By George R. Fusner, Jr. and David Wolf, Attorney
Published by Child Injury Lawyer Network
In Tennessee, children in public and private schools should be educated in a safe environment. Unfortunately, many teachers and school employees have violated the trust of their positions and have engaged in sexual misconduct with children. Whether it happens in high school, middle school or elementary school, it is still wrong and violative of State laws and school board policies and procedures. It was recently reported at the Tennessean Website that a former high school band director returned to jail for the alleged violation of a bond that required him to have no contact with his 16 year old accuser. James Tucker was arrested in December 2009 following an investigation at Summertown High School (Tennessee) for sexual misconduct with the 16 year old student. He was released on bond under the condition that he have no contact with his accuser.
In Kansas and other states, day care centers have a duty to provide for the safety. State authorities closed a Fairway day care center. It was reported that the day care center was closed to protect the safety and health of the children. A recent inspection of the child care facility revealed that the center had more children than it was licensed for. Furthermore, the inspection revealed that one of the infants was kept in a bathroom and another was found in a bedroom covered with blankets. The day care center operator can appeal this decision and will be able to defend her facility against the allegations and findings on the inspection.
Sergeant Louis Carlos of the Santa Fe, New Mexico Police Department was present at the hospital when the two year old son of Jennifer Stephenson and a Mr. Apodaca was brought into the emergency room with four centimeter welts across the backs of both of his legs. The police officer said it was very hard for him to listen to the child screaming in pain, and even harder to hear what his parents had to say about it.
Six year old Anastasia Bingham of Terry, Mississippi was on her way home from a friend’s house when she was attacked by an unrestrained pit bull that was kept in a doghouse behind one of the neighborhood homes. When emergency help arrived, the child was pronounced dead at the scene.
Heavy fog had reduced visibility on Highway 15 in Dassel, Minnesota to an eighth of a mile, when a truck slammed into the back of a school bus stopped at the intersection. Seventeen Dassel-Cokato school children were on board; eight were taken to the hospital. The driver of the truck was not injured.
La Petite Academy in Knoxville, Tennessee, has received the highest ranking possible from the State of Tennessee Department of Human Services: three stars. Nevertheless, when a mother recently picked her child up from the daycare, the child would not stop crying. When the mother confronted the daycare director the next day, she learned some distressing news.
A young boy is in critical condition from gun injuries he suffered in his own home. The child, whose name and age have not been released to the press, was put to bed in his parents’ bedroom one night. During the night he apparently discovered his father’s loaded firearm in the night stand. The gun went off, piercing the child’s arm and his abdomen.
The Utah Highway Patrol reported recently that a three year old child was sent to the hospital in critical condition after she was ejected from an SUV in a rollover crash. According to officers at the scene, all other passengers in the car were wearing seatbelts, and were not thrown from the car; the child in a booster seat prior to the rollover accident.
Aaron Pace of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania was babysitting twenty month old Suliaman Orrell Kirkland recently, with other family members present in the home. Pace, who refers to himself as the child’s godfather, allegedly wet a rag with Drano and applied it to the child’s skin to punish him for being uncooperative.
Keilysha M. Ruiz, a three month old from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, died after spending the night in her mother’s bed with her mother and her two year old brother. Keila Torres, the child’s mother, told police that the child had seemed fine the night before. Keilysha had woken up early in the morning, but refused to take her bottle, so Ms. Torres went back to sleep. When she awoke the next morning, the infant was limp and unresponsive.