HS BATHROOM-BIRTH TEEN MAY GET OFF HOOK

New York Post ^ | 6/26/03 | LARRY CELONA and JOE McGURK

[kattracks]

June 26, 2003 -- The teenager whose baby died after she delivered it in a bathroom of her Bronx Catholic high school is unlikely to be charged, despite the medical examiner's ruling the death was a homicide, police sources said yesterday.

[wimpycat]

If I remember correctly from an earlier article, there is likely an incest situation going on here. That might explain the girl's mother being in total denial over the enormity of what occurred.

[Arkie2]

It's not her fault don't you know. Besides, she's making good grades. Leave her alone. One day she'll become a great feminist.

[Izzy Dunne]

I don't know what the medical examiner said and we don't care," the teen's mother said.

i think THAT's pretty obvious.

[Ronin]

Sounds like she already is. No doubt taught by that scumbag of a mother.

[GovernmentShrinker]

Swaddling a newborn in a sweater and leaving it in the bathroom of the school nurse's office, where it's likely to be found by the nurse, hardly sounds like homicide to me. Neglect definitely, maybe even rising to involuntary manslaughter, but certainly not homicide. Homicide requires intent to kill, and the authorities admit there is no sign of such intent. Why is the medical examiner making up intent, when there is no reasonable evidence of it? This girl needs help, not prosecution. Whoever got her pregnant, on the other hand, should be in prosecutors' crosshairs.

[IrishBrigade]

So you are of the opinion that giving birth in a toilet stall, vacating the premises, and leaving the newborn to his obvious fate (absent some fortunate miracle) does not signify intent to do away with same newborn? This rises only to neglect, by your lights? Neglect is when you send a kid out on a cold morning without proper clothing...homicide is when you leave a totally dependent individual to die while you schlepp off to get good grades or whatever....

[mtbopfuyn]

Stupidity (there ought to be a law!), child endangerment, neglect, most definitely. Homicide, no. It doesn't matter the baby was delivered in the bathroom but it does matter that he wasn't thrown in a dumpster. Yes, the girl was stupid despite what her report card states, but she did have that one brain cell directing her to the nurse. The article, as too many do now days, fails to explain the how and why of the death six days later leaving us to ponder why the ME and police are in disagreement.

[DB]

Nowhere in the definition of "homicide" is there "intent to kill".

Homicide simply means "a person who kills another" or "a killing of one human being by another".

Nothing more, nothing less.

The medical examiner is simply stating that the child didn't die of natural causes and another human's actions were the cause.

[DB]

#10 to you too.

[grania]

It's not her fault don't you know. Besides, she's making good grades. Leave her alone. One day she'll become a great feminist.

Or maybe a nun. She is, after all, an exemplary Catholic School student.

[DB]

Murder is with intent.

[nravoter]

Whoever got her pregnant, on the other hand, should be in prosecutors' crosshairs.

How in the world is the one who got this girl pregnant any more guilty than she is, barring rape (including incestuous rape)?

[nravoter]

HS BATHROOM-BIRTH TEEN MAY GET OFF HOOK

I think this headline could be read another way, with the addition of a simple punctuation mark:

HS BATHROOM BIRTH TEEN MAY GET OFF, HOOK

This way, the reader gets an idea of the likely verdict, and the teen's future.

[Dante3]

The mother said, ". . . we don't care." Incredible! However, it does pose the questions of the involvement of the mother and possible incent.

Of course it is homicide. And the killer can't raise the "I didn't know the kid was going to die" defense since she has high enough IQ to get good grades.

Just wondering why no names were reported.

[IrishBrigade]

OK, I admit I read the story hastily, not realizing that she gave birth in one bathroom, then apparently left the newborn in the nurses' bathroom(but begging the question why not hand deliver the child to them)so some mitigation possibly accrues...but you are correct, intent is not necessary to establish homicide...

[wimpycat]

A girl had a baby in the bathroom at our local community college and the baby drowned in the toilet. After the investigation, charges weren't brought against the girl. It turns out the girl had been an incest victim of her father for half her life, was a little on the "slow" side, and literally had no idea what was going on. I mean, this family was straight out of "Deliverance", and the girl had no concept of pregnancy or where babies come from.

There might be some of that going on here. It sounds like the mother simply doesn't want to acknowledge or accept what's been going on under her roof, possibly for years. The other article mentioned a "male relative" but not which one.

[SMEDLEYBUTLER]

The medical examiner determined the premature baby's death was a homicide, because the sweater smothered the child.

smothered is not synonymous to swaddling

Homicide requires intent to kill

Back to law school for you Perry Mason.

[lilsparky]

I guess it's just because I come from a rural area, very small school - just wondering how a young lady is in the nurse's bathroom long enough to deliver a baby, and somebody doesn't notice and check on her. Must have been a pretty isolated bathroom.