The family of 3-year-old Ke’Torrius “K.J.” Starkes Jr. is remembering the little boy as a “joyful,” “brilliant” “happy boy who loved life, who would light up any room that he would enter into.”
The toddler died after he was trapped inside a hot car while in the custody of a worker contracted by the Alabama Department of Human Resources, the state’s child protective services agency, according to the Jefferson County Medical Examiner’s Office and the state Department of Human Resources. The Birmingham Police Department is investigating the death.
K.J. had been left inside a car parked outside a home in Birmingham for several hours during the middle of the day on Tuesday, the Jefferson County Medical Examiner’s Office said.
Nah, fuck this opinion. Parents are required to be good parents regardless of how they’re getting paid and somebody who has been entrusted to ensure the safety of a child regardless of how they’re getting paid should do so in a way that does not ensure their death. When your entire job is child healthcare, forgetting a child in a hot car is completely inappropriate. Not only should they be blackballed from this industry, but they should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
I do agree they should not work any job where they are responsible for children.
But if it was truly a mistake,I am just not sure tossing them in jail does anyone any good. It’s not like that would be a deterrent to someone who meant well making the same mistake. If anything it will drive people away from the job, which by reducing the pool of people applying will reduce the quality of the people they hire. So it could actually indirectly make it more likely to happen in the future. If it was clear gross negligence (which means more than just a mistake), then yeah, I am with you. Also, a large portion of thier job is actually paperwork. It really should be done by two people. And that would drastically reduce the chances of this happening. But the gov that funds this doesn’t actually care if this kind of thing happens.
Mistakes do happen, but when mistakes happen, we don’t let somebody off the hook. There are multiple studies that confirm that humans need some amount of retribution so that they feel something was done to address the inappropriateness of the action. This is not just a mistake, a child died because of the ineptitude of this worker.
The quality of people for this job is already significantly reduced due to the abusive situation they often have to work in, the extreme lack of benefits, and the extremely low pay. This person facing punishment isn’t going to reduce the amount of applicants for this position because those applicants aren’t applying because they like the job, they’re applying because they feel a higher call.
Just because there should have been two people doesn’t mean you let the person that negligently killed a child off the hook. I can be angry at the state for not supplying enough resources for these cps workers, but I can also be angry at this particular person for allowing a child to die in a hot car. I failed to see, by the way, how that could be anything other than gross negligence.
Furthermore, parents often have to deal with their child on a one-on-one scenario where this does happen to them, and it’s still not an excuse for that to happen, and those parents do get charged, and if they have other kids, CPS does get involved.
So to recap, this worker was put in a situation that parents face all the time and negligingly forgot a child in a hot car. Even if it was not done maliciously, that does not excuse her actions, and she should face retribution for the consequences of her actions. And then you’re defending that we shouldn’t want retribution from this person because that might put people off from working in child protective services?
I think your empathy may be blinding you here, comrade.
So a couple of things. I have said in various comments that the worker shouldn’t be off the hook, but that jail doesn’t seem like it would do anything positive. From your comment on how the job is so bad that only people feeling a higher calling apply, that would mean jailing the person would not cause someone who isn’t competent from applying. So again what is the point of jail. I mean maybe it will keep them from killing themselves, so I guess there is that. Next, parents very often do not get charged or punished… https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2022/07/14/parents-charged-hot-car-deaths/7771928001/ As for gross negligence, it has a legal definition. And there is no way for us to know from the facts released if it is or is not gross negligence… https://www.bellpollockinjury.com/understanding-difference-between-negligence-gross-negligence/ For parents, their life is generally filled with kid related triggers. They go in a store and think “do we need more milk for junior”. Food place, “I wonder if junior would eat that”. Thier own car probably has cheerios on the driver side floor matt to remind them of thier child. A csp worker most likely does not have any of these things to remind them of the child who is in thier back seat. In fact given how tough the job is, when they are anywhere else, they probably block it out. I will agree that humans have a desire for retribution. But a better word is revenge. Yet we need to rise above that, look for a way to support the greater good. This person, if not grossly negligent, should be allowed to attone for their mistake, which they can’t likely do from jail. Community service, and things like that seem a better fit. And obviously they should not be allowed to be responsible 1 on 1 for vunerable people again.
Revenge and retribution are not the same thing. Retribution is getting justice so the person feels made more whole. Vengeance/revenge is destroying the actor who committed the action.
We don’t have a society that rehabilitates other, we only have a system that jails people, and unfortunately for her, that is what I think should happen.
Yes, I know that gross negligence has a legal definition, and I’m using it specifically in this case because a CPS worker negligently left a child in her hot car for hours while she went on personal errands. All she had to do was look in her rearview mirror to see the child. Put a sticky note on the fucking steering wheel. She could have done a number of things differently to ensure the child’s still alive.
As for atoning for this person’s mistakes, they can atone from jail, where they can also serve out community service. Ultimately, this is for a court to decide which I think is the most appropriate as I don’t think we’ll see eye to eye on this one.
For instance this would have made a significant difference
https://www.nsc.org/newsroom/just-21-states-protect-children-hot-cars
You’re also wrong that parents aren’t often charged. According to this study, 58% of parents who leave their child in a hot car face charges after the fact.
https://journalistsresource.org/health/child-dead-left-hot-car-research/#%3A~%3Atext=Researchers+analyzed+541+cases+of
Well, I can see you didn’t read the link on gross negligence. I can see you move the goalposts on parents getting charged. By the way the article also said of those who do get charged, the grand jury often refuses to indite. And revenge and retribution are commonly interchangeable, yet have subtle differences that are nothing like you describe. In fact in a why you have them swapped. The reality is I have less empathy than the average person. Which is why I can put aside my feeling about the loss of a child and be somewhat objective. You on the other hand are presenting like someone letting thier empathy drive a need for vengence even though you personally were not wronged.
Ask yourself this. Will you follow this case to find out if she getd put in jail? If not, than if the person does go to jail it isn’t going to change anything for you or anyone else not personally involved. In fact, you already assume they will be charged and go to jail even though the data says otherwise. You can hold on to that if it makes you feel better, and this person wouldn’t need to go to jail to provide you that. So putting them in jail serves no purpose. Again assuming it isn’t a case of legally defined gross negligence.