The sad story of the Kayla shooting
By Page W. H. Brousseau IV
Why is it we, as a society, places regulations on so many things but fail to be proactive enough to regulate parents to protect kids? We allow anyone to bear children without so much of a competency test. A case where people should not have procreated involves the parties associated with the February 2000, Buell Elementary School shooting of six year old Kayla Rolland.
This tragic shooting attracted national attention when another six-year-old classmate, that had an argument with her the day prior, brought a gun to school and shot the little girl. If that was the end of the story that would be tragic enough, unfortunately it was only the beginning.
Tamarla Owens, the boy's mother who had a history of drug use, was being bussed to Great Lakes Crossing to work two low-pay jobs.Owens had to put her two youngest kids in the care of her brother. This was because the father of the children was a felon who was trying harder to avoid a parole violation than to being a parent (he failed at both.)
I not against extended family members helping out, but the boy's uncle was a low life that was in the business of dealing drugs and illegal guns. Owens knew this, yet felt this was the best place to place her kids. Apparently just leaving them on a street corner must have been her number two choice, but that would have been the safest. While at the house, the uncle's roommate showed the six-year-old a stolen pistol, the pistol that was later used to kill Kayla.
After the shooting, Owens became a spokeswoman for gun control, but at the same time she was being investigated for child neglect. Apparently it is not enough to say you are against guns when you willfully let your kids move into a house of illegal gun transactions. After the shooting, the state of Michigan took her kids away, but has since returned her daughter.Owens still has not regained her parental rights for her son who did the shooting, and his older brother.
Kayla's mother makes the Tamarla Owens seem like "Mother of the Year" by comparison. Veronica McQueen, recently lost her parental rights to her children after it was revealed her husband was raping his daughter and stepdaughter. McQueen knew that this was happening and failed to do anything about it. Like Owens, she felt guns were a bigger threat to her kids then, as in this case, her husband raping them. The charges could be false, but cases like this are extensively investigated before authorities take any action.
A full "parent licensing program" would never work. However, finding out what makes people care so little for the welfare and safety of their children truly needs to be studied. We are not animals that abandon newborns to fend for themselves (unfortunately some are this way.) I do not normally call on more spending by the government for much, but the state and county must spend more in child protective services.
If parents are unable, or are unwilling, to be up to the task then, unfortunately, the state needs to step in and place the kids with a family that bonds together by love. Parents that ignore their parental duties to their children need to face serious consequences, and need to be put away for a long time.© The Michigan Times 2002
