Poll: 10 year old murders baby brother

[JoJo]

What the fuck?

Seriously, most of the responses on this thread scare me, as they evidently have been made by people with little experience of children. For a start, while a child of 9 (as she was at the time of the incident) does have some inclination of good and bad, they won't nessecary understand that shaking a baby could cause it serious injury and hell, kids do stupider things all the time. You can't hold a young child up to your standards, simply because you like to think to that you were the perfect model of well-behaviour at that age, which I'm sure you weren't.

Yes, this is a tragic incident, and the 9 year old shouldn't have been left with the baby, but to hold her responsible is simply unfair. This is coming from a guy who has a sister who's almost 8 and who volunteers with kids ages 8 to 11, so trust me I know that age group well.

 

[Paksenarrion]

In my opinion, it's the parents' fault for trusting a human babysitter with protecting their baby...

http://www.jeepbarnett.com/gallery2/d/11923-2/vgcats_portal03.jpg

This is so appropriate, it's cruel...

"All of our automated turrets have been taught to read, and given a copy of the three laws of robotics... to share."

 

[Doctor Glocktor]

Baby sitter deserves to get pinned for neglect and manslaughter. Baby sitters are hired to watch the children and make sure they're not, you know, dying. She had one job, and she completely failed at it.

Because people never have to use the washroom, right?

 

[Projo]

Because people never have to use the washroom, right?

The one thing you expect to do when hiring a babysitter is to come home to your children still breathing.

You can't look away from kids for a second. That is a rule that anyone who works with or takes care of them should know. That's the whole reason you hire a babysitter. And she utterly failed, and now a child is dead, one probably going to face some sort of mental trauma in the near future, and a family's bundle of joy has been ripped away.

This is neglect, manslaughter, and malpractice. She deserves a punishment.

And as for the kid who actually did it? 10 year olds aren't too bright. That's not an age that can be trusted to make rational decisions. That kid may take the therapy route, but ultimately, it's the babysitter- the one hired to prevent this - that is responsible.

Obviously Oynx's post on the first page is the best decision, but that's not the world we live in, unfortunately.

 

[Lilani]

-snip-

I think both are at fault. Of course, throwing the girl in jail will solve nothing, so I think her "punishment" (if you can call it that) should be more or less counseling and psychological analysis. The article says that it is third degree murder by shaking the infant, and third degree murder means by neglect or indifference. This is on the same level of drunk driving--more or less manslaughter than conscious "murder." So it should be approached as such--an accident resulting from ignorance rather than just assuming the girl went after the baby murderous intent. She had no idea it could kill the baby, but obviously she was detached enough to see nothing wrong with causing that much harm to another, so she will need some help in the future for sure. If not for her behavior, than for the grief that's sure to come when the gravity of what she's done hits her.

As for the babysitter, she was the guardian in the situation. The baby died from being shaken, and didn't die until days after it happened. She is being charged for failing to seek medical attention, most likely meaning that she didn't try to get help immediately after she discovered what happened. If that is really how it unfolded, then I don't find charging her to be unreasonable at all. The babysitter should have called someone immediately after finding the baby. To do otherwise is neglect, in all senses of the word.

 

[Booze Zombie]

I am a firm believer that we aren't so stupid when young that we can't understand death, but that could just be me.

 

[x Unknown Source x]

Both should be blamed responible for their actions, having that the baby-sitter clearly wasnt watching the kid strangle the baby, but ,also that, by then when someone is 10 htey should know right from wrong, and life and death also where were the parents that could be so important that they had to leave the tow children alone with eachother with a not-caring baby-sitter,
but who is all to say that she probably tried to stop the child from doing this destructive behavior now.?

And also for all the people who blamed the girl for this death, clearly somethinmg was wrong at that time and it made her snap to where she couldnt control it anymore, and not to say, no one can say that they never just snap and felt like doing something so outragoues, but that they werent matured at the time, but also ethier something was wrong or she was physotic

 

[Dogstile]

I would like to point out the babysitter is being charged because she didn't seek out medical help, not because she was meant to be watching the kid. She's not being charged with murder, I dunno what its called, but pretty much she's being charged with letting the kid die rather than helping it.