Terri Schiavo's Family Calls for Observance of Terri's Day to Honor Disabled Woman

Life News ^ | 3/31/08 | Steven Ertelt

[wagglebee]

St. Petersburg, FL (LifeNews.com) -- Terri Schiavo's family and a leading pro-life group are calling on people to honor the disabled woman whose husband took her life in a painful euthanasia death. Together with Priests for Life, the Schindler family has established the observance of “Terri’s Day” each March 31.

That's the day Terri succumbed to a 13-day starvation and dehydration death at the hand of Michael Schiavo, her former husband who won a court order to take her life.

“This third anniversary should be an occasion for all of us to both remember the injustice done to Terri, and reach out to others with prayer and concrete action when they need the kind of help Terri needed," Terri's brother Bobby Schindler told LifeNews.com on Monday.

Suzanne Vitadamo, Terri’s sister, added that Terri's Day is also a way for her family to encourage others to take better care of the elderly and disabled.

“Our family continues to be consoled and uplifted by the many ways in which people honor my sister, learn from her story, and grow in compassion for all the disabled," she said.

During the days leading up to Terri's death, Father Frank Pavone of Priests for Life brought comfort and peace to the Schindler family.

Father Pavone was present for the final prayer Terri participated in before her death. He also saw the manipulative ways Michael tried to prevent the Schindler family from caring for her or being present with her during the starvation and dehydration.

“Terri’s death was not the end of her fight," he told LifeNews.com. "It was the beginning of a new chapter in the pro-life movement."

"I call upon all those who were moved by Terri’s death to continue their courageous activism in the cause of life, and never to be silent," he said.

Together, Priests for Life and the Terri Schindler-Schiavo Foundation encourage churches, families, organizations and individuals to observe Terri’s Day with prayers, memorial services, educational activities and community outreach.

Related web sites:
Terri Schindler-Schiavo Foundation - http://www.terrisfight.org
Priests for Life - http://www.priestsforlife.org

[Dante3]

Exactly.

[BykrBayb]

They told so many lies, it’s still a full time job exposing the truth. In the process, they derailed the argument from whether or not Terri had a right to live to whether or not she had an idyllic life. And they continue to tell the same tired out lies, while throwing in some new ones (like the one about the autopsy proving she was PVS for five years. Give us a break!)

[wagglebee]

How do the people of Massachusetts (or any state) tolerate such atrocities? How did the Germans look the other way when it was in their back yard?

Because they are scared that if they say anything that they will be next.

[Dante3]

And then there was the horrific way Terri was killed. No way would she ever have chosen to be dehydrated to death.

[wagglebee]

they derailed the argument from whether or not Terri had a right to live to whether or not she had an idyllic life.

This is EXACTLY what the forces of evil have ALWAYS done. They argue the positions THEY want to argue regardless of whether or not it is even relevant to the actual question at hand (we've seen the same thing with Lauren, they want to know who will pay for her care even though neither of her parents have even indicated that it is an issue), they will argue the position that they think they can win. The moment society accepts that ANYONE can be put to death because their life is not "ideal" we are ALL doomed.

[wagglebee]

And then there was the horrific way Terri was killed. No way would she ever have chosen to be dehydrated to death.

That is why they spent days saying how "beautiful" and "euphoric" it is to be dehydrated against your will.

[Dante3]

That was perverted.

[floriduh voter]

Haleigh Poutre gave witness testimony that Terri was never permitted to do by forbidding speech therapy for her. She was learning and they took her speech coach off the visitor list. (anything to deny Terri a better life). www.judgegeorgegreer.com, www.michaelschiavo.org

[floriduh voter]

Terri was murdered for a big pack of lies.

[floriduh voter]

Any press releases from Terri’s Fight? I’ve been ripping cds all day. Scanner still won’t work. Email me at your convenience, friend.

[8mmMauser]

Haleigh Poutre update:

the agency which thinks it is her mom. It is reported here by The Republican.

....................................

BOSTON - Citing the secrecy surrounding child abuse victim Haleigh Poutre, advocates in Washington assigned state government a near-failing grade yesterday for a lack of public disclosure about such cases.

Massachusetts received a D-minus in a study by the Children's Advocacy Institute in San Diego and First Star, a watchdog organization in Washington. Only 10 states, including Vermont, flunked, while Maine was among two states that received a D-plus.

The two groups released "State Secrecy and Child Deaths in the United States," a report that evaluates each state's public disclosure practices about cases of child abuse or neglect that resulted in deaths or near-deaths.

~Snip~

Juan C. Martinez of the state Department of Social Services, which oversees child abuse cases, said yesterday that the agency is not secretive. He said the report focused on public disclosure laws in Massachusetts, and not the practices of DSS.

It would be up to the state Legislature to revise public disclosure laws, he said.

He declined comment on Haleigh, saying the court has ordered that no information be released about the former Westfield girl.

Haleigh's biological mother, Allison L. Avrett, of Agawam, said yesterday the department is secretive.

"Every time I've dealt with them, there's nothing but secrecy," said Avrett, who last visited her daughter in Boston on July 18, 2006.

Without any public explanation, the state Social Services Department has since banned Avrett from visiting Haleigh. The girl is in the custody of the state, and is receiving treatment at a Boston rehabilitation hospital, according to the last public information provided about her condition...............

Bay State faulted on secrecy

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[8mmMauser]

Haleigh Poutre...

Boston.com has this little blurb this morning:

Massachusetts has received a near-failing grade for its efforts to protect children from abuse. Only 10 states fared worse than Massachusetts, which got a D- in a study by the Children's Advocacy Institute and the watchdog group First Star. A report on the study said the state has failed to report on near-fatal child abuse and operates under a shroud of secrecy. It cited several high-profile examples of Department of Social Services failures, including Haleigh Poutre's case. The girl was beaten into a coma while in foster care after DSS dismissed more than a dozen allegations of abuse. The study also mentioned Rebecca Riley, the 4-year-old whose parents are charged with manslaughter after she died from a prescription drug overdose. (AP)

Advocacy groups fault DSS for secrecy

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[8mmMauser]

Haleigh Poutre is in the news a lot this morning.

....................

It's been over two years since Haleigh Poutre entered Massachusetts Department of Social Services custody, and clutching her daughters' picture is as close as biological mother, Allison Avrett, can get to her. The only updates she gets is from the news.

"I'll have neighbors telling me, your daughter was on the news yesterday and I didn't know," Avrett says.

The news gave her two stories Tuesday. The first is that Haleigh, is now communicating with investigators. Still hindered by the injuries allegedly sustained at the hands of her foster parents, Haleigh, spoke in simple words detailing her abuse, saying foster parents Jason and Holli Strickland regularly used physical punishment.

"If she has said it, without a doubt, from the little bits that we did see of her, yeah," Avrett says nodding in agreement.

The last time she saw her daughter was in July 2006. Since then, she says hasn't heard anything about her daughter from D.S.S.

"They have nobody to answer to and they hide everything," Avrett says.

A federal watchdog group agrees. Written by the Children's Advocacy Institute, a report released Tuesday charges D.S.S. with "adhering to misguided and secretive policies that place confidentiality above the welfare of children." The state received a D-.

In Northampton, Governor Patrick chimed in. While he hasn't read the report, he has this to say about Social Services.

"We want DSS to be as successful as possible because they are dealing with some of the most vulnerable citizens in the Commonwealth," Patrick says.

One of those vulnerable children is Haleigh Poutre.

"What they have said is that she has needs, and apparently, we don't need to know what those needs are," Avrett says.

To read the full Children's Advocacy Institute report, click on this link.

For more information, visit http://www.caichildlaw.org/Misc/State_Secrecy_Final_Report_Apr24.pdf.

Massachusetts D.S.S. Gets Nearly Failing Grade

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[8mmMauser]

Haleigh...

NECN Boston was able to squeeze this info into their story about Reverand Wright...

Also tonight, an update on Haleigh Poutre ... The little girl who was nearly left for dead Now she's communicating And prosecutors are listening....

Take Five: Why Wright gets attention

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[8mmMauser]

Haleigh and the Bostonist...

............................

- The story of Haleigh Poutre, the 14-year-old girl who, in 2005, was brought by her parents to a Westfield hospital in a vegetative state could not be more crushing. The girl has finally emerged from her coma, defying predictions that she would never reawake. (The Massachusetts Department of Social Services, for one, wanted to shut off her feeding tube.) Police interviewed her from her pediatric unit bed yesterday and have revealed a story of longstanding and brutal domestic abuse. Poutre's adoptive mother, Holli Strickland, was accused of the worst abuse, according to authorities, but her stepfather, Jason Strickland, was not left off the hook.

The pair were arrested in 2005 after they brought Poutre to the hospital covered in bruises, claiming that she had fallen victim to the flu. Within a day of her release on bail, Holli Strickland died alongside her grandmother in a bizarre murder-suicide. Jason Strickland, 34, faces several assault charges. [Globe]

Boston Blotter: Child Abuse Alleged, Human Trafficking Investigated and a Man Threatens Homicide

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[8mmMauser]

Haleigh and UPI...

.............................

BOSTON, April 29 (UPI) -- A 14-year-old Massachusetts girl who suffered brain damage from alleged parental abuse was able to give police a statement from her hospital room.

Haleigh Poutre has been in a children's rehab hospital in Boston for two years, The Boston Globe reported. In 2005, she was declared to be in an irreversible vegetative state, and a court ruled that she should be allowed to die.

A source told the Globe that Haleigh, using gestures and simple language, said last December that her aunt and adoptive mother, Holli Strickland, and her stepfather, Jason Strickland, used brutal physical punishments. But she was unable to give details about what put her in a coma.

The family lived in Westfield in western Massachusetts.

Samantha Poutre, her 11-year-old sister, has reportedly told police that Haleigh was kicked downstairs. She originally said that her sister had injured herself.

Jason Strickland is awaiting trial on child abuse charges. Holli Strickland was killed by her grandmother, who then took her own life, shortly after she was charged.

Brain-damaged girl able to talk to police

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[8mmMauser]

Haleigh and PR Newswire...

......................

WASHINGTON, April 29 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The majority of U.S. states fail to release adequate information about fatal and life-threatening child abuse cases, adhering to misguided and secretive policies that place confidentiality above the welfare of children and prevent public scrutiny that would lead to systemic reforms, according to a report released today by First Star and the University of San Diego School of Law's Children's Advocacy Institute (CAI), two leading national child advocacy groups

~Snip~

The Report highlights Massachusetts as an example of a state in need of reform. In Massachusetts in 2005, Haleigh Poutre, then 11, was allegedly beaten into a coma by her foster parents. The Department of Social Services had received and dismissed at least 14 separate reports of prior suspected abuse.

Abused Children Dying Under Shroud of State Secrecy

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[8mmMauser]

Germs have feelings too. Now I am in big trouble, having likely violated carrot rights in the eyes of the Swiss cheeses. Couple days ago, I wantonly used a carrot to lure a marauding groundhog into a terminal conflict.

What more graphic illustration of the leftist mind could we find than the collective cognitive dissonance of a socialist community? Thread by wagglebee. Weep of aching carrots while stabbing a scissors into the head of a baby.

SWITZERLAND, April 28, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The nation that liberalized its abortion laws in 2002 is now giving unprecedented protection to animal and plant life.

~Snip~

The Swiss federal government's ethics committee on non-human biotechnology has been working to determine what kind of research respects "plant dignity" enough to be eligible for government funding.....

Swiss Grant Rights to Animals, Consider Same for Plants - Liberalize Abortion Laws

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[8mmMauser]

A perspective from the Pope applicable to all in pro-life...

Thread by wagglebee.

....................

On 17 April 2008, Pope Benedict XVI addressed a crowd of Catholic educators gathered at the Catholic University of America. After congratulating them on their efforts against a "crisis of faith" and a "crisis of truth," he went on to tell them why American education was failing.

"We observe today a timidity in the face of the category of the good and an aimless pursuit of novelty parading as the realization of freedom," the Pope said, seated in a wooden throne designed by CUA students.

"We witness an assumption that every experience is of equal worth and a reluctance to admit imperfection and mistakes. And particularly disturbing, is the reduction of the precious and delicate area of education in sexuality to management of 'risk,' bereft of any reference to the beauty of conjugal love."

While these words were primarily intended for Catholic educators across the country, they hold a special meaning for the pro-life movement. They describe, in a beautifully succinct way, what we fight against every day: a sexual culture of lies, misrepresentations and illusions that results in an epidemic of contraception, sterilization, and abortion...........

Sex Education Replacing Marriage the Basis of the Pro-Abortion Movement

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[8mmMauser]

With apologies for my language to any brits who may be visiting, "Bloody Hell"! Nothing else comes to my mind at the moment.

Thread by Coleus with thanks to narses for the ping.

Girls aged as young as 12 are having abortions, figures released for the first time by the Department of Health reveal. The figures, obtained by The Sunday Times using freedom of information legislation, show that each year 10 to 15 girls aged 12 have abortions.

The government initially refused to disclose the figures by claiming patient confidentiality. The Sunday Times successfully appealed against the refusal and the information commissioner, a government authority which promotes access to public information, ordered the statistics to be disclosed. While some doctors reacted with sadness to the figures, family planning experts said society needed to “stop being shocked” that children were having sex and becoming pregnant....

UK: Girls aged 12 have abortions

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