Northwest Worker Sentenced for Incident - Spiked Toddler's Juice With Xanax

AP ^ | November 12, 2003 | AP

[Damocles]

	Posted on Wed, Nov. 12, 2003
	Northwest Worker Sentenced for Incident Associated Press DETROIT - A Northwest Airlines flight attendant who spiked a toddler's apple juice with an anti-anxiety drug to stop her crying was sentenced Wednesday to four months of home confinement. Daniel Cunningham, 39, of Ann Arbor, pleaded guilty in May to federal charges that included assault and distribution of a controlled substance on an aircraft. The incident was discovered by the 19-month-old girl's mother, who took the juice off the Amsterdam-to-Detroit flight last August after noticing that it was bitter and foamy and had blue and white specks floating in it. Turner had it analyzed by a laboratory, which confirmed the presence of Xanax, which is prescribed for panic attacks and anxiety, the FBI said. The drug can cause drowsiness and lightheadedness. The girl suffered no serious injury. Cunningham was fired by Northwest. Federal sentencing guidelines called for zero to four months' in prison.

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© 2003 AP Wire and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.
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[Damocles]

What a wack job...

[rovenstinez]

I would wonder if other passengers might have been glad to have a wiggly little toddler quiet for the flight. But,.... it's ok if the parents used Xanax.

[Damocles]

Xanax, no. Benadryl, OK.

The insiduous aspect is the guy doing this to a child without the parent knowing. If some joker tries to drug my kids, jail time will be the least of his worries.

[southernnorthcarolina]

Good Lord, an airline story with both of my air travel pet peeves: caterwauling babies, and boy stewardesses. Both should be banned from airliners.

[70times7]

Benadryl, OK

But if I remember correctly Benadryl has the effect of causing hyperactive behavior in about 25% of kids. That's something the passengers and parents would really love - an overactive wigged out kid.

[FreePaul]

Too bad the mother didn't have the foresight to give the baby something to keep it quiet. Maybe one of those mothers who think their child is so precious that she should share it with everyone else.

[tdadams]

LOL! Murphy's Law seems to follow me to the airport. If I'm sitting at the gate and there's a crying baby, a shockingly obese person, or a human chatty Kathy, nine times out of ten, I know they'll be sitting next to me.

[Damocles]

Too bad the mother didn't have the foresight to give the baby something to keep it quiet. Maybe one of those mothers who think their child is so precious that she should share it with everyone else.

I agree totally. Our family recognizes the "preciousness of others" and a screaming kid in a metal tube is definitely not respecting those around you.

But really, secretly drugging a child is indefensible. The mother should have had the foresight to deal with the situation.

[x-navy seal]

Let me guess...You either don't have children -- or they are already grown up and don't come to visit you very often!

[FreePaul]

You're entitled to be wrong about me as you're entitled to be wrong about obnoxious parents and children. In your mind does having children obligate one to sympathize with selfish and indifferent parents? I see something wrong with that. Maybe if the mother had taken the Xanax....

[Conservababe]

This thread makes me sick.

For your own convenience, you think it's okay to sedate a crying baby.

God help us!

[x-navy seal]

In your mind does having children obligate one to sympathize with selfish and indifferent parents

Actually, in my mind, it is the flight attendant at fault here, not the mother. I also don't think in my mind that I would ever give drugs to my 19 month old child just so that arrogant, hoity-toity people, don't get to spend every blissful second that they are aboard an aircraft, in complete silence. We live in a society where people are allowed to have as many children as they choose. Sometimes these parents need to take a child aboard an airline, for whatever reason. It is even possible that this mother needed to take this child for medical reasons, in which case the child could have been on medication that could have had a serious reaction with Xanax. I don't know if that was the case -- Neither did the flight atendant, nor do you. The mother is not at fault here! Sometimes kids cry. If they are your children, then do what you feel is necessary. If they are not yours, Get over it!

If that had been my child, the flight attendant would be in desparate need of cosmetic surgery right now!

[Littlejon]

I tend to agree with you here. I have two boys, 5 and 3, who are as well behaved as I could hope for,... most of the time. They are just like adults. They have good days and bad days, just like us all. My 3 year old is very active. Not hyperactive, just "all boy". While I know taking him on a 4 hour flight would be a nightmare, mainly because I know no child that age will sit quietly for that long, I also realize that I cannot predict how he will act any more than I can predict how the guy sitting next to me downing rum & cokes the whole flight will act. Some days he surprises me with how well he behaves. Other times, when he has no reason to, he is hell on wheels. Kids are just as moody and unpredictable as the rest of us. When they get excited about something, like riding on a plane, they can't control their actions as well as adults, but I submit that if you look around at the adults on a flight some time, you might see some who act worse than a toddler would.

I have been on flights where people turn up the volume of their radio & blast rap music through their headphones so loud people on the opposite end of the plane can hear. I have been on flights where some high-dollar business man swills drinks like his life depends on it and is so obnoxious that I want to toss his arse out with no parachute. I had a very large man sit next to me on a flight out west once that dozed off and snored so loud even the pilot could hear him.

People dog those of us with small kids for "not reigning them in" when they "bother" them, and in the same breath will start cursing or talking loud or about some subject we don't want to hear, all with no reservations whatsoever.

Of course parents are ultimately resonsible for the kids, but to say they should drug them to keep them from pissing off someone on a plane is irresponsible.

I harken to when my oldest child was a few weeks old & we took him into church services because there was no nursery at our church at the time. I used to fret over him crying & disturbing others when one day an elderly lady leaned up and told me not to worry about it. Later she told me that they used to have ALL kids in church and women would even breast feed infants right there in services and no one thought anything about it. It was a part of life and people weren't so uptight about being "disturbed" as they are now, especially where kids are concerned. I think it all goes back to so many seeing kids as property not as humans like our parents saw them. Unfortunately, a large part of society has no problem with aborting kids or packing them off to daycare or hire nannies so as to not inconvenience their lifestyles. They cannot understand when someone with a kid who is not sitting semi-comatose can't "control" the kid because they see them as a nuisance, not as a person. In their twisted view, kids should sit quietly until such time as the adult wants them to act in some other way. I dare say not one of these people would expect someone to treat them the way they want parents to treat kids when they percieve some "disturbance" going on.

IMHO, when you decide to have kids, you give up your past life and your attention is to be focused solely on them. Take some time for yourself and your spouse, but never forget they are your primary concern 24-7.

[Conservababe]

Well said.

[Conservababe]

And if that had been my child, the judge who only gave the attendant four months at home, would hear from me, my lawyer and my congressman.

I hope the mom sues the hell out of the airline.

[catdaddy]

I know this family. I don't condone what the attendant did. I'm sure the mother did nothing to quiet the child and I'm sure the child was extremely disruptive. Trust me, the parent is not the type to model your parenting skills after.

As of this time she is not intending to sue, although her money-grubbing relatives are encouraging her to do so.

[Conservababe]

Sweetie, if anyone ever drugged my child, the person responsible, along with their company would pay through the nose so bad that my child could go to the best college.

And, I would also be enraged at the slap on the wrist given to the attendant.

[catdaddy]

I agree, I'd figure out what to do, probably after I punched the guy in the nose!

The child is OK, thank God. I just wish there was better parenting for her.

I wasn't on the plane, but from the experiences I've had with the party involved, I'm sure that it was probably the longest flight the other passengers had ever experinced.

[Conservababe]

Well, your post is a sickening as most of these posts.

Nineteen month old children are very difficult to discipline to sit still and shut up for any length of time.

And to the rest of you who think that the mother should have drugged a baby for your convenience...I hope someone slips something in your drink at the airport.

[FreePaul]

Sounds as if you know what I suspected all along. The child's problem is the mother. Some people think that having children means that everyone else should have to put up with their lack of parenting. Children cry and misbehave. Real parents know how to take care of their children so they are not a burden on the rest of the world. Who will make excuses for this "child" when he is in his teens and misbehaves?