man charged for sunburn

MsMittens

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Parents are supposed to be responsible for their kids. If he had left the kid in the car and the kid was suffering heat stroke, you'd probably view it differently

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No I wouldn’t view it differently. In the case above he would be guilty of gross stupidity and from the legal point of view negligence.
Child abuse it a conscious act on the part of an adult which results in either physical or psychological harm to a child.(my definition) It doesn’t seem like he deliberately kept his son out in the sun so he would burn.
What about this. I am teaching my son to ride a bike. He falls badly as can happen when just learning and splits his lip on the pavement. In this case I put my son on the bike. I gave him a bike helmet which only protects his head and not his face. Given the logic of the case above I would be a child abuser because he fell.
As for taking the subject seriously all I will say is being a father myself and having be in charge of a youth organisation for a couple of years in an area that was seriously disadvantaged. I have seen real child abuse and know that it is no joking matter. My views on the proper punishment for any one who would abuse a child are quite direct and probably not very civilised.
Oh and about the sunburn I go as red as a tomato just looking at a post card with the sun on it. ;)

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It doesn’t seem like he deliberately kept his son out in the sun so he would burn.

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No but he did fail to take his son to the hospital, doctor or a clinic. 2nd degree burns would show welts. It's not something you'd miss.

If your son fell, broke his arm and you didn't take him to the hospital, would that classify as negligence?

I just think this way. How many times was I severely sunburned in my life? Even just this week I was tossing on the lotion after working in the yard TOO LONG. Negligence? Child Abuse is a serious life altering event. Just trying to put it into perspective. Playing on the beach and overlooking the sun's effects is EASY, too easy to do. We've all done it. Does that result in a criminal sentence. Hell no. Not in my book. A car is a different issue so the comparison doesn't wash. A child could die in a matter of minutes in that situation. Sun exposure is very hard to judge. Do I feel sorry for the kid, yep (been there many times). Do I think a parent deserves to be jailed and child removed? No way.

I can't believe something like this would be able to actually stick. I work at an agency were we have alot of confidential information and one thing we have is background checks and you would not believe the intensity of these background checks. The father would have a hard time do alot of things if he is convicted.

I am just so dissappointed that this is what the world is coming to. I mean when I was growing up my dad would give me a whack if I talked back or got outa line that is just how it is. I love both my parents even though they hit me. I learned alot quicker. And when I would get burned or give myself a concussion of shoot battery acid in my eye I never thought it was there fault it was always me and it truly was.


- Adiz

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Originally posted here by MsMittens
No but he did fail to take his son to the hospital, doctor or a clinic. 2nd degree burns would show welts. It's not something you'd miss.

If your son fell, broke his arm and you didn't take him to the hospital, would that classify as negligence?

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I did not realize that the father refused to get care for the child. That condition changes my viewpoint considerably. Thanks MsMittens.

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No but he did fail to take his son to the hospital, doctor or a clinic. 2nd degree burns would show welts. It's not something you'd miss.

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My brother and I are both prone to these kinds of sunburns and it's not always apparent right away how much damage you've done. Yes, you know you've had too much sun, but you don't generally realize how extreme it is until hours later. Giving the father here the benefit of the doubt, he may have taken his son right from the beach to his mother's house and there may not have been blisters at that time. Yes, he should have put "enough" sunscreen on the boy, but who hasn't missed a spot or thought they wouldn't be out that long and lost track of time or forgot to reapply regularly, etc. They key here should not be simply that the boy got sunburned, but whether the father 1) intended to hurt the boy or 2) did not care whether the boy was hurt. I don't believe that his not taking the boy to the hospital shows either one. I never went to the hospital for sunburns. It wasn't because my parents didn't care. It just wasn't necessary. You treat the burn and you get on with life. Hopefully you've learned something through the experience.

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I did not realize that the father refused to get care for the child.

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overduespy there is nothing here to say that he refused to get care for the child. MsMittens question is more in answer to my post earlier.

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If your son fell, broke his arm and you didn't take him to the hospital, would that classify as negligence?

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If I let my son play in a room with a ladder and he fell off it breaking his arm while i was doing something else then that is negligence as I was not keeping an eye on him.

If I do not take him to hospital when I know his arm is broken then that is sadistic.

As for the sunburn issue jonathans_daddy sums it up fairly well. there have been times that I have been so badly burnt that I could barely move with a nice colection of blisters but they only showed up the day after.