Woman sues city board over AS son's scalding death
Thursday, February 09, 2006
By LINDA STEIN
New Jersey Times
Alicia Day, the 32-year-old Trenton woman whose 5-year-old autistic son was scalded to death by hot water in her Trenton Housing Authority apartment on Eisenhower Avenue, has filed a suit in Superior Court against the city and the housing authority.
In May, Day was sentenced to two years probation after pleading guilty to endangering the welfare of a child. Day routinely left her four children with a 13-year-old sitter while she worked an overnight shift at the Trane Co. in Hamilton, her lawyer James Sacks-Wilner said.
When her son, Samuel Allen III, 5, was scalded to death on Feb. 25, 2004, a 10-year-old had filled in for the older sitter.
During the night the little boy got out of bed and ran water in the bathroom, scalding himself. Day returned home from work shortly before 7 a.m. and found her son's body.
Sacks-Wilner said the water temperature in her building was set at 140 degrees.
"Had the water been the temperature it's supposed to be, she would have come home to a wet floor and an alive child," Sacks-Wilner said.
In her lawsuit, Day claimed the city and housing authority were grossly negligent for permitting "unsafe and uninhabitable conditions" at her apartment.
Day, who was hospitalized for psychological problems after the death of her son, "has suffered and may continue to suffer great physical pain and mental anguish," suffered loss of earnings and "may continue to incur medical expenses," the suit said. She is seeking compensatory and punitive damages.
Both Housing Authority Director Dallas Parks and city attorney Denise Lyles declined comment.
Source: http://www.nj.com/news/times/regional/in...xml&coll=5
She was ultimately responsible for leaving 4 children with a ten year old.
The water temperature contributed, but they could have had any kind of accident, and its possible that the child often ran the water, its a habit my son had too, we had to remove all the plugs because it would quickly flood the sinks. And that was with constant supervision.
However, if the welfare system was better, she would'nt have had to go out and leave the children, and her vulnerable son.
Those were my thoughts, too, Amy. Poverty is the real villain in this story, poverty dragging down a single parent's struggle to support her children.
It is stories like this that we should remember when we see people talking as though everyone on the spectrum had access to a computer and was online. Many - parents and children both - are living in poverty, and we must always do our best to stick up for the interests of those on the spectrum less fortunate than ourselves who could so easily be forgotten in all the silly braying about genius aspies ruling the world.
Actually the building owners are responsible. Some cities have by-laws where the water in a rental building must be less than a temperature that can cause scalding. Scalding can also happen with people who has limited mobility or sensory problems, elderly, physically disabled. They can not move out of the water quickly enough if it is too hot or some people who have sensory problems might not feel the pain right away. This is not a matter of just setting the faucets right since our shower temperature varies with each toilet flush of other units.
Some children have wandered out into the street while there parents were sleeping. Even if the babysitter were really to young to handle an emergency most likely they were sleeping and not up "watching". Overnight babysitters do not stay up all night.
It is too bad there is not some type of bath toy that can sound an alarm when the water is too hot. We were always taught as children to run the bath water first, turn it off and then check it with out toe or hand before getting in. Sometimes even then, the water can still be too hot. An unbreakable thermometer would be helpful.
Some people do have some sensory issues. I had burned and injured myself several times as a child without feeling the pain immediately. One time I was about 8 yrs old and I was making popcorn in the stove. I guess I was all caught up in the rhythm of the popping and moving of the pan to notice that I got a second degree burn on my arm from steam of a kettle. I did not feel pain until I had showed my mother how my skin was melting and blistering.
M, she must have been responsible as she was given a criminal sentence for the crime.
If the city housing authority thought that the buildings owners were negligent, they could sue. As it is, she is taking civil action against them herself.
She was the primary reason that the child became harmed, as a ten year old can not care for a minor.
The unsupervised child could just as easily have drowned rather than been scalded.
I think everyone is to blame for this horror story, but mostly the mother, but let's not forget that every child has a father too. Where was this family's male progenitor when they needed help so desperately? Ironically, I think the only party not guilty was the 10 year old fill-in babysitter; obviously given a very responsible job that she was not capable of doing.
This story reminds me of the days when I was paid a pittance as a kid to babysit some kids all night who weren't much younger than me, by a divorced mother who was having nights out in search of a suitably wealthy next husband. What a total whore she was. My folks still keep in touch with her. I wouldn't give the Grande Puttana the time of day!
What are the welfare policies in Trenton? In some US states, as in Canadian provinces, a single mother must be out to work after her youngest child reaches six months of age. If you get fired from your employment you do not qualify for income assistance. Perhaps this phenomenon doesn't exist outside North America but many children are "home alone". They used to be called LATCHKEY KIDS. This term referred to the fact that these kids wear the housekeys on a chain or string around their necks for safekeeping. It seems to me that her economic circumstances caused her to leave her ten year old in charge of the other children. We don't know the exact details of what happened. It is very unfair to judge her based on the typically unreliable sort of news reportage printed in the US press.
This story reminds me of the days when I was paid a pittance as a kid to babysit some kids all night who weren't much younger than me, by a divorced mother who was having nights out in search of a suitably wealthy next husband. What a total whore she was. My folks still keep in touch with her. I wouldn't give the Grande Puttana the time of day!
Lilli Marlene, I find your description of this single mother in reference to the tragedy reported above completely sexist and offensive.
To add another note, the cut off for daycare funding is very low in parts of North America. Here in BC if a single mother earns $1400 CDN or more per month she is cut off from daycare any subsidy that would assist her to pay a babysitter. I am not sure what the UK pound note is at, but I believe $1400 CDN is about 800 pounds. Try living on that, paying the rent, food AND a babysitter. Some mothers are forced to leave their children home alone for periods of time in order to provide their children with shelter and food.
Her circumstances should be taken into account by welfare, the fact that she had an autistic child who would need more supervision, in the UK she would not have had to work, but could live off (a very low income) on benefits.
When I was about nine to eleven years of age my family had one of our economic downturns and lived in some slummy apartments here in BC. My younger sister and myself as well as half my schoolmates were all latchkey kids who spent time alone after school until parents got home from work. That was about thirty years ago.
Now welfare is a lot more punitive toward single mothers who are unemployed. I believe that in the US a single mom gets medicare paid for about one year after leaving welfare for employment. Medical insurance is very expensive so there wouldn't have been access to quality health care for her autistic child unless she went to work tp pay for it. As well I do believe that New Jersey, which is where this poor woman lived, has instituted time limits for welfare as many states have done. After five years she would no longer get AFCD or whatever their welfare payments are called so she would have had a great desperate incentive to work.
The question still remains - where was the "father" when all of this stuff was happening? It's fashionable to bleat on about the hardships of sole mothers, but no one seems to want to go to the trouble of holding the absent "father" accountable, or asking the embarrasing question of "Why does this child have no father in his/her life?". There's just the unspoken assumption that any woman has the right to have kids, regardless of their ability or status when it comes to adult relationships.
In Australia we have a welfare system that supports lone parents far more than in the US (all parents getting certain payments are prodded back into the rat race after their youngest reaches school age), but we also have "child support" which is money paid by the non-custodial parent for the kids. No child should have to live in desparate circumstances in any civilised country if they have two able living parents.
There's just the unspoken assumption that any woman has the right to have kids, regardless of their ability or status when it comes to adult relationships.
It is not possible to live in a democracy and at the same time enforce that only wealthy able people be allowed to breed.
In fact the history of the family shows that this concept of the nuclear family is really a new thing. Prior to industrializations families lived in large extended groups. Things have now changed, in fact it is well documented that mother and child form the basis of the most enduring family group in postindustrialization. You are looking for some ideal that has never existed.
And Lili, you did not respond but I do find your language about the woman you babysat for in reference to the the tragic story above sexist and offensive and very narrowminded.
anandamide, the divorcee mother who I babysat for was a selfish tart. How could you know otherwise? - you never knew her. At one time she had more than one businessman boyfriend at one time, while I minded the kids. She was one of those appalling entrepeneureal women who try to sell things to everyone that they know, exploiting social ties to make a sale. She made a couple of sales pitches to me, but I'm wise to that kind of con. I think she ended up flogging real estate, married to some reptile in a concrete castle.
And as for the idea that the nuclear family is a fantasy - well how do you explain the fact that if you go way,way, way back in all of the branches of my family tree you will find unbroken lineages of people who were born of parents who were married to eachother? People have bothered to write detailed family histories in my family, and I can't find any unwed parents before my generation (those born in the 1960s).