles’ Adrianna Weingold that the city only wanted Torres to clean up the area around the Make-A-Wish gift. Weingold claims that the area around the playset is already neat and tidy. Weingold stated that the citation itself specifically instructs the family to dismantle the Make-A-Wish gift. Weingold also saw some of the tickets issued by the city calling for the family to remove all items from the family’s backyard.

Reason reported in the incident claiming the city officials changed their stance on the removal of the Make-A-Wish Gift.

“After Weingold approached city officials, they changed their story. Now it’s perfectly fine to keep the personal playground up and running, they said—despite what is explicitly printed on the numerous tickets the Mirandas received for hosting unauthorized fun in the privacy of their own backyard.”

According to Torres, at the time of the interview, no one from the City of Santa Fe Springs contacted her that the playground equipment is allowed to remain in the family’s backyard. Though Torres said she has not intentions of taking it down, to listen to the city manager would be in direct violation of the actual citations, according to media reports.

Contrary to these reports, McCormack is trying to make it clear the city does not want the little girl’s Make-A-Wish gift removed. McCormack says the city officials only wanted the yard cleaned up.

“The City is aware of the recent news story alleging that the City is requiring a local family to dismantle a backyard playground donated by the Make-A-Wish Foundation for their 10-year-old daughter. Regrettably, the news report erred in perpetuating that allegation. The property referenced in the piece was the subject of an ongoing Property Maintenance case. However, none of the issues (which are by-and-large routine in nature) have anything to do with the backyard playground. While it would be inappropriate to disclose the details of the property maintenance issues, suffice to say that the City shares the family’s concerns for the wellbeing of their daughter, as well as that of all of the residents in and around the subject property.”

According to McCormack, as of Thursday, Santa Fe Springs officials clarified the misunderstanding about the Make-A-Wish gift and has resolved all outstanding property maintenance issues.

[Image via CBS video]