Rusty Yates has a new son

story here

Remember him? He's the husband of ANdrea Yates - the woman down in Texas who drowned her five children.

Andrea was mentally ill. Rusty did NOTHING to help her. He made her stay home - homeschooling the five kids. He did this knowing she was unstable. He knowingly put those five kids in danger. And yes, it was his job to take care of his children AND to take care of his wife who was obviously incapable of taking care of herself. (he knew something was going to happen - he even said so)

Now Andrea is in jail for the rest of her life (and finally getting medication and mental health help). Too late for the 5 kids though - they are all dead.

Now he's gotten rid of Andrea because 'marriage is for companionship and for children'. She can't do that anymore. His lack of taking care of her had much to do with it - but he doesnt' admit to it.

He's got a new woman .. and a new baby.
I hope to God they will be okay.

I honestly think one of the only things he did wrong was that he left her home alone with the children that morning for an hour before the grandmother got there.

He had sought mental help for her. The doctors released her from the mental hospital well before she was ready to get out, and they took her off of haliperdol, the only pill that seemed to be working for her, long before she was ready to get off of it.

Have you seen the American Justice episode on the Andrea Yates story?

The feminist movement jumped on this case in a New York second and the main reason is that the husband is a fundamentalist Christian.

The woman killed their five children in a methodical manner.

Maybe she was mentally ill, but how all this translates into the husband's fault, I've never understood, except from the anti-Christian, anti-male, Marxist feminist's perspective.

I don't know much about the man, but I can't seem to blame him for divorcing the woman who murdered his five kids and I have no reason to believe that the woman he married is a murderous psychopath. Neither does anyone here, I suspect.

[edit on 1-4-2008 by AccessDenied]

Again, he DID try to get help for her. He did have her commited to a mental institution, had her seeking professional help and she was on an anti-psychotic drug called haliperdol.

I also think he was a religious nut and I do think that he should have stalled having more kids with her until she recovered fully, but there was evidence that he did try to seek help for her.

They were both heavily into religion and the whole thing was a tragic mess.

There's lots of blame to be spread around, but dealing with a mentally ill spouse is an incredibly difficult thing to do and if he made some errors in judgement, he wouldn't be the first person to not understand the extent of their spouse's issues. The mental health professional that was treating her screwed the pooch pretty seriously, and Rusty Yates didn't have anywhere near the same level of education on mental illnesses.

Well ... I guess the men have spoken, eh?

Perhaps you are right. Perhaps my psychology degree is getting in the way as well. I never would have left her alone with five kids. he said that when he got 'the call' from her that he asked 'which one did you hurt' ... he KNEW she was going to do something. I can't help but think he is partly to blame in all this.

But I wasn't there .. so I guess I'll try not to rant ....

Just for the record, I am a woman.

I think he knew it was a mistake leaving her alone with the children. His mother who took care of Andrea and the children during the day was running late and he was late for work. Perhaps he thought at the time that she couldn't do much damage in that short of time. It was a big honest mistake on his part and probably a mistake that he will have to live with for the rest of his life.

But I don't think that making a misjudgement like that makes him a monster. The monster in this case in my opinion were the doctors that decided she was well enough to leave the mental hospital and the doctors that took her off of that medicine.

Duzey=female, as well. I thought you knew that.

You having a psych degree puts you head and shoulders above the average person when it comes to knowing how to deal with mental illness. Way back when I was first diagnosed with clinical depression, I used to hear 'Just snap out of it' and 'Pull yourself up by your bootstraps' more times than I cared to count from my family. They just didn't understand the illness.