http://www.boston.com/news/nation/2012/10/22/year-old-accused-maine-baby-death-arraigned/3cyncZaO28X68eAf45sHHO/story.html
I came across this article today while on the internet and thought it was crazy that an eleven year old girl could do such a thing. I am in the Mental Health rotation for clinicals right now and to think that her behavior disorder has been overlooked for this amount of time is outrageous. How do my classmates feel about this? Should she be incarcerated until age 21?
Wow... That's terrible... Although there is not much background to the girl (as in mental status) the issue still arises if there was or is any mental illness that caused this to occur... Maybe I read it wrong but did the mother have anything to do with it to? There was a line saying they both should be put behind bars. With the incarcerated point I feel there might be parts missing that could push to either side of that debate... With just finishing up with the mental health rotation I have a lot of questions about her psychological state... Very interesting though it makes you think why or how someone especially age 10 could kill someone. More background info would make it more interesting to psycho-analyze
ReplyDeleteArgeeing with what Lauren is saying in that more background is needed on the girl to determine if in fact she has something psychologically wrong with her. Although it does not validate her actions, it will make it more understandable as to why she did what she did. This is very young and I wonder how long she has been having these thoughts and actions occur... Could this have been prevented?
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ReplyDeleteThis is sick. Kids these days can get away with way too much because modern psychology has made a bunch of ridiculous disorders. People go out and murder people and claim insanity. You are darn right someone is insane when they go out and kill people for no reason. The sickening thing about it is that judges actually rule in the favor of these disorders. They are excuses and I do not buy them one bit. Anyone can try and argue that there is such a thing but I will refuse to believe it. This little girl obviously had no discipline when she was younger and did something very wrong. She should definitely be tried as an adult. She knew exactly what she was doing in suffocating the infant. Lock her up and make her learn. I honestly cannot stand all the excuses made for kids these days. This story reminds me of another situation, mind you it is less severe. My fiancee is a lead teacher at Little Red School House and there is a little boy in her class who thinks it is ok to hit. He constantly hits her and other kids in the class. Nothing is done because his Mom, who works there, does not discipline him when he acts out like this. These are type of kids that grow up and commit bigger and badder offenses. I can say one thing, if my child ever hit a teacher, they would not be able to walk for week because they would get spanked hard, just as I was when I was a kid. If this girl ever got any discipline at home, I honestly doubt this would have happened.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely agree with the comment about the insanity of individuals. I mean the term "insanity" is so relative, and I just feel like today anyone can just claim they're insane and you know they'll get away with it. I almost look at it as the term "insanity" is some demon, and people just claim "Oh (insert name) is just insane, that's why they killed them" as if it's "insanity's" fault and not (insert name's) fault. So does that make it alright? Absolutely not, if someone is insane and has some problem where they like to kill people, then they deal with the consequences like everyone else. I also like the blue collar nature in your comment; I completely agree with the idea that if my children act out of line, it would be the job of those who know better (whether they be parents or not) to teach them/ punish them appropriately. Whatever happened to an old fashioned spankin'?
DeleteI totally agree the punishment has to fit the crime. Her mother is just as guilty of this crime through her inaction. The girl should never have been left with an infant at such a young age. If the girl did in fact have behavior disorder the mother is even more at fault because the infant should never have been left alone with this unstable little girl. adults are accountable for the actions of their children to an extent. Not all people are suited to be parents and that is the problem, this woman was an unfit mother and it has lead to a neglected infant being killed by her unstable daughter. The girl deserves punishment and needs treatment and discipline, but the mother needs to be punished as well. The blood is on both of their hands.
ReplyDeleteI agree that both should get some sort of criminal action thrown at them. However, my argument is that I feel it was alright for the 'mother/babysitter' to put the infant in the 10-year-olds bedroom. While, yes, I agree the infant should have probably been in the master bedroom with the mother/babysitter, I don't see how the mother would have thought it was dangerous for the infant to be in the 10-year-olds bedroom. I shared a room with my sister from birth till about maybe 10. My sister is only 8 years older than me, but she knew better at 8 that with a crying baby you don't smother it or push pills down its throat. I believe if the child is at fault here and mentally stable, then yes she should be prosecuted, for she knew better. Same with the mother/babysitter, especially if the mother knew her child had a behavior disorder.
DeleteAlthough it is probably true that the parents have something to do with the behavior of the girl I do not think that is is fair to put the entire blame on them. The article did not give much background on her life. As she is only 11, the girl is obviously not mature yet, but she should be old enough to know some right from wrong. So, I agree that there probably is something psychological wrong in this situation (not saying that this should be used as an excuse to escape punishment). Hopefully her mental state is evaluated carefully and the consequences for her actions are suited to what is discovered. Whether she intended to kill the infant or not, some sort of punishment needs to be put into place for this girl. However, she is still a child which is why it is important for her to be evaluated. I agree that it would be interesting to find out more about the girl's background. She needs to be accountable but to a certain degree. It would also be interesting to note if her parents and the sitter were aware that she has behavioral issues or if this is the first time she has acted out.
ReplyDeleteI can understand if they do decide to incarcerate her until she is 21. Even if she does have a behavioral disorder, she should still be punished. Otherwise, it just says that you can do whatever you want as long as you have an excuse. If she has a behavioral disorder, I can't understand why nothing had been done about it. Even if there was no way to correct it, the parents should have at least not let an incident like this happen. The parent needs to be charged as well for negligence. It was the parent's job to watch the child which they did not do.
ReplyDeleteI also am in the mental health clinical rotation now, and after reading this article there are somethings that I wish were more apparent. What was the certain behavior disorder she had, and if her mom, the babysitter, had known about this disorder why did she let the baby sleep in the same room as this 11 year old. The mother deserves to be punished along with the young girl. Even if she didn't think that she was going to kill the baby, she clearly knew to give the baby some sort of medicine and clearly knew that by suffocating the baby that it would either calm down or stop crying. With her still being a child I would not support trying her as an adult as mentioned in the article, however a mental evaluation of the child is necessary.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the article I was shocked that someone so young was capable of committing a crime that serious. Growing up I have always heard the saying, "you do the crime, you do the time." In this situation, the child might only be eleven years old, however, she committed a crime and I believe she needs to face the consequences. In my opinion, I think she definitely needs to be incarcerated until age 21 because of what she did. However, I might even go as far as to agree with Jeramie and say that she should be tried as an adult because to suffocate someone I feel like you have to know what you are doing. In this case I feel like the little girl knew what she was doing when she suffocated the infant. I think by incarcerating her it will help her understand that what she did was wrong and that it was a serious crime. Hopefully she learns her lesson this way, otherwise, if they say she has a behavior disorder and they don't do anything about it or evaluate the child then who is to say that she won't do something like this again in the future? Not only does the child deserve punishment, but so does the mother. I believe they both played a part in this crime.
ReplyDeleteat 11 years old there is no doubt the child knew what she was doing to the infant. I think you can only blame the parents to a certain degree because when it comes down to it, an 11 year old would make their own decision regardless of what they have been told or taught by their parents. I also feel like there isn't enough back ground on the family history, but from what was given, this murder could have been easily prevented. Being incarcerated until 21 years old seems to fit the crime because she understood what she was doing but may not have known how severe her actions actually were or may have a mental disorder. we cannot get into the minds of other people so we may not ever know.
ReplyDeleteI do agree with Morgan and most of everyone else when you state that her mental status needs to be more apparent. I would 100% blame the mother on this one, but the girl is eleven years old. Being tried as an adult is very appropriate. I do not know if I agree with the whole ten years of incarceration. She definitely needs treatment to first see what is going on inside her head.
ReplyDeleteI feel as if you hear stories like this every year or so and its always a controversial topic for obvious reasons. I feel that an 11 yr old is at an in between stage in their life where they are still young and not fully aware of what they are doing. As some people have already said, more information is needed to fully understand what took place. Nonetheless, this is a terrible act that took place and is obviously unacceptable.
ReplyDeleteWow this is a bizarre article. The general public will probably see her as a little girl who does not know any better in someway and that the parents or adult supervisor should be %100 accountable. Some not so lenient others such as most of my classmates who commented above will see her as being perfectly capable of facing adult manslaughter charges because in order to suffocate someone, it is obvious that a person has to know how to do that. She definitely has a some sort of behavior disorder and should be psycho-analyzed for sure before anything. When I read the article and read how she responded in a quiet manner and just nodded, it almost seems as if she knew what she did but was using her age to her advantage to look innocent. I think if psycho-analyzation shows she knew what she was doing then she should be tried as an adult regardless of her age because as Jeremie said she could grow up doing worse crimes.
ReplyDeleteOk so this was a crazy article. I wanted to first say that child should have punishments for her actions, but these punishments need to be decided after they look into her mental state. More information needs to be known to describe how the suffocation occurred. I know that some students have said that she must have known what she was doing, but being so young, she may have simply been trying to stop the infant from crying. Seeing that the infant was unable to physically push the little girls hand off of her mouth or squirm free or even tell her somehow that she couldn't breathe anymore, the girl may have not known exactly what she was doing. This I feel like may have been the case with this little girl. Now to address the issue of the parent being held accountable. I believe that the parent must be held partially accountable because she was the babysitter. It was her job to watch the infant. I think because it was her job to take care of the infant she should be somewhat responsible. With all of this being said, I don't think that the child can take full responsibility of the crime until further analyzation of her mental state. If it is found that she knew what she was doing and did it anyways, I believe se should be charged and take full responsibility as an adult. The babysitter does get charges dismissed because it was her ultimate job to take care of the infant.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, I think that the article may cause some to pass judgement on the mother and girl prematurely. It really only presents one side of the story, as the mother of the 11 year old refused to comment. That leaves all the quotations to come from either the lawyers or the mother of the infant that was killed. One line that makes me move towards this conclusion, is in the middle of the article where it states that "Greenaway left the court hearing angry and frustrated, saying she felt that the girl and her mother were smirking." Even if this is only one person's opinion, we are all now biased to think that the mom and her daughter are malicious and find some sort of pleasure in the proceedings. Though I agree that the mother should be charged for leaving the child unattended with a minor and that the crime cannot be overlooked, we need to wait for more information to be released before we're ready to place serious repercussions on the defendant. In this country , you are innocent until proven guilty, not the other way around.
ReplyDeleteThis is such a sad story and it is really hard to take in because you never hear of a child killing another. Naturally, due to the uniqueness and particular dreadfulness surrounding this case many different opinions are being thrown around on how to deal with a 10 year old murderer. It is obvious that the child must be punished in some way because of her unspeakable act but how and how severely? She was only 10 when she committed the murder and children do not have a very clear concept of death as I know from attending funerals with my nieces and nephews, it is very hard for a child to understand that someone is gone forever and will never return. Furthermore, as Andy said the whole story and both sides of the story aren’t really known. The article said that the baby was fussy and that she was sleeping in the 10 year olds room and that the baby had ingested medicine and died from suffocation. Maybe the girl first tried to give the baby medicine to make her feel better and stop crying and when the baby did not quiet the girl suffocated the baby in a moment of frustration and anger without intending serious harm. This drawn up scenario does not excuse the girl for what she has done, but I feel as though incarceration until the girl is 21 is a very severe punishment for something the child may not have completely understood and hopefully did not intend. Furthermore, the article mentioned something around the girl having a behavioral disorder which may also be a factor in causing her to commit murder. If that is the case it would seem the child is not in her right mind and should therefore be treated and then evaluated to see what form of punishment is warranted for the murder she committed.
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