No Charges After Toddler Died In Car

ohionewsnow.com ^ | 09/06/07 | Unknown

[Froufrou]

No charges will be filed against a middle school administrator whose toddler daughter died last month when she was left in the back seat of her mother's SUV during a heat wave, a prosecutor said Tuesday.

Leaving the child in the car for the work day was "a substantial lapse of due care" but did not meet the definition of reckless conduct necessary for prosecution, said Clermont County Prosecutor Don White.

Brenda Nesselroad-Slaby, 40, is assistant principal at Glen Este Middle School, about 20 miles east of Cincinnati. Authorities said she left her 2-year-old daughter, Cecilia, strapped into a car seat for about eight hours on Aug. 23 while she was at work at the school.

Temperatures outside reached about 100 degrees.

[Millee]

So being distracted is now a legitimate excuse for cooking your baby in a car???? Okay.....

[VOA]

No charges will be filed against a middle school administrator
whose toddler daughter died last month...

It sure seems that maybe 5-10 years ago, that when one of these
baby-locked-in-a-hot-car events occurred, the parent responsible
for the tragedy usually was found to have drug/alcohol problems or
was just a generally irresponsible type on the edge of society.

Now-a-days, when I hear of such an event, my first thought is
"probably a person with a lot of degrees".
E.g., the event at University of California, Irvine a few years
back and the recent one in St. Louis. Both involved high-flying
academic types...supposedly "the best and brightest" amongst us.

[thecabal]

So you’re saying it’s the government’s fault she forgot her 2-year-old?

[djf]

She works in a school!!
You telling me that all day she can be surrounded by kids and not think of her own?!

Astounding!

[wideawake]

Apparently we have different definitions of pretty.

[squarebarb]

I just can’t see what mindset the woman had to forget the child in the car.

Other than that, isn’t there some kind of signalling device that could be put in reach of the child’’s hand for her/him to call for help?

And maybe the law against putting the chiild in the front seat should be voided.

[The Forgotten Man]

I have sympathy for this mother. I can see how this could happen. Maybe her husband usually takes the child to a sitter, and she had to do it instead this day. She was thinking about work, the child was sleeping and the motherjust plain forgot the child was in the car.

Very sad, but give the woman a break.

Pathetic, your reply avoids personal responsibility. I am a parent and our children are the complete focus of our lives. You don’t just forget about them under any circumstances....

This kind of “excuse” attitude is a contributing factor in the problems our society face today.....

[SlowBoat407]

Interesting take on the situation here.

It's an angry black blog complaining that because the perp teacher was white, she got away with it. What's interesting however, is that down the column a bit further, is a story of the same Don White bringing charges against a "less affluent" family under similar circumstances several years earlier. The case was "Ohio v. Jerry Bittner".

Please put aside the blog's racial component for the moment, but look at the fact that the prosecutor did bring charges (and won a 1 year jail term) against someone 7 years ago for what appears to be the very thing that he has just excused.

[wideawake]

So you’re saying it’s the government’s fault she forgot her 2-year-old?

No, I think Al Gator is saying that government regulations have made it easier to forget that one's child was in the car.

[ZinGirl]

and she had to do it instead this day.

so maybe the ONE day she 'had' to do it....she couldn't even remember? "thinking about work"? for 8 solid hours? the baby never even occurred to her?

i'm not adding to her own pain...she'll have to suffer for ever for this....but my heart, grief, and sorrow will mostly go to the victim.

[SlowBoat407]

Sorry jdm. I was so busy composing my link to the blog that I missed your posting it too.

[Froufrou]

I was watching the car being hauled away on Today Show this morning, thinking the poor woman could have got another car instead of the Mercedes and had enough money left to have a nanny at home with her child. I feel so bad for thinking that!

[RogerWilko]

I'd like to know how many mothers could go EIGHT hours without thinking of their 2 year-old!!

I'm not a mother, although, I've been called one a few times... But I'd think that any mother of a 2 year-old probably wouldn't go 5 minutes without thinking of what their 2 year-old was up to!

Something smells funny here!

[muggs]

I also had some sympathy for the mother but the latest on the story is that this was not the first time she left her daughter in the car. It happened at least three times before the fatal time.

[oyez]

" a substantial lapse of due care" More like man slaughter..

Whatever legal charges are they are probably nothing compared pain and guilt of being responsible for the death of a family member. I pity her.

[knarf]

No parent ... no PARENT .. leaves a car without looking inside first ... you just don't open the door, get out, close the door and bustle away.

And no school administrator gets out without reaching over to the passenger seat for their papers or briefcase.

I don't buy the story.

[antiRepublicrat]

The Law of Unintended Consequences always bites the nanny staters, usually to the detriment — and even death — of the citizens.

[jdm]

No problem. I should have mentioned the racism in the blog too. I scanned just a few sentences and didn’t realize the blog owner was that way until after my post.

[mewzilla]

I feel for this woman’s daughter. Being cooked in a car is a horrific way to die.

[dinoparty]

Oh, please. She forgot the child in the car. That is the fact. Interpret it how you want, but this is a tragic accident, nothing more.