Outrageous is a strong term. No word better describes the Monroe county prosecutor's decision not to press charges against parents who chose to leave their three-year old toddler unattended in their unlocked car while they went to a movie. I don't subscribe to the philosophy that it takes a village to raise a child, but I do believe it's the prosector's duty to protect the children. In a town like Bloomington, strange crimes are always occurring (many based on drugs). Any parent who thought for even a brief moment their child was safe in a parking lot needs to be shaken back to reality. Prosecutors usually can do that.
But back to the parents. Haven't they read about amber alerts, stolen children, kidnappings and the like?Are they so isolated that they've escaped the tons of mail and milk cartons with missing children's faces. Don't they see near-daily reports of children being mistreated as a result of parental neglect. If nothing more, the prosecutor should have at least brought some kind of charges. It's too bad that parental stupidity isn't an arrestable offense especially for the sake of the children. Maybe they all need to watch a few episodes of Law and Order.
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2 comments:
The parents apparently didn't leave the child in the car on purpose. I believe she had crawled in the back and gone to sleep. When they dropped off their other children at the sitter in a hurry, they didn't realize she was still in the vehicle. After entering the theatre, I believe it was 10-15 minutes later, they recounted the babysitter drop off and suddenly realized the little one wasn't dropped off. They had darted to the parked car before the police arrived and fully owned their responsibility for the child being left alone.
While not acceptable, it is quite different from the story you recount on your blog. I think you should update your post to reflect the actual details of the incident. These parents are reportedly very competent aside from this incident. Don't we all make mistakes as parents?
Have you considered using decaf?
I'm sorry. That may seem callous. I'm sure you've been off caffiene for a while...
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