Overreaction

[taerowyn]

Signs that people can really overreact:

A woman was arrested on felony charges for allegedly letting her three children get so severely sunburned that they looked like they "were dipped in red paint." ...The children had second-degree sunburns and were treated with cold compresses, said Trinity Medical Center West spokesman Keith Murdock. Hibbits, 31, could face 15 years in jail if convicted of all three counts.

OK, so in the long run, which will have the worst effect on the kids? A week of dealing with the aftereffects of a bad sunburn or, I don't know, fifteen years without their mother?!? And c'mon, felony charges?!?

Comments

[taerowyn.livejournal.com]

I'd say negligence, abuse, negligence. To me it's a matter of doing direct harm vs. failing to prevent harm.

Re:

[schwa242.livejournal.com]

Fair enough, on a semantic level. Though, in my opinion, negligence can be just as bad as abuse.

Just ask the little boy who's mom let him crawl on broken glass covered cockroaches as a child because she couldn't be bothered to sweep all her bottles of cockroaches that fell off the kitchen shelf and as he got older she forgot to feed him food and he lost weight and died and that little boy's name was... Casper, the Friendly Boy!

-- Schwa ---

Which is how he became an even friendlier ghost, because he's just overcompensating for mommy never ever being there for him by trying to make friends with Christina Ricci.

Re:

[taerowyn.livejournal.com]

I'm not saying that negligence can't be abusive at all, I think it's a matter of intent. If the woman held the kids face up to a flame to give them second degree burns then I would be all for felony charges. If, as funkbunny says, she's been reported before, I'm all for felony charges. If, however, this is an isolated case where she just royally screwed up then I think lighter charges, some hefty fines, but no chance of jail time are in order.

Re:

[schwa242.livejournal.com]

Fair enough... works for me!

-- Schwa ---