Posted on 09/06/2007 7:18:13 AM PDT by 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.
Aha! I knew the daycare issue was at the root of some of the responses on this board! It just took awhile to come out.
Just remember, for every bad daycare story, there is an Andrea Yates.
Says something about the state of public schools.
To be convicted of murder, you need to have intent or recklessness...its PART OF THE DEFINITION. Therefore, excuses are absolutely relevant.
OHH PUUULLEEEZZZe
I do detest folks who respond with this line.
You missed the point of my post. Like so many other knee jerkers.
The point of my post is that this is NOT an isolated case. If it were, have at crucifying her.
However, there have been so many of these cases of late, that there has to be a reason for it.
Numbers talk. BS walks. I would like to know how many of these cases have happened in the last several years since the nannys have mandated back seat seating.
Interesting site.....
You would think in almost all cases that the loss of the child would be punishment enough.
Calling forgetting your child a ‘brain fart’ could make me laugh if it weren’t so ignorant.
Locking your keys in the car with it running is a brain fart.
Locking your 2 year old in and NOT THINKING ABOUT HER FOR 8 HOURS is deranged, as is anyone who actually understands how this could happen, multiple times.
There is a crime called negligent homicide. Is “forgetting” now going to be an excuse when this happens again???
Same thing here in Western New York.
No Charges in Infant Death
http://www.rnews.com/story_2004.cfm?story_type=2&rnews_story_type=18&id=52189
Quote from District Attorney:
“We felt the punishment of losing a child is going to be sufficient. If it wasn’t, there was a power greater than the state of New York that will decide her fate.”
Yes, I agree, if this was a pattern, then the analysis of this particular case changes.
However, the analysis of the issue in general, i.e. in cases where there is no such pattern, does not change.
She did catch a break; the other three or four times she left her daughter in the car unattended. We're not talking about a 9- or 10-year-old - a 2-year-old is still incredibly young and helpless in such a situation, whereas an older child likely would be able to free himself or herself from a warm vehicle.
And yet, she is entrusted with the welfare of hundreds of other people's children.
Will she get to keep her job?
I don’t buy it either.
I agree. Prosecution is not appropriate here. Let’s save that for the ones who deliberately leave the kid in the car while they play video poker, get their hair done, or (as in a story a couple of days ago) attend a “private function” at a brothel.
http://www.wlwt.com/news/14049501/detail.html
She had left that child in the car before! There is a pattern of behavior.
The day she left her baby there to bake and die, she actually went back to her car FIVE times and even moved it.
When I had child care, the sitter used to call me if I didn’t show up - to find out why I hadn’t brought my child that day.
This whole case simply reeks. Hope the faculty enjoyed those donuts.
I agree, if its true that she had done this multiple times before, then it is more than just forgetfulness.
What gets me, though, is that people do not think its possible for a good person to make a mistake that causes harm to a child. They think the parent who makes the mistake must be a bad person in some way.
A two-year old going to daycare would need some sort of bag to go along with her - diapers, a snack, change of clothes, whatever. If the child is in the back seat, it's as simple as placing the bag with your purse/briefcase in the front seat as a reminder that you have the child.
If I thought I might get so distracted I'd forget my most important role in life, then I'd drive with a toy or something in my lap so that I couldn't leave that car without being reminded of my child. (this is a hard concept for me to grasp--in the little bit of time I spent away from my kids going to work they were always first in my mind)
Something is definitely rotten here. At the very least, this woman didn’t care for her child; either that or she has serious memory issues. Unless she’s proven to be senile or has alzheimer’s, she should be prosecuted to the fullest extent.
Not to mention security cameras show her going back to her car FIVE times that day and even moving it.
Doesn’t human flesh smell like pork when it is baked?
Yeah, those are good ideas. But it doesn’t take away from the fact that its often just a terrible mistake when this happens.
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