Girl, 9, dies after being forced to run three hours as punishment

reply to post by boncho

I will have to agree to disagree. I believe, especially at the age of 9 the parents are responsible for the child's actions under their direction. It isn't hard to brainwash a child, that is why they are protected. I don't think it would be that hard to convince children to do a lot of stupid things that could get them killed. Hence me having no problem with a murder charge.

I can agree to disagree on this one, and I do respect the opinion despite not being able to back it myself. As I said, I'll definitely admit the adults involved are responsible. And granted, you can get kids to do dumb things to kill themselves, but motive/intent is also weighed, as well as awareness of likely outcomes...I don't think anyone expected this poor child to die as a result of the (idiotic) punishment.

Question:

If you gave a 9 year old a loaded gun, told them it was a toy to play with their friends, and a dead child was the result...

Is it the 9 year old's fault for not checking to see if the gun was real or not?

Of course not, friend - but unless you're entirely mentally defective, you also know a loaded weapon is deadly, that children shouldn't play with them, and you're also apparently INTENDING for something bad to happen. Not a fair comparison, honestly.

Alternatively:


So you tell your kid to go for a swim, maybe even paddle them out on a boat and drop the in the middle of the lake. Is it the kids fault you didn't put a life jacket on them? You knew they weren't the strongest swimmer, (being that they were 9), are you negligent, or did you sentence them to death?

Hey now, I'm not blaming the child, first off - just assessing the degree of liability the adults hold. Until then, however, this is a much better example...and it's one of negligence on the part of the parent. Another sad and tragic case, which I can actually relate to seeing as how I almost drowned in a hotel swimming pool at Branson City when I was seven or so - and god forbid my parents been charged with murder for that had my sister not heard me and ran out to help.

Thanks for the discussion.

reply to post by Praetorius


I see your point of view better. As twisted as the family was, they were not intending to kill the child. And in that case, it would be negligent homicide, at the worst.

If you could show that they knew, or had been under the impression that three hours of running could kill the girl than perhaps it's a different story.

After rereading both our posts I have to pull back a bit from my first position.

reply to post by boncho
My thanks for your willingness to consider it further. Granted, definitely sad we're having the discussion in the first place, but this is a good illustration of why I always try to take my emotions out of things if possible - god knows I've done my share of incredibly stupid things in this life, and I thank him I've never come too far down on the wrong side of emotional matters to be held as strongly accountable as I otherwise might have been.

Well played, you be blessed my friend.

Originally posted by thisguyrighthere
reply to post by boncho

 

On the brainwashing, isnt it a little odd that the parents power over the child could have her run herself to death over a three hour period yet it wasnt powerful enough to keep her from eating some candy?

I was terrified of my stepfather when I was growing up. He was a controlling bully whose idea of punishment was to thrash the living daylights out of myself and my two younger sisters for petty things. My sisters and I grew up withdrawn and timid as a result.

If he had told me to run for hours as punishment I would have done it, because to refuse or run off would end up with me getting something more severe as a consequence.

The girl ate forbidden candy because she felt confident she wouldn't be found out, if she had thought otherwise there is no way she would have eaten it. She ran herself to death because she was too afraid to refuse and too afraid to run off and rest. Maybe she knew that running for 3 hours was a less severe punishment than what she usually got.

Been there. Lived it. Never forgot it.