August 21, 2002
Sunburns are a Felony
A woman in Ohio was arrested and charged with felony child endangerment when her three children were sunburned at a county fair. She faces 15 years in jail.
As a mom who rarely has sunscreen with me, I'm very concerned about the implications of a charge like this. Was it perhaps cloudy when she left the house? Maybe since she was pushing the carriage - hence behind them - she didn't notice they were getting burned. Maybe she noticed, but there was no sunscreen at the fair. Yes, that's poor parenting, but is it really a felony?
It says the kids were treated with cold compresses - does that really warrant a hospital visit? It just seems like a huge overreaction to a case of poor judgement. Slap some Noxema on the kids, tell the mom to be more careful next time and spend some quality time looking for the mom at the fair who's smacking her kid around.
Comments