King County Prosecutors have filed assault charges against a 17-year-old father for allegedly assaulting his two-month-old son.
According to court records, paramedics responded to a 911 call from the 17-year-old on November 9th and took the child to Children’s Hospital where staff found the two-month-old had a broken collarbone, 10-15 broken ribs—”not all fresh, some had begun to heal,” records says—and two “brain bleeds.”
Doctors determined the child had stopped breathing from “being shaken or pushed/thrown into a hard object.”
The 17-year-old—who we’re not naming because he’s a minor—initially denied hurting the child but later told police he had become angry because the child was crying and admitted to shaking him.
Prosecutors are asking the court to try the 17-year-old boy—who has previously been convicted on burglary, drug and trespassing charges—as an adult.
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this is why abortion is legal.
THIS is why they make jails. It’s also why birth control should be standard issue in high school
this is why sarah palin is a fucking moron. yes, i am still stuck on bashing her.
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Someone buy that baby a ticket to Nebraska.
I am convinced that if abortion was made illegal in the U.S., or even just in parts of the U.S., we’d see an explosion of these stories.
These stories are already way too widespread and too frequent.
As the daughter of a woman who spent over 30 years serving a single unit at Children’s, the Infant Intensive Care Unit, I want to say this: opinions and laws on abortion do not serve this topic. I’m pro-choice but it doesn’t matter here. Infant abuse, especially shaken babies, are better served by education and outreach to the families. Maybe the young mother WANTED the baby, but her asshole boyfriend couldn’t control his temper. Ever consider that?
When I read about babies that were shaken because they cried a lot, I always remember hearing that my dad sometimes had to leave the house when me or my brother cried too much as infants. He at least had the education and upbringing to know how to deal with his frustration. Maybe we should be offering that to the 17-year-old dad, rather than a morning after pill.
Oh, by the way: changes don’t get saved when you edit comments. Thanks a lot, Slog.
@8 All true. Before my wife and I had our first, we took birthing classes. I wish they’d spend at least a bit of time talking about how sleep deprivation and frustration are normal and educated us on how to deal when you lose you cool. Cause when you’ve got an infant, you’re going to get there sooner or later.
Put the baby in it’s crib/bed/car seat-somewhere safe-leave the room. Go call someone-neighbor, friend, parent, radio station, etc and get some fucking support.
babies with criminal records making babies & babies & babies. its like idiocracy was accurate and shit.
EmilyP,
So it only matters if the mother wants the kid? I have a feeling there’d be a hellova lot less child abuse cases if BOTH (adult) parents PLANNED & WANTED the child (after having parenting classes and family planning counseling) instead of being the product of two dumb teenagers who were horny and rubbed their privates together without benefit of birth control or condoms. The younger the parents the more likely the child will be abused.
I’m saying this as the daughter of a woman who worked for CPS at one time.
@13, no, I’m not saying it only matters if the child is wanted/planned. But I wanted to head off the inevitable discussion that abortion rights were the clear answer to infant abuse. They’re not.
I wonder if the baby made it through the night. I haven’t heard anything yet.
Iam a first time mom and my baby girl is 6 months old…in her first two months of life she cried constantly and there were times, where I was crying with her, that’s how frustrated she got me.
I wonder why there are still so many teenage pregnancies happen nowadays.
In the tiome of birthcontrol this is not neccessary!
They are not ready to raise a child or deal with the “problems” which will sooner or later come along. having a criminal backround surely doesn’t help.
You cannot tell me, that the mother didn’t know about that…..the little one had previous injures…how can i leave my child with someone like that?
Iam praying for the baby that he will survive!!
Wow, I can’t beleive that! A teenage father abusiing his kid…
Thank you for sharing this information though.
We recently wrote an article (http://brainblogger.com/2008/11/07/diagn… ) on child abuse at Brain Blogger (http://brainblogger.com/ ). Child abuse is a very horrible thing and can be devastating to any medical practitioners involved. How can anyone be sure if a child is suffering abuse?
We would like to read your comments on our article. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Kelly