Accidents happen. Fact of life. And another fact is they happen very easily and very often to children. The best parents on the planet need only look away for a second and something can happen to their cherished offspring. Accidents are unfortunate, but not necessarily a crime. Jonathan Hope and Lisa Guerin were not the best parents on the planet — not even close, and it was how they reacted to an accident that was truly a crime.

At 2 o’clock in the afternoon back in April, 2006 Calgary paramedics and police found themselves in a basement suite in a southwest Calgary fourplex. The suite was decidedly in a poor state according to Detective Theresa Garagan. There were numerous cats and kittens running around (which to some people is good), some cat feces on the floor (which is not so good), and one naked little dead girl (indisputably bad).

TEXAS MAN GETS DEATH PENALTY FOR BEHEADING THREE KIDS
by Christopher Sherman – The Associated Press

EDINBRUG, Texas — A jury has sentenced a south Texas man to death after convicting him of beheading his common law wife’s three children in 2003.

Prosecutors had sought a death sentence for John Allen Rubio, who killed three children under the age of four in a windowless Brownsville apartment in 2003.

The Hidalgo County jury deliberated for four hours before choosing the death sentence on Thursday.

Now, Rubio will be placed in the general population of a prison for the first time since the crimes. He spent several years isolated on death row after his original conviction and death sentence in 2003. A state appeals court overturned the conviction in 2007.

I have a group of friends, one guy and a group of gals that get together once a month for a pot-luck dinner and a movie. And one of the all time favorites of this group is the movie “Sophie’s Choice.” I hate this movie with a passion. Not because of the acting, Meryl Streep is probably one of the best actresses alive and I usually love Kevin Kline.

No, I hate this movie because of the plot. In case you haven’t been forced to sit through this dribble, (spoiler alert) the movie centers around the choice forced upon Sophie by the big bad Nazis; she must choose between her children – which one will live and which one will die.

Ever since Blondie submitted her story about Emily Bazelon’s article “What Really Happened to Phoebe Prince?”, I have thought of little else. Nothing gets to me quite like an attack on a victims character and dignity.

But something about Ms. Bazelon’s piece bothered me more than usual. Now I’m rarely at a loss for words, but when I tried to write about what I was feeling, the words sounded clumsy and hesitant, like two teenagers making their first attempt at physical love.

I knew what Emily Bazelon had written was morally reprehensible, and I could tell you why. It was pretty obvious to just about everyone that she had crossed a line that should not be crossed when she tried to put so much of the blame for Phoebe Prince’s predicament on Phoebe herself. That was easy.

Emily Bazelon, an attorney and editor at Slate.com, has published an article that attempts to paint a new picture of bullicide victim, Phoebe Prince:

“The uncomfortable fact (is) that Phoebe helped set in motion the conflicts with other students that ended in them turning on her”

Bazelon solidly places the blame of Phoebe Prince’s death on Phoebe and her family. She has painted a picture of a young girl, extremely disturbed, emotionally unstable, promiscuous and a party girl with a history of drug and alcohol abuse and a previous suicide attempt. She has quoted the defense attorney’s for the South Hadley Six, their parents, friends and used unreported and undocumented information in her article.

To Read Emily Bazelon’s Complete Article, Click Here

This is 30-year-old Saiqa Akhter.

With her husband working as a computer technician, Saiqa Akhter was able to spend her days taking care of her two children – 5-year-old Zain Akhter and 2-year-old Faryaal Akhter.

Like many women who have birthed themselves a couple of babies only wish they could do, Saiqa was living the dream of being a stay-at-home mom, sort of a I am my kids’ mom kind of gal.

Oh, there was some stress. Life in the Akhter household wasn’t all happiness and light.

Zain was showing signs of being autistic, which as anybody who has experience with autism will tell you, can be a hard thing for people to deal with. Despite the fact that there is help available for autistic children, dealing with a special needs child can be a handful.

You know what? I have been there myself so many times…10 bucks in my pocket and terrified about how I’m going to feed myself for the next few days. Desperate for money, you sell anything you can. You even consider breaking the law.

I have, however, never considered breaking into someone else’s property and certainly would rather starve myself than kill another person.

On June 23, 2008 Daniel Sonnex, 23, from Deptford, South London, must have found himself in such an emergency situation, although one may suspect it was more the cravings for drugs that drove him and not the need of necessities. He broke into an apartment in South East London that was rented by 23-year-old Laurent Bonomo, one of two French students who had been awarded biochemistry scholarships in the U.K. “Dano” managed to steal a laptop that morning, while Bonomo was taking a shower.

I am sure each of us can remember a teacher we despised, one who played favorites, who bored us out of our gourds, or who existed solely to make our lives miserable. Mine was Mr. Miller, a crazy old coot/science teacher who fed kittens and puppies to the class snake.

I got a mark of zero in Grade 8 Science because I would not go into the classroom. I did all the assignments but still got zero, and my parents finally transferred me to another school. So bonus to you — no matter how rotten a student you may have been, you can say Cleo here got a worse mark than you! BTW, if anyone out there got lower than zero, please let me know.