Mother Is Jailed After Children Are Sunburned

New York Times | 8/20/02 | ADAM LIPTAK

[kattracks]

n Ohio woman has been jailed for allowing her three children to get severely sunburned at a county fair.

The woman, Eve Hibbits, 31, of Brilliant, Ohio, faces three felony counts of endangering her 2-year-old daughter and 10-month-old twin sons. She is scheduled to have a preliminary hearing today.

"As soon as I looked at them I could tell," said Sheriff Fred Abdalla of Jefferson County, in eastern Ohio. "It looked like the children had been dipped in red paint. It was 95 degrees, and they were literally baking."

The sheriff said he had no choice but to arrest Ms. Hibbits. "If I ignore this and something happens, then shame on me," he said.

Neither Ms. Hibbits nor her husband could be reached for comment.

The sunburn was not particularly severe, said Keith Murdock, a spokesman for Trinity Medical Center, a hospital in Steubenville, Ohio. The children were treated with cold compresses and released the same day.

"We treated the minors for second-degree sunburn," Mr. Murdock said. "Most people who get sunburned get second-degree sunburn. It means any sunburn that is beginning to blister. They were blistering."

Sheriff Abdalla said prosecutors could decide what kind of penalty to seek on the three felony counts. He noted that Ms. Hibbits had already spent a week in jail, that probation might be appropriate and that the government agency charged with protecting children might play a role.

"Children's Services is going to have to get involved," he said, adding regarding the mother, "She just had to get a message sent to her that something has to be done."

[MissBaby]

This country is absoulutely nuts. The women should be with her children at the doctor not in jail. This country is nuts.

[TexRef]

Already here

[j271]

Family bump.

[ValerieUSA]

How many little children are murdered by parents who leave them in hot cars for hours -- and no one gets arrested?
This is NOT a criminal offense. Kids get sunburned at fairs - it happens all the time.

[lizma]

For a sunburn. Give me a break. But....

He noted that Ms. Hibbits had already spent a week in jail, that probation might be appropriate and that the government agency charged with protecting children might play a role.

Maybe this women has neglected her kids in the past. It's not to hard to lather your kids with sunscreen before you send them out for the day. But now we will arrest the stupid? Half of congress would be gone.

[kattracks]

I think the sheriff meant she had already spent a week in jail over this.
He might not be recommending probation if there had been any other incidents concerning the kids.

[Dec31,1999]

People are so stupid these days. Our kids don't get sunburns, and we're not rocket scientists!

Surely Ms. whatever was a Gore voter.

[BluesDuke]

But now we will arrest the stupid? Half of congress would be gone.

Only half? ;)

Good grief, "nuts" is a polite way to describe this country. This may come as a bit of a shock to the mandarins that be but kids do get sunburned even with layers of sunblock on them because kids will be kids and they will try best they can to hang in the good sun until they themselves can't take it any longer. Always have. Always will. And if that was a crime, every damn last parent in this country could be put under arrest.

The mystery of government is not how it works but how to make it stop. - P.J. O'Rourke.

[ValerieUSA]

I think perhaps Sheriff Abdallah is clueless about fair skin.

[larry h]

I have mixed feelings about this...As a kid, my parents
took my sister and I to the beach all the time. In the 50's
and 60's it was no big deal....

At age 47....I am battling malignant melanoma...the most deadly form of skin cancer. With all the warnings about
skin cancer out there....maybe this mother used bad
judgement...However, that should not, by itself, be a crime.
On the other hand, I sure wish the information available now had been available when I was growing up.....

[piasa]

It's VERY hard to slap sunburn protection on a kid. My mom used to try it all the time and when she succeeded it was promptly washed off by yours truly. Couldn't stand the smell, the bugs it attracted, the dirty feel of the stuff, and how it made the weather feel hotter than it was. And I got toasted, but it's my own fault if I ever develop skin cancer, not mom's. No police force in the world was going to get me to wear that crap, and the idea that a mother could be arrested for it is obscene.

The state should go back to concentrating on serious crime and get the heck out of the nanny business. Government can't even properly take care of children in government custody or provide a decent education for kids in school, much less be entrusted to determine every aspect of parenting.

[al-andalus]

Good luck in your battle. God bless.

[A CA Guy]

I don't know about the jailing, but from what I read, you don't want sun-burns on your children before 11. Something about uping their chances of skin cancer later 1000%.
Nothing to consider minor either!!!

[A CA Guy]

Yep, articles have pointed to that problem. See my #14 please!

[Selara]

Dang....I live in Louisana...I KNOW sunburn can just sneak up on a person or persons....

[TigerLikesRooster]

Re #6

This is nothing. In many elementary schools, there are much more of these nanny zealots working as teachers. Now zealots are showing up at the law enforcement agency, too. Puritan zealots are not gone. They are repackaged as liberal zealots these days.

[fella]

When I was a kid in the 50s we vacationed in Nagshead and or Cape Hatteras, and almost every year I would burn and blister, year after year. But I look back on those times as some of the happyist. So even though my parents have departed for a better place, can I sue somebody? Perhaps the State of North Carolinia for not protecting me?

[Robert_Paulson2]

sunburn protection levels now under the jurisdiction of states?

hmmnnn.....

Where in the handy dandy state constitution do we find the chapter and verse, where the STATE or LOCAL government gets to enforce sunblock protection on family members of private citizens?

ANYTHING can be stretched into a "child endangerment" charge... anything. Give your kids a sucker recently? danger from choking. Discover all too late that your kid has developed a peanut butter allergy? Uh oh! Mommie might go to jail for a lONG time....

BUT if teacher gives suzie directions to the abortion clinic, where she gets an abortion and KILLS little baby foetus, and mr. doctor, scrapes the uterus so closely he hemorages the girl and kills her... NOBODY goes to jail... it was her own business... her own body, her own choice.

talk about a NATION that is f'd up to the total max!!!

arrest the mommies, but let the illegal arab terrorists come here and live on us student visa status LONG after they are expired....

idiots. we look, and ACT like idiots.

these social service types need to have their jobs, in entirety and without exception eliminated... forever.

unbelievable.

[Robert_Paulson2]

abdallah...

sounds like a muslim to me... and a sheriff to boot, who'd a thunk it?