Girl Left Inside Car For Eight Hours Or More

UNION TOWNSHIP, Ohio -- A 2-year-old girl found dead inside a car Thursday afternoon [August 23, 2007] in Union Township died due to heat exposure, an official said Friday.

Authorities said the car was parked with its windows rolled up outside Glen Este Middle School, where teachers started reporting Wednesday to prepare for next week's start of classes.The Clermont County coroner's office said the girl had been inside the car for at least seven hours while her mother, assistant principal Brenda Nesselroad-Slaby, attended a faculty meeting.


There are many heated debates about this topic going on all over the country. I participated in one on Cafemom.com.

I'm not sure what should happen to this woman....what her true punishment should be. Nothing will bring her daughter, Cecilia, back, and no one is suffering greater than this child's family. I can not even imagine the pain of losing my child and hope I never experience it -- especially if I were the cause of it. But is losing her child punishment enough for this woman....?

The big question is -- was this truly an accident? What really happened?

I won't go into how I could never leave MY son in the car, etc. Or rehash all the excuses -- she was distracted, running late, didn't usually drop off her daughter, had tinted windows and so on. I would like to point out one thing that I feel is being overlooked by many, though.

I live very close to where this happened in Ohio, so it's been all over our news, and I've read several stories about it.

Here's a link to one such news article:
http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070824/NEWS01/708240427

And another:
http://www.wlwt.com/news/14023482/detail.html

While reading these news stories, something caught my attention......doughnuts. This kind, thoughtful woman REMEMBERED to pick up eight dozen doughnuts and drop them off at school for her staff....security cameras even showed that she returned to her Mercedes SUV multiple times to retrieve items from the back seat. Police also said the doughnuts were even on the seat next to Cecilia Slaby's car seat.

So, this educated, devoted mother remembered to pick up doughnuts for her teachers but forgot to take her daughter to a baby-sitter.....and then didn't notice the child [who was supposedly sleeping] in her car seat even though she made several trips to her car.....?

I'd also like to ask.....

.......How many people would feel the same if this 2-year-old had been left to die an agonizing death in a beat-up old car from a poor minority mother living in a really bad part of town instead of an educated one with a good job and a fancy Mercedes?

.......Would the media have been so interested in this story if this same thing happened to a child in a Honda? I mean, how many times do they need to mention the make of her SUV and the illegally tinted windows.....?

.......What if she had been in a bar drinking and "just forgot" about her child -- what then?

........Or what if you eliminate the doughnuts from the story....?

Would a change in circumstances or details change YOUR opinion on the fate of this woman.....? Would you be MORE sympathetic and understanding or LESS....?