When a child drowns under their Parents watch should the Parents be held responsible?

Question

I live in Arizona and every day I turn on the news and another child has lost there life due to drowning. I want to know if the Parents are or should be held responsible. I know this probably happens all over the world, but I think if the Parents or who ever was suppose to be watching the child was charged with a crime alot less children would have to die. I know it sounds horrible and heartless but come on, this has to stop.

Answer 1

i agree...watch your child...i know accidents happen..but some parents are careless...but then again..as a parent...if i was responsible for my daughter's death...prison would be nothing compared to my eternal grief and suffering of losing my child...

Answer 2

Holding parents responsible  and punishing them for the terrible accident isn't going to make the child drownings stop.  The type of parents who really were negligent  aren't going to all of a sudden become more responsible just because there is a punishment for it.  If that were the case, there would be no more drunk driving, shootings, robbery....  Punishment doesn't usually deter adults from doing wrong- convictions do.

The type of  parents who are responsible and diligent with their children are already doing their job and implementing a punishment for child drownings isn't going to prevent accidents from happening to those families.

I wish there was a way to stop it, but this happens every summer.

Answer 3

It's called an accident. If there is willful intent or negligence, then yes, they should be charged...but most cases are simply horrible accidents.

Answer 4

some of these answers surprise me. I can't believe people think guilt is punishment enough. So if I kill someone it's ok as long as I live my life feeling guilty? NOT

Parents need to be held accountable in situations where they left a child unattended at a pool or beach.

Last summer we were at great America amusement park in CA and a 4 yr old boy drowned in the wave pool. His mother blamed the lifeguards and said they should have seen him and saved him yet she was on a chair tanning and not supervising her child. She for some reason didn't feel it was her job. She felt it was the lifeguards job to watch her child along with the hundreds of other people in the water.

To me that is neglect. That mother should have been watching her little boy. What guilt does she have? She blamed someone else. The park gives out FREE life jackets and signs are posted with strong recommendations for children under a certain height and age to wear them.

My child would never drown because I don't take risks, I watch my kids when they are swimming even once they could swim well. I don't go to the ocean and tan on my blanket with my eyes closed like I see SO many parents doing.

Answer 5

How old are the children if they're like seven then it should not really be a problem though when my kids go swimming I useually get in with them or at least watch and when they take a bath my three year old daughter, I watch her take one and help her and when my five year old son Pix takes a shower/bath I tend to sit on the tolit lid and read and check on him once in a while but not often

Answer 6

What an awful way to put it. Its called an accident for a reason - its not intentional.

edit: unless of course theres neglect, but im sure the police would be doing a pretty major investigation in the case of a child passing and the parents would be charged if neglect was the cause

Answer 7

I think it should be illegal to own a pool with a child under 10. Any other pool like a community pool should always have life guards.

Answer 8

Only in the case of gross neglect or child endangerment resulting in a death.  There are accidents that the parents can have no control over.  

Most police and sheriffs do a pretty harsh review whenever a child death is concerned to see if the parents did contribute to the death in a knowingly or neglectful manner.  The laws already exist.  

Also, there is always the disobeying child that wants to do something mom and dad doesn't want them to do.  Hard to control that.  Don't make parenting so difficult, to there will be no more children.

Answer 9

I really think it depends on the circumstance...

Parents who simply got side tracked, no they shouldn't be charged.

Parents who were partying, doing drugs, or simply obviously didn't care for the children yes. They should be.

Answer 10

It all depends on the age of the child and the vvhole situation. If its pure neglect and ignorance the parent should be punished but if it vvas a pure accident then they are being punished already by the death of their child. Its terrible and very sad expecially if its just the parent or guardian not paying attention, people need to be more alert of there children and if they live by vvater or have a pool then the proper safety precautious need to be follovved.

Answer 11

I think the pain, guilt and loss they will feel for the rest of their lives will be punishment enough for the 10 seconds they took their eyes off the child.

Answer 12

While I do understand your intention, I think your reasoning is off.  Automatically punishing a parent whose child has drowned is not going to act as a deterrent to other parents.  There won't be any posters going up in the public buildings saying "don't let your child drown or we'll throw you in jail!"  like those ones that say 'don't do the crime if you can't do the time'.    

I think that each incident has to be done on a case by case assessment.  These are horrible, terrible accidents.  Do we treat the parent who turned their back for one second and this tragedy occurred the same as the parent who was smoking pot in the basement and not caring at all what their child was doing?  You can't.

I do think that there should be laws in place that require fencing around pools, and fines against those that don't comply.  It's a small thing, but may save at least one more child's life.

Answer 13

Well I think if actual neglect was found to be the reason the child drowned (ie - the parent's were drunk or on drugs and the child drowned because the parents had passed out), then they probably do get held accountable. An accident is completely different. Accidents happen all the time. If a parent was arrested every time a child got hurt......well, I'd be in jail right now. It's a sad thing when a child dies tragically and I understand why you're upset, but these things happen.

Answer 14

I agree fully. It is the #1 cause of death in young kids, and 80% of the drownings happen in home pools and can be prevented...if the proper saftey procautions were taken, so to me yes slap it to them! They deserve it, it's invoulentary manslaughter at the least...they are negligently allowing their kid to die. Call it what you want, but to me that is NO "accident". I think unless it's proven to be non preventable, they should be charged, and harshly.

Answer 15

what more punishment do you want to give them?

they lost their children and they probably have to deal with the guilt, so what more do you want? you want them to kill themselves?

so you are saying that if the punishment was greater then parents would be more careful........that somehow doesnt sound right. What bigger reason do parents need to be carefull than their child's life? their childrens life lost is definately has more power than any punishment given by the law.

Answer 16

If it is an accident then no I think the lifetime of loss is punishment enough. I am sure if it is neglect then the police will charge the responsible party. I am very careful with my daughter, she is 4 , but at the same time ..I will never say never. You don't know what can happen in an instant and to say it will never happen to you , well I truly hope it doesn't happen to you. What about the teen who was swimming, on the swim team and her hair got caught and she drowned ..are her parents responsible for the awful tragedy???? What about when a child goes on a field trip and drowns ..I have seen this happen..are the parents responsible. What if a mother has more than one child and gets distracted and the worst happens ..I imagine they will never forgive themselves for looking away but did they want that? Did they mean that to happen??????

Answer 17

I see where you are coming from.    I could never have a pool in the backyard with very young children in the house.   That's insane.   I know it has to be gated but toddlers have been known to squeeze their little bodies through the gate or somebody forgot to lock the gate.  It's enough to have to worry about the street in front of my house.  I don't understand why people would turn their backyard into a hazard as well.    

At least with cars in the street, most drivers try to stop if they see children around.      There are alot more near accidents than actual accidents even if you just scared the c**p out of the driver.   An unsupervised pool has no last minute warnings except a little splash.   If you missed the sound of the splash then you won't hear anything else because drowning is SILENT.

In certain circumstances then I think the parents should be charged.   Did the parent take all reasonable precautions to keep the child safe?   That would be my first question.   If the answer is "No" then I do think the parent should be charged.

Answer 18

its called an accident and i am pretty sure that even if they did do that the rate of kids drowning would NOT go down