Relatives knew Syracuse couple spanked baby too hard

[eilen]

Links

On Metro Voices blog: "We're losing the adults on the one hand, now we're losing the babies," grieves an activist and relative.

Violence against children scars our community, writes Sean Kirst.

Syracuse, NY -- Relatives told 18-year-old Cherron Patterson and her 15-year-old boyfriend, Anthony Weakfall, earlier this year that they were spanking Cherron's baby too hard, according to the baby's maternal grandmother.

On Sunday, relatives said they wished they had done more to protect 20-month-old Imani Jennings.

....
On Sunday, Imani Jennings' relatives and members of Mothers Against Gun Violence held a candlelight vigil outside the 124 Fage Ave. home where Syracuse police said Weakfall beat the girl to death over a potty-training accident



Police said Weakfall spent nearly an hour Friday beating the toddler with a metal rod, a cable cord, bedsprings and his fists. He then left to attend Corcoran High School.

Weakfall -- who was charged Saturday with murder -- was being held Sunday in Hillbrook Detention Center.

Cherron Patterson, a Fowler High student, was not home when her daughter was killed, police said. But police charged the woman with assault and endangering the welfare of her child in a prior incident involving Imani. Patterson, who is six months pregnant, is being held in the Justice Center Jail.

http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2008/11/vigil_today_for_slain_syracuse.html">Vigil for Imani, 2 year old slain

I was watching the news and they were interviewing people in the community and the downstairs neighbor.
(The mother was 18, her boyfriend 15-- they habiitually left the child home alone while at school and hanging outside with their friends) A neighbor was interviewed on television saying she would hear horrible fights and was sure someone was going to get killed. She said she never considered it would ever be the baby. She said she wanted to say something to the couple but she was afraid of them "You don't know what will happen with young people these days."

However, I doubt she didn't know what was happening. They live in an old house/duplex and you can literally hear everything in those houses. I wonder if she sometimes checked on the child because she was certainly there when the mother and her boyfriend were not and say them outside without the little girl. They would leave her with a cup of milk and a bowl of food on the floor like a dog.

Apparently the mother and her boyfriend were carrying good grades in school. The principal was on and he said it was a shock, that there was nothing in their behavior at school to indicate the habitual abuse of the 2 year old.

This was an abject failure of family and community to look after the defenseless.

[Muttocracy]

1. and she's pregnant. wonderful. can the parents both be sterilized soon? nt

edit for typo

[BrklynLiberal]

8. If there is any justice, they both should be sterile...

and sadly it would be best for all if she miscarries this baby.

[TahitiNut]

10. Three months to go to another "blessed event."

:eyes:

[Liberal_in_LA]

30. Yes, and read this

http://www.dreamindemon.com/2008/11/23/imani-jennings-had-an-accident/

R.I.P._Imani_Jennings
Nov 24, 2008 at 10:47 pm -

I knew Cherron since the beginning of the school year but just last week, we’ve become real close. She showed me pics of Imani and I’ve even seen Imani in school when Cherron would bring her. She used to come to class saying “I love my baby. She’s a little angel and she’s happy all the time.” But I guess we were’nt close enough for her to tell me she’s been hitting on her. I just found out that she’s been hitting her and she also hits her stomach when the baby she’s carrying moves and kicks. She also calls it a smut and a bastard. Evertime I seen Imani, her and Cherron looked so happy, like nothing bad happened at home. I loved Imani like she was part of my family. She was so pretty and innocent. R.I.P. Imani Jennings, I love you and will miss you forever but you truely are in a better place!

[Muttocracy]

15. sorry, didn't understand - the FATHER isn't the killer - new boyfriend is

more at the link in the OP (Syracuse paper - http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2008/11/vigil_today_for_slain_syracuse.html)

[shanti]

26. i'm pretty sure

CPS will take the baby when it's born.

poor little thing...:(

[Horse with no Name]

37. You might be surprised

As I often am.
We have quite a few mothers deliver babies when CPS has custody of their other children.
CPS tells us they cannot get involved UNTIL she does something to the new baby.
Makes my jaw drop too.
Something doesn't set right with me on that.

[Gormy Cuss]

2. "Spanking" too hard? No, that's beating. The leaving food outside was straight up abuse.

How sad for this child and the one not yet born.

[DS1]

3. 20 months?

spanking? There's no spanking 2 year olds, that's simply abuse. This is sick. *shudder*

[BrklynLiberal]

9. Potty training accident? Potty training at 20 months is not even normal..

[DS1]

11. I don't know shite about raising kids

or timelines, so I'll take your word for it.


It's too early, yes?

[LisaL]

12. Maybe in US.

In other countries children are potty trained early.

[LeftyMom]

17. Nah, that's really variable.

In US culture it's varied a lot based on current childrearing advice (back in my grandmother's day, she had her first two using the toilet as soon as they could walk) and on the convenience of diapering.

As a general rule, low income families are a bit more likely to push early potty training, because diapers and pullups are crazy f'n expensive and affordable childcare options become much more available once the kid is potty trained.

[DS1]

19. k thx.

Of course I'd find this stuff out if I suddenly ended up with a kid of my own O8)

Hell, I was just called Mary Poppins in another thread. As if.

[Jennicut]

23. 20 months is waaaaaaay too young to potty train, geez I am still trying to get my 3 year old

to do #2 in the potty, #1 is fine but the other one...
So sad that a child that young was essentially beaten to death. Immaturity if the parents is to blame, what 15 year old is emotionally capable of being a father to a child?

[shanti]

24. boys take longer

i have four (all grown now), and they all hovered around 3 before they were fully pt'd. supposedly girls pt earlier, from what others have told me as i have none.

[kath]

35. No, it is NOT - my daughter started at 20-21 months,

She was ready, so we went with it. You've got to seize the moment, and you can end up with serious power struggles if you miss your chance and wait too long. Toilet training tends to be started way too late in this culture these days (see the statistics in the first article below as to how this has changed over the past 50-60 years)

Two of the very best articles in existence on toilet training (I've posted them here several times before):
Toilet Training: Getting it Right the First Time
http://www.americanbusinessmedia.com/images/abm/pdfs/events/neal_library/Contemporary%20Pediatrics--Class%20A%20Cat%205--1.pdf (if you don't want to read the whole thing, the last 3 pages - the guidelines for parents - are very helpful.)

Toilet Training Problems: Underachievers, refusers and stool holders
http://www.americanbusinessmedia.com/images/abm/pdfs/events/neal_library/Contemporary%20Pediatrics--Class%20A%20Cat%205--1.pdf

A wise pediatrician whom I trained under said that there would be a lot less abuse of babies and toddlers if diapers were covered by WIC - I think he's right.

[LeftyMom]

4. Were they getting case management? Was somebody checking in on the kid?

I know in California, at least here in this county, case management is mandatory for teenage parents without a high school education if they're on cash aid, and offered but not required if they're not.

There really should have been a social worker checking in on this family regularly. Maybe with somebody helping them find childcare and teaching them about appropriate behavioral expectations (like 20 month olds having potty accidents) this could have been avoided.

[LisaL]

6. I think best would have been to remove that child from the home.

What 15 year old boy is ready to raise a child?

[LeftyMom]

I'm talking about prevention or ways to catch abuse before it escalates.

Obviously once abuse was present, the child should have been removed.

[Mollis]

39. Agreed

it is hard enough at 18.
Almost impossible at 15. Especially if it isn't yours.

[Muttocracy]

16. social workers were partially involved - wish they had been more!

snip from the Syracuse paper in the OP...

There were also many relatives nearby willing to help Cherron and her boyfriend care for Imani, said her mother and Jennings.

But Cherron did not want their help, her mother said.

"The help was there," Patterson said. "She was just bullheaded."

"She'd tell me, 'I don't need nothing. Imani is well taken care of. She doesn't need nothing,'" said Jennings, who said he paid $25 per month in child support.

Jennings said he and Cherron Patterson met in 2005 when they were both Fowler High School students. They started dating in February 2006, he said. After he graduated and enrolled in Buffalo State College, they continued dating. But about seven months after their daughter was born, the relationship ended.

Jennings said he spent most of the past year living in Buffalo. He moved back to Syracuse in August. In early August, Cherron and Weakfall moved into the Fage Avenue apartment. The rent was paid by the social services department, Amy Patterson said.

Cherron had not allowed him see his daughter since early September even though he had visitation rights under an Onondaga County Family Court order, Jennings said.

Cherron would tell him that he could see his daughter at the apartment, but could not take her anywhere, Jennings said.

But when he visited Patterson's apartment several times in the past two months, she would not let him inside, Jennings said.

[LeftyMom]

20. I think that just means she was on Section 8 or whatever they call it these days.

I don't see anything there to indicate they were getting home visits from a social worker or visiting nurse or some other professional.

[Muttocracy]

21. right, via an office social worker not home visits. Onondaga County

needs to find out how this fell through the cracks.

[LeftyMom]

22. Just that they'd done paperwork to have their rent paid.

Likely nobody from the county welfare office (whatever they call them there) even saw the kid.

[LisaL]

5. It is horrible.

The mother is 18, and the boyfriend is only 15. At this age, most teenagers want to party. What chance did this kid have? Poor child.

[AlCzervik]

7. so did they think some spanking was okay for a 20 month old?

why would a 20 month old or any other child ever need to be spanked? They don't.

[eilen]

25. Apparently the mother

of the child had a similar upbringing. CPS had been called in the case of the grandmother and Imani's mother-- who coincidently is also pregnant with her 8th child and lives with her mother. Cherron had attended a parenting class when she was pregnant. I think she kept the father from the baby because of the bruises, the child had been habitually abused.

This was an incredibly brutal murder. The police on the news looked as if they had been crying and admitted that this case will be waking them up at night. One mentioned that blood was everywhere.

This is very sad and makes people very angry. There was another not dissimilar case recently in a small town in a neighboring county, a little girl, Erin Maxwell mistreated, starved and strangled. It is a very sad story. http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2008/11/erin_maxwells_western_relative.html">Erin's story

My brother had a horrible experience with his exwife and only narrowly saved his two boys but his daughter (a teenager) was poisoned against him -- and her mother is so inappropriate with her. She pulled her out of school and even after calling CPS (educational neglect) it was ridiculous, they would not do anything. Prior to that he tried to get his daughter as he had legal custody -- the police would not enforce it-- because it was from out of state. It is easier to protect an animal than a child in the state of NY.

[Liberal_in_LA]

31. Interesting, the grandmother is pregnant with 8th while living with greatgrandmother.family pattern

[kath]

36. Did you also notice the details of the baby's dad's family - (the 15yr-old is NOT the dad)

he and his siblings in one photo had 3 different last names -- ie, 3 different fathers. I wonder at what age *his* mom started having kids. And how old was he when he knocked up 15 (at the time, probably - or 16 at most)-year-old Cherron?

ACK. Babies having babies - such a frickin' disaster for all concerned. Birth control - use it!!

[LisaL]

38. He is 20 now and she is 18. So he would have been

17 three years ago.

[eilen]

40. Yes the father is 20 years old, I think the surname was Jennings

He was paying $25 a Month for support. Geez. I though $25 a week was low for my Dad in the 1970's. Cherron would not let him see the child and I think he came with his mother at one point. He was not the most attentive father however, he was away at school in Buffalo until last August from what the paper says and the paternal family was not involved in her life.

This area of the city recently saw the shooting death of a man for what the police termed "homosexual tendencies" -- this was outside a nightclub and whether that was the given reason or not, it is not an uncommon occurrance. There are frequent shootings and knifings of young people--the ages of the young incarcerated couple--as the neighborhoods are rife with gang activity (Southwest side of the city). I used to live not far from there--the article mentions that one of the interviewees lives on Bellevue-- and I lived about two or three blocks South of there when I was a college student 20 years ago (that's how I know about the old houses carrying noise and sounds very well). My older stepsister graduated from Corcoran and we lived in a neighborhood not far from this one (Strathmore) when I was a kid.

The Southwest side (along S. Geddes St across to South Ave and West Onondaga St.) has been a depressed area with slummy rental homes (old beautiful homes fallen into disrepair and neglect and rented out Section 8) probably since the 1960's when they dislocated an entire neighborhood close to downtown. It seems to have grown, spreading into the Bellevue area. It has been crime ridden and most residents are poor and subject to the ills of the inner city. There have been some movements to correct this -- Jubillee Homes which tears down the old decrepit housing stock and rebuilds more modern but modest homes for sale under a grant program, Boy's and Girls Clubs, the Salvation Army, Rescue Mission and Catholic Charities all have programs in the area. Of course not all of it is horrible, just some pockets are worse than others and there is not really respect for neighbors as nuisance issues (loud music, speeding cars, kids and teens congregating in the middle of the street, children out without supervision, people just hanging about, walking through your yard, addicts wandering about panhandling, corner groceries that sell nothing but beer, cigarettes porn and day old bread with grown men lurking about all afternoon and evening etc.) There is high unemployment, lots of taverns, and the schools are deteriorated. The county librarians have a difficult time, one was threatened not so long ago for enforcing library rules on computer time (the kids can sign up for an hour at a time).

I think that is what people refer to as "the culture" and while many are referring to it because the population there is majority minority (black and hispanic), there are plenty of white people living there too "in the culture" so I don't think of it as racial thing, more of a class/social thing. There is often a distrust of law enforcement and government agent (social workers) --sometimes warranted but to me, it seems that it is to the detriment of the people that need the most protection, the children and the elderly.

[Muttocracy]

13. delete - misunderstood part of the story. nt

[blonndee]

14. Who spanks a baby? OMG.

[patrice]

18. Oh, but thank goodness that "mother" didn't get an abortion!! nt

[Liberal_in_LA]

27. 15 year old boyfriend?! left in care of a toddler?! WTF! and other family members saw the abuse?!

They all need to be put in jail!!!!!!!!!

[CoffeeCat]

28. Typical of families in which abuse happens...

The abuse often goes back generations.

So sad, for this little child. Twenty months old.

Obviously, these people were using potty training to justify beatings--an outlet
to express rage.

Very sad.

[Liberal_in_LA]

32. yes, obviously the 15 yr took out rage on the toddler. If he had a dog, he would have tortured it.

[Gwendolyn]

29. Absolutely sickening story, from start to finish.

The only one tiny bright spot is that at least the new baby will be taken away from her and have a chance for a decent life elsewhere.

[LisaL]

34. One can hope that CPS takes the child.

But I would not bet on it.

[proud2BlibKansan]

33. Oh what a beautiful baby

Lee Jennings Jr., Cherron Patterson and Imani Jennings in a Christmas 2007 photo. Patterson's boyfriend, Anthony Weakfall Jr., was charged in the beating death of the child.