Just last week we used this space to talk about the consequences of the system’s failure to protect innocent children. A Flushing mother of six, confessed to choking the life out of her two year old son. She had recently been reunited with several of her other children after losing custody in 2007 when she faced criminal neglect charges.
With the sting of that horror hardly forgotten, as we were going to press Wednesday evening, news of another such heinous act came. This time, 33-year-old Chevonne Thomas, a New Jersey mother, called 911 to say her boyfriend had stabbed her baby. But only seconds into the conversation the woman retracted her statement telling the emergency operator that she lied. “I did it. I did it,” she said over and over into the phone.
What she did was take a kitchen knife and cut her two-year-old son’s head off and put it in the freezer. She told the dispatcher she was on Prozac but hadn’t taken it on that day. “I should have taken it,” she said. “Today, I should have taken it.”
Thomas had only recently regained custody of her son Zahree. The state took him away last November after she smoked pot laced with PCP and passed out in a park, leaving the baby unattended in her vehicle. Child endangerment charges were filed but did not stick due to a problem with a witness.
According to authorities the 33-year-old has an extensive history of mental illness and substance abuse. Police believe that on Tuesday night she had a domestic dispute with a boyfriend and proceeded to barricade herself in her house. After murdering her baby, she took her own life by stabbing herself in the neck.
We realize the details of the crime presented are very graphic and physically disturbing. And we hope that we have made you sick. Sick enough to demand whatever is necessary for lawmakers and elected officials to take action in reshaping the ways state child protective services operate. Within two weeks two babies have been slaughtered by their mothers yet neither of them fit the profile of people “expected” to murder their babies.
The bottom line is that without proper legislation, children will remain at risk in situations such as these. In most states it is near impossible to prove the child’s primary caretaker—mother or father—is unfit. The law says that there must be endangerment of the child. While the elements of parental fitness vary from state to state, certain commonalities exist including a history of domestic violence, excessive discipline or emotional abuse of the child, a history of drug or alcohol abuse or prior conviction for a sexual offense. Both of the mothers mentioned here certainly fit the “unfit” profile, yet the very system which sets the parameters is the system that returned innocent children to lethal surroundings.
The United Nations’ (UN) International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression is observed on June 4 each year. The purpose of the day is to acknowledge the pain suffered by children throughout the world who are the victims of physical, mental and emotional abuse. This day affirms the UN’s commitment to protect the rights of children. It should also serve as an eye opener to all those who are unfamiliar with the harsh reality of this abominable situation.
We are all aware of the ongoing struggle to regenerate the resources of the great American nation. We concentrate to rebuild a suffering economy, reduce staggering unemployment figures and maintain homeland security. These problems and the threat of their consequences weigh heavily on our collective minds and hearts—on a daily basis.
But what type of conscience is it then that allows us to continually fail to direct sufficient focus on protecting the most valuable resource we have—our children.
We ask that you open your eyes to the terror a child must feel at the moment he or she realizes their parent has turned on them; the betrayal and fear that must overwhelm them.
We are the only chance they have to strengthen and enforce the guidelines designed to protect them. As long as we refuse to recognize the impact of child abuse and neglect in this country, and around the world, we will continue to bury babies.
And when finally we open a blind eye, surely we will stand in shame knowing we should have acted sooner.
