14 year old Girl that killed her newborn baby

[JI7]

this is a strange story. i wonder if her mother had threatened her if she was pregnant. they say the girl used scissors to get the baby out of her body. it's like she got scared and didn't know what to do. maybe she panicked . i don't think she should be charged but maybe get some mental health care. also there is nothing about how she got pregnant. if she was raped that just makes it all worse.

just read they have charged this girl as an adult

<A 14-year-old is accused of choking her newborn to death while the baby was still attached to her by the umbilical cord.

Police say the high school freshman ultimately used scissors to pry the baby out of her body and into the toilet. Lifting the baby out of the toilet, Goodson "placed her hands on the infant's neck and squeezed until he wasn't moving or breathing any longer," according to a statement released by Polk County Sheriff's Office on Friday.

Goodson allegedly killed the child because she "didn't know what to do with it," officials told WTSP.

Goodson had reportedly been wearing baggy clothes to hide from her family that she was pregnant. Two aunts suspected the teen was pregnant, but the girl's mother, Teresa Goodson, "was in complete denial," Sheriff Grady Judd told the Ledger.>

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/01/cassidy-goodson-kills-murders-chokes-newborn-baby_n_1928754.html

[JI7]

1. more info at this link, the girl has been charged as an adult, she was scared of parents

<Goodison went into labor in her home in Greenbrier Village, Florida on September 19 and instead of calling for help, disguised her screams of pain by running the tap and gripping a towel between her teeth as she sat on the toilet.

There medical staff treating the high school student told Mrs Goodson that she had suffered a miscarriage and showed four to five lacerations on her vaginal wall.

Though these injuries were in reality self-inflicted when the teenager had pried the baby out of her with a pair of scissors, she falsely confessed to her mother that she had indeed had a miscarriage at home and flushed the fetus down the toilet by mistake. >

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2210159/Florida-teen-14-charged-degree-murder-strangles-newborn-baby-hides-body-shoe-box-dumps-laundry.html#ixzz288JbomC0
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

[LisaL]

26. No, she hasn't been charged as an adult.

They are considering on whether she should be.

[Ilsa]

2. This is a terrible tragedy.

Does a 14 year old girl know this is illegal, that doing this is worse than than your parents finding out? Who is the idiot DA charging her as an adult just because her body is capable of getting pregnant?

[JI7]

3. it happened in Florida, aren't they more likely to charge minors as adults ?

[malaise]

4. Bet the fucker who impregnated her is walking

free.

[regnaD kciN]

5. If it was another kid her age...

...and not an adult guilty of statutory rape, and if the sex was consensual, why shouldn't he? He didn't decide to kill the baby, and probably never suspected the girl would do such a thing.

[malaise]

6. I accept your if

but if he were an adult then I'd be right to be pissed.

[snooper2]

24. usually you aren't supposed to get pissed about things that "could be"

You don't walk around pissed off that your car might not start when you get outside right? You wait until you know the facts about something then being pissed about it is okay. The other is not healthy

[AngryAmish]

15. Because, of course, it is always a man's fault.

[lapislzi]

18. You know, that really doesn't contribute anything meaningful to the discussion.

The fact is, choices matter for both men and women. Unprotected intercourse causes pregnancy. This ain't rocket science.

Two ignorant teenagers having sex is a recipe for parenthood and possible tragedy.

An ignorant teenager raped by an adult who should know better is a tragedy.

Clearly, the girl bears some responsibility for what transpired. Ignorance and terror need not be permanent conditions; nor do they necessarily lead to tragic outcomes. But in this case they did.

But to (sarcastically) suggest that the sperm donor is off the hook is counterproductive and just plain wrong.

[Javaman]

19. +1 nt

[Missycim]

23. No the pregnancy is both their fault

but what this child did to herself and the baby is not in any part the fathers. Now if he was an adult then thats a seperate issue.

[Chorophyll]

28. +1

[4th law of robotics]

30. To be responsible implies a choice does it not?

And when a woman get's pregnant what choice does the man have in that regards?

Her body *HER* choice. Remember? He doesn't have a say.

If there was coercion or rape sure, he's to blame. However that is 100% pure speculation at this point so I will refrain from adding any further nastiness to this discussion.

So other than not keeping it in his pants (gosh that sounds familiar) what did he do wrong here based on the evidence presented?

[lapislzi]

32. For one thing, we don't have all the facts.

This is all strictly hypothetical, but I don't feel this discussion is particularly nasty.

What we do have is epic ignorance on the part of the girl, and epic ignorance and denial on the part of her mother.

I strongly doubt that this young woman chose to become pregnant. I also strongly doubt that she had any access to contraception, reproductive health education, prenatal care. It's quite likely that the sperm donor is unaware of his role in this tragedy. Men do have a choice. They can insist on using a condom if they do not wish to become parents. If the woman refuses, they can just...you know, not have sex.

She exercised the only, horrible, choice available: to exercise the power of life and death over the newborn. That is not a choice any person should have to make. And it is a tragic choice made possible because of all the other choices that were not available.

[4th law of robotics]

33. You admit to not having the facts

then speculate wildly.

Also you excuse her because she is likely ignorant, then condemn the boy for not being sensible enough to know about and have access to birth control (or just abstaining).

I strongly believe that a person's body is their responsibility. If she chose to have unprotected sex that is her right (not a great idea, but again her body). If she chose not to have an abortion that's her right, again not a great idea here, but whatever.

I would blame a lack of education and social services for this. I would not blame the boy for failing to take control of this girls body and forcing her to use birth control, or get an abortion. Once you start putting the blame for that on the men they're going to demand (fairly, if they're getting the blame) the right to have some control over that issue.

You can't blame someone for something which they have no control over. So the logical conclusion of blaming males for the choices females make with their bodies is to give males some control over those choices.

Surely you don't want that?

[lapislzi]

39. I freely admit to speculating.

You don't have any more facts than I do.

I was speaking in hypotheticals and who, in a (perhaps) more enlightened situation bears responsibility for what. This ain't that.

I'm not disagreeing with you, believe it or not. I have no reason to desire to pick a fight with you. Beyond the mechanics, we don't know the circumstances surrounding the girl's becoming pregnant. I have a hard time believing that anybody exercised any conscious choice over anything--except this girl's horribly misguided, awful, tragic decision to commit infanticide. And responsibility? Clearly, nobody's accepting responsibility for their own body in this scenario.

If the girl had "wanted" a baby, then why would she kill it at birth? That doesn't make any sense.

The point I was trying to make is that in a consensual sexual relationship, responsibility for contraception lies with both parties. If the male absolutely, positively, does not want to make the woman pregnant, he'd better be damned sure that either he or his partner is using reliable contraception. I don't think enough people think these things through.

Again, that has no bearing on this story. At least I don't think so, based on the sketchy information presented.

[lumberjack_jeff]

35. "She exercised the only, horrible, choice available"

Surely we agree that murder is the wrong one.

[lapislzi]

37. Of course.

I have never referred to this as anything but an awful tragedy.

Taking the life of a newborn is very, very different than terminating a pregnancy, especially in its early stages. But I don't think we should be going down that road in this discussion, because I don't think that option would ever have been available to this girl.

[LisaL]

40. How in the world is that the only choice?

She could have left that child in a hospital or police station because of safe heaven laws.

[gollygee]

43. Well, at 14 she would have to have someone drive her

and she was afraid to let her mom know she was pregnant even.

She probably didn't feel like she had other choices, but the most obvious choice would be to tell her mom. This is a good example of why parental consent abortion laws are a problem, though. Also why kids should have access to birth control without parental consent. Kids do have sex (and this very well could have been consensual, despite half or so of this thread) and they need birth control whether they are afraid to talk to their parents or not. They have to have other options.

[LisaL]

44. Leaving an infant in any public place would be better than killing him.

[gollygee]

46. An article I saw showed them in a trailer park

So not next to any public place where someone could have taken the baby. She would have had to walk to a safe haven place, taking the baby out of the house in front of her mother and walking wherever that was. Just dropping the baby off at a neighbor's house would have caused her mother to be alerted when the police were called and started looking for someone who might have given birth recently.

I agree that it was an awful choice, but I can see how she felt like she had no other choices if she didn't want her mother to know. The right choice, though, was to let her mother know, as there was no way around her mother finding out.

[lapislzi]

47. Rational thinking: notably absent.

I'm trying to think like a terrified 14-year-old.

There were options all the way down the line. When you're that terrified, you develop tunnel vision. You don't see any way out. The only way out: make it go away.

Barely even a thought process, much less a rational one.

[lumberjack_jeff]

34. Actually, it is meant to refute a highly negative contribution to the discussion.

Allowing shit like that to go unanswered is worse.

[lapislzi]

48. Would you kindly explain? n/t

[lumberjack_jeff]

50. Sure. The problem with the post upthread should be patently obvious, though.

The poster asserts that it is unjust that the father of the baby is free while the killer of his child is in jail.

There is no other possible basis of that assertion than males must be held accountable for female actions.

Pro-choice has a bright, clear, obvious and non-negotiable line; Live birth. After that, it's a crime, not a choice.

[4th law of robotics]

29. Men are responsible for the reproductive decisions of women?

I guess he should have forced her to get an abortion or take BC.

Yeah, it's always the man's fault.

[lapislzi]

41. Now who's speculating?

Do we even know if the male knows he made the girl pregnant? Seriously, Robotics...there doesn't seem to be a lot of "choice" going on here, except the final one, and that was terrible. We are not talking about enlightened people here. If anything is clear, it's that.

[Scootaloo]

54. I'm not even sure it could be called "choice" in her position.

Just going of what (little) we know, a 14 year old was living under intimidation by her bother, forced to hide her pregnancy, and apparently conducted some sort of self-operation involving scissors. Call me nutty, but a panicked child living in fear of their own parent might not be the best person to attribute total grasp of agency to.

[get the red out]

7. I can understand

I understand her mental state. My mother's verbal and emotional abuse would have been worse than any result had either me or my sister gotten pregnant at that age. I remember telling myself many times when I was young that if I ever had sex and got pregnant I would have to commit suicide so my mother could never confront me on it. I understand this poor CHILD's mental condition. I know what it is like to fear your mother's horrific, 24/7 berating and name calling. I'm a middle-aged woman and can still remember that kind of fear.

These kids get punished like they grew up in a vacuum and raised themselves. Al "mothers" are saints and all children are pieces of shit until proven otherwise. That's the sickest part of how these young kids are treated when they commit horrific acts. People act like "demons" come out of perfectly adjusted homes just to torment their poor, innocent parents and society.

[obamanut2012]

10. Excellent, excellent post

[lapislzi]

14. I grew up in a similar home.

The only thing standing between my ultra-Catholic mother and my attendance at convent school was a lack of funds.

My mother decided that Billy Joel was the antichrist and destroyed my "Stranger" album. I think the fact that my name is Virginia (oh, the irony) was what sent her over the edge.

I was not permitted to date, although boys could visit in the living room. Funny, the only boy who ever tried to get in my pants was a seminary candidate.

What did I learn from all this? You can't get pregnant from a blow job.

Yeah, great take-away, that. Still dealing with the fallout.

My heart goes out to this young woman. How terrifying for her. Terrified people do some crazy shit.

[LittlestStar]

27. OMG are we related?

I was raped at 14 and was decided on suicide if I ended up pregnant. It would have been far better than hearing all the "what kind of whore are you?" bullshit from my parents. Far, far better.

I feel very sorry for this girl and I hope her parents are jailed for child neglect. Because of course it is neglect if you don't know a 14 year old has been having sex (since age 13 I am guessing) or that she is pregnant.

[renate]

38. a kid shouldn't have to suffer like that

Nobody should, but especially a kid. I am so sorry you had to go through the rape (or life in general, it sounds like) without the support of your family, and to worry that you might have to commit suicide as a result...

I am so sorry.

[LittlestStar]

42. You are too kind!

[a la izquierda]

45. I know exactly how you felt. I felt the same...

looking back, I should have told my mom more about my life. But I only realize that as an adult. At the time, telling my mom anything about pregnancy would've- in my mind- ended in my death.

However, I could tell my boyfriend's mom anything. Thank god for that.

[JI7]

55. this is why i'm totally opposed to Parental Consent laws when it comes to these issues

with that type of crap we would be seeing a lot more of cases like this girl and her parents.

[get the red out]

56. Me too

Sometimes a "parent" is the last person who needs to know something like this. I am very opposed to parental consent laws.

[Brickbat]

8. Not strange at all. Teens who are isolated, ignorant about reproduction, abused or otherwise

afraid or in complete denial about what's happening to them end up killing their babies. They are so young or lost that killing it makes more sense than telling their parents what's going on. After being in active denial for nine months, the crisis and reality of birth forces them to act, and they do in the worst way possible. It's not strange or unheard of at all; it's terribly sad.

[get the red out]

16. You hit the nail on the head

In a loving home where children don't fear talking to their parents or are not suffering from some mental illness or results of abuse; a young girl might get pregnant, but in most cases she will be able to tell her family and get things sorted out. Why "authorities" can't look at deeper issues in these cases is beyond me. It is almost as if society wants to remain willfully ignorant on any underlying cause and just punish the girl then try to forget it happened, until the next time it happens.

[obamanut2012]

9. Are there any states where 14 is the age of consent?

Because, I was wondering how the pregnancy wasn't the result of rape?

Ridiculous. To do that to herself shows her high level of distress. She should get care, nit charged.

[gollygee]

11. She could have gotten pregnant by another 14-year-old

It does happen.

I agree that she needs mental health care, not life in prison. I can't imagine how they think it's appropriate to try her as an adult. That would suggest they think she will forever be a danger to society. That seems obviously to not be the case.

[4th law of robotics]

31. I don't think many states will charge another 14 year old for statutory rape

then again I'm perpetually surprised by our idiotic attitudes towards sex and the criminalization thereof so who knows.

/why is everyone jumping to "rape"? 14 year olds do have sex with each other. It's been known to happen.

[lumberjack_jeff]

36. If the boy was younger than she, is she also guilty of statutory rape?

I would think it obvious that anyone who kills another is in some form of distress.

[jeff47]

58. Boy doesn't have to be younger. Just has to be below age-of-consent.

A 14 year old and a 15 year old have sex. If the age-of-consent is 18, they've both committed statutory rape.

This is why a lot of states are putting in exceptions for when the two people are below age-of-consent but similar in age - doesn't make sense to jail two 16-year-olds and put them on the sex offender registry.

[aikoaiko]

12. Wow. That is an unsettling story.

Somehow the extreme violence and young age involved in this story actually makes me more sympathetic to a possible psychological break.

If so, what justice can be done?

[MindPilot]

13. She should have just borrowed money from her parents to start a business.

Another example of the dumbassery that believes every problem can be solved with ever harsher law enforcement. That was not a crime; it was a tragic failure of society.

[LeftinOH]

17. The girl's mother "was in complete denial"... and then there's the

matter of the pregnancy tests that the daughter took to "prove" to her mother that she wasn't pregnant. The girl's primary support system here was MOM --and mom failed.

[mstinamotorcity2]

20. This is a Story that is Becoming

more Common. I know of girls as young as eleven who have these immaculate conception children. Sometimes its Children with Children and sometimes Its Children with Adults who foster this kind of Tragedy. To have the sheer will to use Scissors is just plain messed up. The Psychological Health of this Child is now compounded with a Justice System that is in Favor of Convict Leasing and not much of anything else.And her Mother who has to deal with Losing a Grandchild and possibly Losing her own Child in the Process. Maybe we should be having these kind of Reality talks with our Children instead of the Baby comes from the Cabbage Patch or if any body touches "down there" approaches to sexual behavior. Maybe some of the outcomes would be a less acceptable than having respect for your body and choosing education and reality over hormones.

[lapislzi]

22. Well, that would make sense.

Nothing in this story makes sense, sadly. Ignorant people doing ignorant shit and fostering more ignorance and tragedy.

You want to know the sex talk I had with my daughter, before she was old enough to menstruate? (This was after she understood the mechanics of the act) "Sex is serious business. You're too young to handle it and you will be too young to handle it for many years to come. I don't expect that will stop you from trying to do it, however, so, please, for the love of god, don't be an idiot. Make sure the guy has condoms. If you want, we can get you the pill when you start getting your period. Under no circumstances will I permit you to become a parent until you are legally an adult. Period, end of story."

She's legally an adult now, and responsibly takes her pill every morning. I don't know if she's having sex or not, nor do I really care. I only care that she takes care of her own well-being and makes responsible choices.

[dawg]

21. This child needs help, not punishment.

America is obsessed with blame and punishment. Anytime something bad happens, someone has to take the fall. But that is pointless.

Someone needs to help this child.

[HopeHoops]

25. Damn that's sad. Teens shouldn't be ashamed or fearful of that circumstance.

If anything, they need full support from the family and access to an abortion clinic if that's what they decide. She could have killed herself doing that.

[Arkansas Granny]

49. I can only imagine the torment this child was experiencing when she did this.

She was failed by the very people who should have been there to help, love and support her.

[lumberjack_jeff]

52. Oh, you're talking about the older of the two. n/t

[antigone382]

57. Yes, the fourteen-year-old likely deserves some recognition of her fear and perceived powerlessness.

The brain--and our capacity for moral reasoning--does not fully mature until age 25. This girl was obviously kept severely unaware of the options available to her. I would (and have) feel the same way about a fourteen-year-old boy who committed a similar crime. I universally and unequivocally oppose treating teenagers as adults in the legal sense.

Children--even teenagers--are not adults. They are neither capable of the same kind of ethical understandings as adults, nor fully in control of their lives--and safe from acts of violence against them at the hands of those in authority over them--as adults.

No one denies that the act was horrific and that the newborn suffered immensely at the hands of its mother. But I am not ready to write off a young teenager as a sociopath beyond redemption, without at least some examination of what she might justifiably have perceived as very real threats at the hands of her mother or other authority figures.

[lumberjack_jeff]

59. I think the baby deserves some recognition of his *actual* powerlessness. n/t

[antigone382]

61. I'm not disputing that at all.

And I haven't seen anyone else do so, either. This girl ended a life, she has been charged as such, and she will be forced to pay consequences for her actions.

But I repeat that this is a fourteen-year-old whose capacity for moral reasoning, as a matter of absolute biological fact, is not fully developed. We do not know how real the threat of violence by her mother, the father of her child (of whom we know absolutely nothing--whether he is a similarly aged teenager or a forty-year-old family member, we just don't know), or anyone else was. We do not know her level of ignorance or even her diagnosable mental health. Her willingness to do herself significant physical harm by putting scissors in her vagina indicates something beyond sociopathy or the avoidance of responsibility.

We do know that the sheriff investigating the case (who is probably aware of many details that we have no clue about), while noting the horrific and sickening nature of the crime, has pointed out that we need to take her age into account and ask ourselves where her support network was. I will take him at his word.

[Liberal_in_LA]

51. really sad story

[ann---]

53. Or, she could

have been raped by a close family member and was afraid. Such a horrible thing - I feel so sorry for that girl and the baby she didn't have to carry to term.

[rrneck]

60. I shouldn't have read that. nt