# Mother: Drunk. Children: Dead of starvation
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mother-drunk-children-dead-of-starvation/275329
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [November 17, 2004, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mother-drunk-children-dead-of-starvation/275329 "2004-11-17T20:32:52Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)
#### Post date: [November 17, 2004, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mother-drunk-children-dead-of-starvation/275329/1 "2004-11-17T20:32:52Z")
You know, sterilization of this bitch may not be a bad idea.
[http://www-static.kingcountyjournal.com/sited/story/html/178590/](http://www-static.kingcountyjournal.com/sited/story/html/178590/)
The children had been dead for several days and she was too drunk to notice?
:mad: :mad: :mad:
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### Author:  [@Lord\_Ashtar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Ashtar)
#### Post date: [November 17, 2004, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mother-drunk-children-dead-of-starvation/275329/2 "2004-11-17T20:35:02Z")
Your linky no worky for me.
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### Author:  [@Elza\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elza_B)
#### Post date: [November 17, 2004, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mother-drunk-children-dead-of-starvation/275329/3 "2004-11-17T20:37:57Z")
Worked for me, **LA**.
Damn.
Just _damn_.
Ava
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### Author:  [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)
#### Post date: [November 17, 2004, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mother-drunk-children-dead-of-starvation/275329/4 "2004-11-17T20:42:45Z")
That’s odd.
Try this one, **Ashtar**.
[http://www-static.kingcountyjournal.com/sited/story/html/178590/](http://www-static.kingcountyjournal.com/sited/story/html/178590/)
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### Author:  [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)
#### Post date: [November 17, 2004, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mother-drunk-children-dead-of-starvation/275329/5 "2004-11-17T20:43:56Z")
For some reason it’s putting in ellipses.
[Third time’s the charm](http://www-static.kingcountyjournal.com/sited/story/html/178590/).
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### Author:  [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)
#### Post date: [November 17, 2004, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mother-drunk-children-dead-of-starvation/275329/6 "2004-11-17T20:45:45Z")
Unfortunately it worked for me as well.
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### Author:  [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)
#### Post date: [November 17, 2004, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mother-drunk-children-dead-of-starvation/275329/7 "2004-11-17T21:08:35Z")
This is one of those cases where you really wonder what you can do. Bitch had 7 kids, is on public assistance, daddy’s in the slammer, so she goes on a bender for a few days, or weeks, doesn’t feed or care for the kids, and they’re dead.
Could you sterilize her? You would have had to a couple of kids ago, and could we really say she was a danger then? Take the kids away? Again, you need proof she’s a danger, and who knows what set her off. Even if she was a bad mother, you never think someone will just let their kids die.
The damn police came in, woke her drunk ass up, the first thing she did was go to the closet for a warm beer…
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### Author:  [@alice\_in\_wonderland](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alice_in_wonderland)
#### Post date: [November 17, 2004, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mother-drunk-children-dead-of-starvation/275329/8 "2004-11-17T21:45:26Z")
The whole story is pathethic. I should know better than opening threads like this one…
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### Author:  [@Harborwolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harborwolf)
#### Post date: [November 17, 2004, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mother-drunk-children-dead-of-starvation/275329/9 "2004-11-17T22:02:06Z")
This shit is fucking sick. I actually can’t think of anything to do to her that would be enough punishment, and I’m running down the full mental list of torture. She fucking let her kids starve to death while she got drunk.
> [@](#):
>
> Colleen E. O’Connor, a public defender who only met Robinson for the first time earlier Tuesday before her bail hearing, said Robinson appeared to be distraught and overwhelmed by what has happened.
>
> ``She hasn’t stopped crying. She is in a state of grief, a state of shock,’’ O’Connor said after the hearing.
>
> ``I don’t think she has a clear understanding of all that has happened. She’s trying to take it all in,’’ O’Connor said.
I hope she never stops crying. I wish there was a way to remind her of this for every day of the rest of her life. This woman needs to be put on permanent suicide watch. I want her to live a disgustingly long life with the knowledge that she let two children starve to death while she got drunk. I want it to haunt every waking moment and every dream for the next hundred years.
And to me, even that won’t be enough. :mad:
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### Author:  [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)
#### Post date: [November 17, 2004, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mother-drunk-children-dead-of-starvation/275329/10 "2004-11-17T22:07:07Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Robinson, who was receiving public assistance, has been the subject of **four complaints or reports** to the state Department of Social and Health Services. Child welfare officials who met with the family to investigate reports of possible neglect **concluded in three cases** that the children were in no physical danger, according to state officials.
What about the fourth case, I wonder?
Washington DSHS is pretty ok, especially compared to say Utah or New Jersey. But damn. I hate it when shit like this gets past the system.
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### Author:  [@Lord\_Ashtar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Ashtar)
#### Post date: [November 17, 2004, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mother-drunk-children-dead-of-starvation/275329/11 "2004-11-17T22:57:50Z")
Finally got the link to work.
It’s stories like this that make me wish we were still allowed to wish death on people.
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [November 18, 2004, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mother-drunk-children-dead-of-starvation/275329/12 "2004-11-18T01:07:55Z")
Obciously, this has been ‘big news’ for a couple of days up here. This is the latest I heard:
The woman was using food stamps to buy food. (You can’t buy alcohol with them.) Then she would return the food to the market for gift certificates. Then she’d use the gift certificates to buy alcohol.
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### Author:  [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)
#### Post date: [November 18, 2004, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mother-drunk-children-dead-of-starvation/275329/13 "2004-11-18T01:50:19Z")
> [@Cheesesteak](#):
>
> Could you sterilize her?
Oh sure. A 55-gallon drum of chlorine ought to do the job.
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### Author:  [@NinjaChick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinjaChick)
#### Post date: [November 18, 2004, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mother-drunk-children-dead-of-starvation/275329/14 "2004-11-18T02:48:53Z")
Fucker. :mad:
What the hell can someone say to this?
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### Author:  [@badbadrubberpiggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/badbadrubberpiggy)
#### Post date: [November 18, 2004, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mother-drunk-children-dead-of-starvation/275329/15 "2004-11-18T02:54:26Z")
How long does it take for children that age to starve to death? I’m just curious as to how long she must’ve been drinking before they died.
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### Author:  [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)
#### Post date: [November 18, 2004, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mother-drunk-children-dead-of-starvation/275329/16 "2004-11-18T13:05:41Z")
I’m guessing the newborn died in a few days.
Maybe the 2 1/2 year old was old enough to scrounge for food, assuming of course, there was food in the house to scrounge.
Ivylad made an interesting point…considering the type of non-mother this bitch was, these children faced a lifetime of abuse and neglect. Maybe it was best they didn’t have to go through that. Not that any child should have to starve to death because Bitch Mom is a drunk. There’s nothing good about this anyway you look at it.
It’s stuff like this that makes me hope there’s reincarnation. I want those children reborn into a wealthy, loving family.
**Johnny L.A.** , can you keep us posted?
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### Author:  [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)
#### Post date: [November 18, 2004, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mother-drunk-children-dead-of-starvation/275329/17 "2004-11-18T13:41:20Z")
Update, including a photo of our alkie debutante–
[http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002092935\_kentdeaths17m.html](http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002092935_kentdeaths17m.html)
Given the truly extraordinary amount of booze in her system, as described in this second article, I suspect that her shaking & crying could very well be the DTs.
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### Author:  [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)
#### Post date: [November 18, 2004, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mother-drunk-children-dead-of-starvation/275329/18 "2004-11-18T13:53:10Z")
Does CPS do anything right?
There’s cases here in Florida of DCF not doing their job either. There is no room for error in the job of protecting children, but do such various state protection agencies ever get it right? Or are all of the workers overworked and underpaid?
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### Author:  [@Gorgon\_Heap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorgon_Heap)
#### Post date: [November 18, 2004, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mother-drunk-children-dead-of-starvation/275329/19 "2004-11-18T15:13:46Z")
This is one of the sickest things I’ve seen in a long time. I can only shake my head at how sad this is.
Man.
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### Author:  [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)
#### Post date: [November 18, 2004, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mother-drunk-children-dead-of-starvation/275329/20 "2004-11-18T15:39:41Z")
> [@ivylass](#):
>
> Does CPS do anything right?
>
> There’s cases here in Florida of DCF not doing their job either. \*\* There is no room for error in the job of protecting children,\*\* but do such various state protection agencies ever get it right? Or are all of the workers overworked and underpaid?
Usually, yes. In some localities they are also undertrained, badly led, and even hired from the wrong applicant pool. But even where they are halfway competent, they face that:
If they’re lax, they’re letting children die…
BUT, if they’re aggressive in defending the child’s interest, they’re “out to break up families” and infringing on “parents’ rights”…
AND if they make a judgement call, the politicians will hang them out to dry if enough people picket/sue…
And if any fool could plainly see the situation was leading up to no good, they’ll likely be told by the Court _that_ is not a legal grounds to remove children\*, you need actual imminent danger. (\*opens to accusation of prejudice as to what’s bad parenting)
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