Posted on 10/21/2005 12:50:33 PM PDT by SmithL
Members of the family of La-shuan Ternice Harris said they had argued that the 23-year-old woman was unstable and unfit to care for her boys -- 6-year-old Trayshaun Harris, 2-year-old Taronta Greely Jr. and 16-month-old Joshua Greely.
They had given up trying by Wednesday, when Harris went to the home of a cousin and told her she was going to feed her children to the sharks.
The cousin tried frantically to prevent Harris from leaving for San Francisco with her boys, but she failed, relatives said. At 5:30 p.m., police said, Harris took the children to the end of Pier 7 along the Embarcadero, stripped them naked and threw them in the water.
Taronta's body washed up more than four hours later at Fort Mason. The bodies of the other two children have not been found, and the Coast Guard suspended its search late Thursday, about the time Harris was formally charged with three counts of murder and three counts of child assault.
Her aunt, Joyce Harris of Oakland, said Thursday that Lashuan Harris' mother had contacted Alameda County social services officials about three months ago to seek partial custody of the children because Harris had stopped taking medication for schizophrenia and had made threats regarding the boys.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Crazy parents have rights, don't you know.
But sane parents don't.
apparently...
What is this filed under? Ultra late abortion?
Sorry to be so morbid its just too bad for the children. I guess that can't be helped now.
Was mother on welfare?
Mom had schizophrenia, and according to the story, refused to take her meds. Pretty much anyone in that state is unable to hold a job.
I can't believe that a schizophrenic woman who is known to be off of her meds and known to make threats against her children is not considered by Alameda County social services to be a threat to them.
"Focus on Me" T-shirt?
What difference does it make if she was on welfare?
The children suffered greatly, and I don't even wnat to think about what was going through their minds as their mother stripped their clothes and tossed them into the Bay. Certainly the ones watching must have known what was coming.
Nobody deserves such a fate.
The crazy people are the ones in charge of children's services.
Well .. that's not the way I handled it. I took my grandchild and hid her until we could get guardianship - and we did. Social Services knew where she was - but they also knew the history of the mother - and agreed my grandchild should NOT be reunited with her mother.
That's how you do it! You get aggressive and you take charge and you force the agencies to get their act together. The judges and the DA of the county supported us all the way.
Would mean that the state should have been in contact with her.
The obvious answer: Alameda County Social Services needs mo' money, right away!
Remember, we must strive to "understaaaaaaand" the crazy and "proteeeeect" their parental rights. /michaelsavage
Who in San FranCrisco doesn't hear voices?
(ppppsssssssstttt i'm a butt, don't ou want me???)
Terrible tragedy.
Since mental illness is a subjective diagnosis, would you want that as a criteria to break up a family ? When homosexuality is considered normal and you are phobic about homosexuals, do you want that as an excuse for social services to take your children away so they can be raised "properly" ?
Think thru what you seem to be advocating. Who is the determinant of what is considered sanity, and do you want a state bureaucracy enforcing it ?
1984, here we come.
when Harris went to the home of a cousin and told her she was going to feed her children to the sharks
I think the relatives should have knocked her unconscious with a tire iron and taken the kids away ... anywhere!
So what's the alternative, leave kids with mentally ill parents and let this sort of thing continue but put the parents in prison after the fact?
No system is going to be perfect, but I can't believe anyone would argue that this woman, based on what we know, should have been allowed to keep her kids.
Some situations by their very nature DEMAND intervention. I would think that this would have been one of them. It would have been for me when the children were disrobed, that would have gotten my avid attention.
Schizophrenia isn't particularly subjective.
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