Mediation Fails Between Parents and Teacher Accused of Requiring Child to Eat Discarded Food
The saga of the teacher arrested for requiring a child to eat food he had thrown into the garbage can passed another mile stone last week, when pre-trial mediation failed. The teacher's lawyer said that they had been unable to reach an agreement with the child's family.
The story started a month ago, when parents accused Anne O'Donnell of forcing their 5-year-old son to retrieve chicken nuggets and a banana that he had thrown into the garbage and then eat it while she watched. Police arrested her for risk of injury to a minor, and the story was widely disseminated over the Internet.
According to another local story (now behind a paid firewall, but summarized on Findlaw), the teacher claims that she merely retrieved the banana and asked him to peel and eat it. That version is much less incendiary, but the parents apparently are not buying it. It is understandable that parents would believe their child's version of events, but it often is difficult to understand what a child is describing, and even more difficult to question children without skewing their recollections.
This is one case where an objective adult needs to step in and view the evidence rationally. Let's hope it happens soon.
