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Sanne Moderator

I was very shocked and didn't believe this at first, but it happened. A 9-year old girl lied about eating a candybar and as punishment had to run around the house for 3 hours straight. Due to dehydration she ended up with a seizure that became fatal in the end.

I can't even wrap my head around this. Lying about eating a candybar warrants going to bed without dinner or dessert, a timeout, no television for the evening. But running for three hours? It makes me wonder if there had been some sort of other abuse towards the girl that made her push on way beyond her limits.

At this point I'm extending my thoughts of support to the part of the family that had no role in her death, as well as the girl's friends. I also hope that the people responsible for this will get what they deserve. She was only 9 years old...
Whoa.....that's all I can say is just whoa.....


I think you're likely right in the fact that there was more abuse going on. That`s ridiculous....I can`t wrap my head around that. If I did that as I child I would have recieved one of the COMMON punishments (like the ones you listed) but what the hell is wrong with the parents...its completely baffling
Jello_Monsta

That's sad. I have a friend who punishes his daughter and makes her do military exercises. I was appalled to say the least when I had to sit there and witness the whole thing. I don't even remember what she did, it was nothing serious to warrant such a punishment. He made her do military style push ups with books on her back so she would do them right. She was like about 9 at the time too, and the poor girl was already fully developed in the chest department, so I could only imagine how hard that had to be.

I believe there should be guidelines when punishing your kid, but I'm not against spanking. I was spanked as a kid and I learned my lesson and never did whatever got me in trouble again. It's like sticking your finger in a light socket, you are going to keep trying to do it until you eventually shock yourself and then that memory of pain coincides with touching the light socket and you don't do it again.
Jello_Monsta

but yea lying about eating a candy bar, that is ridiculous.
Sanne Topic Starter Moderator

Jello_Monsta wrote:
That's sad. I have a friend who punishes his daughter and makes her do military exercises. I was appalled to say the least when I had to sit there and witness the whole thing. I don't even remember what she did, it was nothing serious to warrant such a punishment. He made her do military style push ups with books on her back so she would do them right. She was like about 9 at the time too, and the poor girl was already fully developed in the chest department, so I could only imagine how hard that had to be.

I believe there should be guidelines when punishing your kid, but I'm not against spanking. I was spanked as a kid and I learned my lesson and never did whatever got me in trouble again. It's like sticking your finger in a light socket, you are going to keep trying to do it until you eventually shock yourself and then that memory of pain coincides with touching the light socket and you don't do it again.

There is a great difference between a correcting slap on the wrist and full time abuse. Sadly, nowadays people think they're both the same. And some parents go far beyond a spank on the butt under the excuse that they're just correcting behavior.
I saw this on Facebook earlier. It's completely ridiculous. 3 hours? If I had done something like that as a kid I would have gotten a timeout or no dessert. What is wrong with people? :(
Minerva

It seems like a case of dangerous ignorance to me. Apparently the girl had some health problem that could make the bar dangerous to her so they told her to run. I'm not condoning it by any stretch, it just seems like backwater folks failing to understand the potential consequence of my actions. I live next door to someone who spent years in prison cuz he kept a sawed off shotgun in his car not realizing it was illegal to blast snakes with his roughnecking work. People can be incredibly ignorant without being evil. Yes, the punishment was extreme and you have to question the house but i more feel sorry for -everyone- involved here. They definitely need to be punished but I would say manslaughter rather than murder 1 or 2. I'm sure the loss itself is its own lesson.
Minerva

er, their actions. Not my actions. o.o god i make weird typos when mobile. I would edit it but the thread goes too far in direct view and google format doesn't give the edit button.
Minerva

Adding to what i said after some thought. It's easy to get upset over that kind of headline, but we have no idea how many times these parents pulled their hair out over this and what they tried without success before. It's very sad, and it was definitely stupid, but i try to be a "judge not lest ye be judged" type. They lost their little girl. If they didn't care about her they wouldn't have punished her over a candy bar that could have hurt her. Ignorant or not, they're aware of what they've done, and surely hurt. Brewing further malcontent against them helps no one. I doubt the little girl will rest any better knowing what's gonna happen to her family and how the world talks about them. :/ parents do crazy things when trying to protect their kids from... Even themselves. This seems like unfortunate overreaction partnered with ignorance.
Sanne Topic Starter Moderator

Normally I would agree with you, Minerva, but there is one thing my mind keeps coming back to that doesn't make sense: what could possibly drive a 9 year old to push herself so far, to actually keep running to a point where she is totally dehydrated, exhausted and ends up with a seizure?

Most 9 year olds would stop at some point, crying about not feeling good, feeling tired... why didn't she? It doesn't make any sense, and as I explained in the first post, it really makes me wonder if there had been any other regular abuse to make this kind of strange and erratic punishment 'normal'. The mother has apparently also been involved in drug abuse and alcoholism, as her father tried to get custody with concerns about the mother's ability to take care of her.

All that just doesn't add up for me to a point where I can feel sorry for the grandmother, and even the mother if she condoned this. Any rational mind wouldn't let a kid run for 3 hours straight.

It is a 9 year old kid that died from this in the end, and I'm sure they're terribly hurting to have lost her... But these people are obviously a danger to themselves and others because they make stupid decisions. They should be locked up. I don't necessarily want to see them in for downright murder, I just want them unable to repeat this from happening.
Minerva

All valid points, sanne. Maybe it was recurring abuse. But i try to play devil's advocate for those I can't understand. I do feel they should be punished but without considering the circumstances we can not be fair judges. I have to wrestle my husband away from offered allergens that can destroy him. His favorites: cheese, pizza, anything with milk or tomato will just destroy him. Yet, he continues to try. With that in mind i have to try to consider the potential motives behind it. I highly doubt they decided, "hey, lets make our kid run till they die". There is motive behind it: allergen. There are drugs and alcohol to consider, and while i agree true alcoholism is dangerous the definition is vague. If there's dui's i am unfamiliar with forgive me, but i once had cps come to my house on call from someone i barely know who knows nothing of my house. they tried to make an alcoholism case out of a single beercan. Ultimately the case was dismissed from it being stupid but i understand how out of proportion the-
If I can't get it loaded up tonight with my internet, I'll take my computer to work with me so I can look at it when I get off.

I hesitate to even click into these kinds of threads/topics/facebook posts/whathaveyou because I always get extremely agitated by things like this - to be blunt, my male-type biounit was a horrific drunkard and whore, and I got the [radio edit] kicked out of me constantly, usually just for existing. It lead to some interesting interactions with him and childhood/teen personality 'quirks' that I ended up learning to deal with.

Warning: Bonerage ahead.

*Link finally loaded after 15 minutes of trying.* I cannot believe they made that girl for three hours. It's my personal view that they should be beaten to within in inch of their life - of course, I bet they're probably regretting that whole 'running' thing now, huh? It serves them right, they know what they did - they're adults, not ignorant little children. Let them suffer. Maybe it will teach them a thing or two about child-rearing; of course, whoever told her to run around the house will probably rot in prison. Good. Let her. Those things don't deserve the title of stepmother and grandma. I realize I might be stepping on toes here, but that's my view, and I'm rolling with it. If I've somehow offended you with all that, shut the collapse tag.


To repeat what's already been said, the kid should have maybe lost TV privileges for a week or something, but anything other than something basic is just stupidity. No dessert? Cool, makes sense. She ate candy when she wasn't supposed to, yank the sweets away for a meal or four. No TV? That makes sense too - negative reinforcement. No dinner before bed? A little iffy in my book, but some kids just won't learn.

Ironically, I am not against spanking - part of the problem with kids today is that parents let their little heathens get away with too much in general. It's the most annoying thing in the world when I'm at the Wal-Mart near my house - to you folks across the pond, Walmart is an extremely large retail chain that hosts stores that sell essentially everything a small town needs to survive (they are so large because they basically leech the economy out of the town and make the area dependent on it): food, electronics, games, toys, auto parts, home theater things, so on and so forth - when I have some little kid whining because he didn't get this, or didn't get that and just starts screaming loud enough that his/her parent(s) just give up and let the fit happen; however, there is a massive difference between a beating and a spanking.

Alright, I'm done. +1 CON if you managed that in one go.
Minerva

-charges can get from perception. Sometimes right sometimes wrong. I choose to avoid passing judgment on cases i know little of. I dont partak of marijuana but i have a friend who does occasionally and they are fully functional but could be classified as drug abuse. My rough struggle through life has shown me people i used to judge and yet still found personally to be just like everyone else. I... Find no point in speaking ill of them. If anyone has dream of a potential afterlife that is good, think on it--what does it achieve for this little girl? Yes. Judge and try them. Slander however is different. Even if off of "media sources".
Kim Site Admin

This topic is causing sooo much distress and agitation all over the place I'm gonna lock it and let it slide down the boards. Sorry guys. This is an incredible tragedy, but there's no action any of us can take to make it better. All we can do is work ourselves up about it, and I'm getting messages from people who are going to bad places over this.

I suggest to help offset the ugliness of this that we all try to do one small action that helps make the world brighter tomorrow. Big change starts with small actions. Beauty can radiate from acts of kindness.

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