HOUSTON...We Have a Problem!
 

What's going on? Have you heard about the mother that has KILLED her 5 children? I cannot believe that this has happened. It truly bothers me. News reports indicated that she DROWNED all of the children in the bath tub at her home. She phoned he husband at work (Computer Programer at NASA) and then phoned 911. When authorities arrived she indicated that she had killed her children. Family members and friends relay that she had been on anti-depressants due to post-pardum depression. THIS IS NO EXCUSE!I am SO TIRED of these mothers (ie.Susan Smith, Darlie Rutier) CLAIMING to be DEPRESSED and then KILLING the CHILD!

This woman also has a history of suicide attempts. So my question is why was she the primary caregiver for these children when she obviously had mental issues? http://www.greekchat.com/forums/ubb/eek.gif

Although I can see how she expereinced post-partum depression having borne 5 children in less than 7 years. Can we say birth control? http://www.greekchat.com/forums/ubb/confused.gif

Well, at least she didn't blame it on a Black Man!!


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MCCOYRED
Mu Psi '86
BaltCo Alumnae

Dynamic...Salient...Temperate...Since 1913

When I heard this last night, I was stunned, upset, and mortified. I was on the verge of tears to think that a mother can do that to a child. The reports stated that it was because of post partem depression, which follows childbirth for some mothers.

Does anyone (e.g. Psychology or medical professionals/majors) know the real danger that depression causes? Why is this form of depression just getting recognized? Why isn't someone doing more to educate mothers about this possibility and ways to work toward a cure?

[This message has been edited by nikki25 (edited June 21, 2001).]

So True Soror So VERY TRUE and to add to that in my Grandma's voice " She should've let dem babies up der' floatin' in heaven with Jesus if she didn't want em"

And in my mom's voice & attitude " She knew what she was doing to get dem' babies so she should've stopped screwin"

Here's an update on the story of this tragedy: http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/2001...ren_dc_12.html

I agree 100%. I wonder where were all the supports systems that are in place in our country to help women with depression, suicidal tendencies, etc.? Did no one see her prior acts as a call for help? And although I am sure he loves his wife, wasn't Mr. Yates at all concerned about the condition of his wife and how that could affect their kids? While he worked to support the family, his wife was dealing with obvious emotional problems in addition to dealing with child-rearing and home schooling.

All of those children died for no reason. Someone, including the husband, could have and should have seen the signs. How very, very sad.


[This message has been edited by pointNclick (edited June 22, 2001).]

I heard today on the radio, that one of the children almost got away. She chased him down, dragged him back to the room, and drowned him.

Depression my a$$...
She wasn't any more depressed than the average women who has to raise children, work hard, tolerate abuse, struggle, and etc... Hell, if depression is the excuse, than my mamma would have drowned my little a$$ a long time ago. I don't know of ONE woman (especially black), who has had to raise children, that hasn't been depressed.

She needs to be DDTeed about 150 times by Jake the Snake Roberts.

[This message has been edited by Bobby Earl (edited June 22, 2001).]

My heart, and prayers are with the Father right now.

MN

The media claims that she severed a severe type of post partum depression called post partum psychosis. Per CNN website, "Postpartum psychosis - The least common form, affecting no more than 0.2% of all mothers, it is marked by hallucinations and delusions".

If her punishment is a stay at a mental institution for a couple of years, then justice has not been served. She needs a life sentence or the death penalty. We are responsible for our actions at all times. Using mental illness or being drunk or high on drugs should not excuse your behavior.

I completely agree. Dang, common sense should've told the husband that she wasn't mentally able to be caring for the kids! I mean really! From my understanding, he works with NASA so he had to have a little sense!!! Now 5 innocent children have lost their lives!!! Lives that were never given a chance to really live! It just really breaks my heart and make me so angry at the same time. And imagine that 7 yr old, knowing what was happening, and trying to get away from her!!! I think the husband needs to be put on trial also! UUGGHH, this really angers me! There are too many people out there that truly want children and can't have them!!! http://www.greekchat.com/forums/ubb/mad.gif

THIS WAS IN TODAY'S NY POST-A BIT LONG...

New York Post

June 22, 2001 -- A 23-year-old Bronx teacher's aide had an affair with a 13-year-old student - and then had sex with three of his 13-year-old friends to get revenge after he broke up with her, police said yesterday. Tara McDermott was arrested Tuesday at IS 211 in the East Tremont section, where students said she was notorious for bragging about her sexual plots with her young charges. McDermott's first student affair began in January, on Super Bowl Sunday, when she took a 13-year-old boy, with whom she'd become infatuated, to a movie, officials said. She soon started having sex with the youngster - and then, in February, moved out of her parents' house and into the boy's apartment to live with him and his family, cops said. The boy's parents apparently didn't realize McDermott was sleeping with their son, police said. After about three weeks, the boy told her he was uncomfortable with their age difference and wanted her to move out.
He told her they should start seeing other people - but asked her not to have sex with two of his close friends. Cops said that the spurned woman, in anger, immediately started propositioning both boys. She succeeded with one, taking him to a motel on the Hutchison River Parkway, where she gave him oral sex, police said. Then, on June 8, she took two more boys to her parents' house after school and played a twisted version of a children's game called "fortune teller," involving a piece of folded paper that is opened to reveal hidden messages. McDermott had written various sex acts on the paper, and when the boys read the messages, she performed oral sex on each of them, police said. Cops said the school worker's sex spree came to an end after she told a student about it on Tuesday - and he told a principal's aide who told the assistant principal. The assistant principal waited until Wednesday to call cops, police said. At the school, kids said the hanky-panky was widely known about. Luis Marrero, 15, said he is the best friend of McDermott's teen lover - and the educator frequently pressured him for sex as well, but he refused her advances.
"She told me she had sex with [my friend]. She said the younger the better," Marrero told The Post. Steven Nieves, 13, said McDermott confided in him when her first lover kicked her out. "She was telling me, ‘I'm going out with [the teen] but he's complaining because he's too young for me. He says I'm too old.' She said, ‘Age doesn't matter,'" Nieves said. McDermott's parents said their daughter is socially immature.They charged that her accusers are "fabricating" stories.
McDermott was charged with rape, sodomy and
endangering the welfare of a child for her alleged
involvement with all four boys.

[b] Can you believe this? Reading about stories like this makes me want to have my children in homeschool (me being the primary educator) because there are so many bad people out there ruining today's children. I pray that the mothers take their sons to get HIV/STD tested, because only the Lord knows what this woman may have. Let's pray that these victims get some help and are able to have somewhat a normal childhood http://www.greekchat.com/forums/ubb/frown.gif


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"Mind ya own, stay true to ya own, be ya own."

Peace and God Bless
*Classy_Diva5*

I am HORRIFIED and DISGUSTED at this "TEACHER" using her position to get sex.

I teach high schoolers and there are quite a few who have expressed an interest in me but I HAVE NEVER EXPRESSED A DESIRE in return. I am appalled at this WOMAN. I pray for these students and their families. HOWEVER, what were those one parents thinking, LETTING THE TEACHER MOVE IN WITH THEM?? http://www.greekchat.com/forums/ubb/confused.gif

It is a very sad situation, not killing 1, but all 5 of her kids. I heard on the news where they reported that one of the older kids saw her drowning the youngest one and she chased him around the house and caught him. Totally sick. You can look at her and tell she is not playing with a full deck. 2 years of therapy and still not solution to the problem. I feel sorry for the dad because he lost sooo much. But, at the same time, I agree with some of the earlier posts, he should have stepped in since she was starting to get withdrawn.

This is a serious situaiton that really needs to be addressed. Marie Asmond brought some attention to the situation, but this right here should definitely help more women deal with issues of depression.

I hear you, CT4. I also teach high school. I don't even stay in my classroom alone with any of my students, male or female. If they want to speak to me privately, we "talk and walk". I don't even want there to be the slightest hint of inappropriate behavior on my part. I just don't get what this woman was thinking or the parents of the students.

I'm just glad society is realizing that women, too, can be pedophiles. Sad, but true.



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Sigma Lambda Upsilon: Sincerity, Loyalty, Unity http://www.sigmalambdaupsilon.org

The story out of Houston is truly sad. I can't understand how she never snapped out of her murderous "delusion". After she killed the first one, she didn't say "Oh my goodness! What am I doing! I need to get some help fast". I heard that her husband left at 9:00am, her mother-in-law was scheduled to arrive at 10:00am, and she killed them before she got there. That sounds a little too convenient to me. I think that she planned to start right after the husband left, and finish before grandmother got there. I too hope that she doesn't get off with time in a mental health ward.
I am a school counselor, and I am appalled by teachers who prey on children. It is so sick. I really don't get how a grown woman could be attracted to a MERE CHILD!! All my students just look like kids to me. I just pray daily about what this world is coming to.

These two stories really make me sick to my stomach...

1. What bothers me is when people who are depressed, alcoholics, etc, kill or harm other people--but they do nothing to themselves! Why didn't this woman get treatment for her condition? No one noticed something was wrong with her? Something's not "right" about this story...I'm sorry, But I agree that she needs to be severly punished. I cannot stand it when people do harm to children. I love children with all my heart and I would do anything to save the life of a child, even if it meant sacrficing my own...I also agree that the husband should be held accountable if he knew about his wife's position...but what about the government? Why did they allow this woman to have custody of these children? All 5 of her kids...dead?! I don;'t buy it, and I don't believe it...

2. This woman needs psychological treatment b/c NO NORMAL ADULT IS SEXUALLY ATTRACTED TO A CHILD!! IT'S NOT NORMAL!! Something is wrong with her...to think that she could have been the TA of anyone that is on GC's children? Or your relative's children? These type of cases are why people get shot in the courtroom by the victim's relatives...See, these type of people bring out the "ghetto" in me...If I saw her on the street I may be inclined to beat her a$$...if I was one of those children's mother's I surely would and I would sue her too...

What is wrong with today's society? I often times wish I could have lived in the times of my grandparents or great-grandparents...they could leave their doors open and not expect to get robbed...they could get into a fight with someone and not expect to get shot...they could let their children play outside and not worry about them getting shot in a drive-by shooting? I wish I had the opportunity to live in these days...

Sorry for the long post but I had to vent http://www.greekchat.com/forums/ubb/frown.gif

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"If there is no struggle, there is no progress"--Frederick Douglass

Hi Ladies hope ya don't mind me posting over here. I don't know if it's being discussed anywhere else and I just kinda wanted to vent.
I have to say that this whole topic has really opened my eyes to a lot of thing. For one thing I think I've come to the conclusion that I need more help than the none I'm getting for my condition. I'm not under any care but I think I have some form of depression. What a summer for me.
I think I've heard that this mother was getting help and getting better so her husband said but just had something snap inside of her. I think though that whatever bad state she was in she does need to go through the systems of justice as any "normal" person would in a similar situation. Perhaps though the kind of punishment should be thought about long and hard before handed down.
The father said that he kissed them all goodbye in the morning which really touched me a lot. I think it touched my dad too bc he kissed us all goodbye when he left this morning for work...awww!!
OK enough from me. http://www.greekchat.com/forums/ubb/smile.gif

Guilty. Guilty. Guilty.
 

See you in hell, Andrea. :mad:

Texas Mother Found Guilty of Capital Murder
Tue Mar 12, 6:01 PM ET

HOUSTON (Reuters) - A Texas jury on Tuesday found Andrea Yates guilty of capital murder in the drowning deaths of her five young children last summer.

The verdict means that Yates, 37, now faces a new phase of the trial in which jurors will decide whether she will be sentenced to die by lethal injection or sent to prison for life. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

The former nurse confessed to drowning the children, who ranged in age from 6 months to 7 years, in the bathtub of their Houston home on June 20, 2001, but said she did it to protect them from Satan. She had been mentally ill for at least two years before the murders, twice attempting suicide and four times being treated in a mental hospital, experts testified.

Prosecutors sought a guilty verdict on the grounds she was sick, but sane enough to know the crime was wrong, the standard for legal sanity in Texas. She was indicted in only three of the children's deaths, which means the state could try her on additional charges.

Texas leads the nation in executions and Houston in turn leads the state.



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Soror, ya beat me!
 

I just saw Dan Rather report the story.

I heard that she wanted to get pregnant again? What the Heck?

Good, they should drown her behind. :mad:

Playing Devil's Advocate
 

I completely understand the negative attitudes towards Andrea Yates. BUT, NO mother in their RIGHT state of mind would kill her kids. I'm still young and I have no kids but has anyone in this forum suffered from mental illness? Mental illness is when people do irrational things that we NORMALLY wouldn't do! So if we know that this woman is crazy and her mental state is highly questionable why are we holding her fully accountable for her actions?
"She had been mentally ill for at least two years before the murders, twice attempting suicide and four times being treated in a mental hospital, experts testified"
- Associated Press
But that brings me to question if her doctor did know that she was mentally unstable (knowing how Houston has a track record for mothers that kill their kids). Why did these innocent children remain in her care??

I feel that this woman's doctor should also be placed of trial because he/she could have prevented this travesty

Now I dont believe in the death penalty unless there is NO doubt that the person is guilty. But in her case, when the police walked in and saw them babies there like that.... :( I hope the jury gives her the appropriate punishment, kill her. I cant understand why someone would do that depressed or not. And I saw after the verdict some woman was saying that she should be put in a mental institution. BS...she'll have all the time she needs to think on death row. :mad:

The Verdict is in!
 

After only one hour of deliberation Mrs. Yates received Life in prison. This shocked me because of the publicity over the case I thought she would get death. You know Texas likes to round them up and strap them down.

Re: Playing Devil's Advocate
 

True, but then what I want to know is WHY IN THE WORLD did the state let this woman be a primary caregiver for her children? And what about the husband--he should have protested the wife being able to care for her kids unsupervised...

Therefore, I believe not only Andrea Yates is responsible (although I HIGHLY BELIEVE she has some form of schizophrenia or other Thought Disorder, along with a Mood Disorder (Depression--which sometimes comes along w/ a Mood Disorder):

1.) The State, along w/ her doctor, is guilty! Some of the relatives would be right if they sued them! B/c those children did not have to die! :( :mad:

2.) The Husband is also responsibe! I hear he was being charged in the crime also, which serves him right--I would never leave my husband with my kids if he had a history of severe mental illness (which anyone that has been hospitalized 4 TIMES :eek: AND attempted SUICIDE TWICE has)...

I wanna say OFF WITH HER HEAD!
 

I am torn between the two verdicts: Post-partum depression,depression, schizophrenia, religious related psychosis, suicidal tendicies and attemps these are very real and serious mental health issues that should have been addressed after her second or third child. I don't know how other states work but in PA DHS would have probably been to her home many times, court ordered counseling, a doctor would have suggested having her tubes tied. Also,If she would have kept on with behavior that would have endangered her children, family services would have taken her children no questions asked.
Anyway I wonder what was wrong with the husband giving his wife 4 more children knowing that she was not stable mentally and could not be there for her. Also where was her family, who was her support system when she was breaking down?
Plus did she know that Texas has no problem at all in executing females. Do you think she still would have killed her children fully understanding the consequences?
Why would the psychiatist take her off her meds without seriously taking into account her deep mental and emotional issues? Why wasn't she in for routine check ups just in case she relapsed into one of her episodes?
I think that she should spend time in the pen for the criminally insane for a very very very long time at least til the age where she can't have children.
Real funny how she didnt kill herself:rolleyes:

No you know what I just heard somethng one of the jurors said about her confession. She knew the difference between right and wrong. So she get the appropiate sentence. (sizzle sizzle)

The Interview w/ the Jurors
 

Did any of you seethe interview with the jurors on "Dateline"?? What did you think (reactions)??

Larry King has/had the husband on his show tonight. I'm sure they will run it again, later on tonight and on Larry King Weekend!