The Worst Yet: Summing Up. Some Deserve Acclaim. Others, Shame.

I’ve learned a lot this fall. The case is concluded, and my daughter is doing well. We encountered a number of different attitudes and behaviors in our odyssey that involved three fundamental social arenas: the medical, educational, and legal systems.

I’m not going to say much about the medical system here; it’s complex and least involves me. In other words, as I’ve said before, what Daughter wants to say is her business. I’m limiting myself to those situations in which I had firsthand dealings.

Acclaim

First, I want to offer thanks and appreciation to these women:

• Judy Rushton, Pupil Services, Huntsville City Schools
• J. B. Ward, Victim’s Advocate, Crisis Services of North Alabama
• Nita Batt, Victim Service Officer, Madison County District Attorney’s Office
• Cindy Conrad, Intake Supervisor at Madison County Juvenile Court
• Alta Morrison, Huntsville City Schools Board member

All were very helpful, prompt in responding to requests for information, honest, and respectful. I recommend each highly should you ever be so unlucky to find yourself in a similar situation.

I also want to thank the teacher who offered to go downtown and give an affidavit regarding the marks she saw on my Daughter’s face and neck.

Shame

Remember after Hurricane Katrina how so many of the public officials rushed to warn that now is not the time to play the blame game? The blame game was never rescheduled, was it? And parts of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast are still in shambles, aren’t they?

This isn’t a game, and in most cases it is shame more than blame I wish — but don’t believe or even hope — the following characters might feel:

I was very disappointed in:

• The emergency room doctor at Huntsville Hospital Women’s and Children’s ER who the first time I brought my daughter in, despite being told that she had been recently beaten and strangled, performed only the most cursory of physical exams, no neurological evaluation, and said to my husband and me that he preferred letting the nurses deal with hysterical teenage girls.
• The principal at my daughter’s former high school who didn’t return the Assistant District Attorney’s call on Thursday morning, November 10, and when he finally did, some time Monday, was vague and noncommittal — at least according to what the ADA told me.
• The counselor at my daughter’s former high school who told me August 31 that the kid who hit my daughter had admitted doing so to him. When I asked him November 10 if I were remembering this correctly, he confirmed I was. This counselor, according to the ADA, never returned the ADA’s two requests that he get in touch.

What do I make of this? The most generous interpretation is that the counselor found himself between a rock and a hard place. He could cover his ass or make an ethically sound choice. It might be argued that in the absence of counsel or a parent he had no business asking the kid about the attack since it didn’t happen at school. On the other hand, he is an obligatory reporter, legally bound to bring instances of abuse of children to the legal authorities, which is, after all, how the whole legal process was set in motion.

It mattered very much because with his testimony, the case would have moved out of the he said/she said realm. With his testimony, the ADA could have held out for a guilty plea in the plea bargain, even though he neglected to ever speak to my daughter.

• I’ve already gone over how I feel about the way Josh Ballinger, ADA handled the case, and how his boss, DA Robert Broussard defended him here, here, and here.