14-Year Old Girl Secretly Gives Birth To And Kills Her Son

While heavily procrastinating my homework, I stumbled across this article from 2012. If you're a regular reader of this blog, you know I don't usually talk about specific incidents, but rather deal with general topics (not including when I talk about my own life), and this is not going to be so much about what that girl did, but rather what an atrocious piece of journalism that article is. We can all agree that what she did was terrible, but the article leaves so many things unanswered and even raises a few questions about the girl's background (albeit unintentionally considering the author makes makes his feelings on the girl very clear).

  

  What we see in this article is classical witch hunt mentality: the girl is called a monster and the author feels she is "rightfully" charged as an adult and wants to see her behind bars for a long time, but he doesn't question one single thing about the circumstances this all happened under. A 14 year old girl keeps her entire pregnancy secret from her parents, has the baby in secret, kills it, and doesn't even dispose of it, but instead hides it in her cupboard, and the author doesn't pose any questions? Let's look at the most obvious one first:

How does a 14 year old girl hide an entire pregnancy from her parents?

This is what the article says:

When her parents were asked how the 5’ 3’’ 100 lb Cassidy was able to hide her pregnancy from them for 9 months, they admitted that there were some suspicions afloat, but that Cassidy was very devious and conniving in her attempt to hide her pregnancy – constantly wearing baggy sweats and long oversized t-shirts.

That's it. Apparently, that is all the author needs to know. To be fair, this tells me a lot as well. "What? Pray tell, Cah Cah?", you're probably thinking right about now, and I shall indulge you (although, you are probably there with me already at this point). Let's begin with a dictionary definition:

Devious - showing a skillful use of underhanded tactics to achieve goals.

The fact that her wearing baggy sweats and oversized shirts to hide her pregnancy is described as a skillful use of tactics speaks volumes as to the intelligence of her parents, and the fact that they supposedly suspected it and yet somehow were still duped by their daughter's admittedly genius behaviour also indicates a complete lack of interest in her. This is obvious, so why is it not mentioned? If a 14 year old manages to hide a full pregnancy from her parents, they themselves are unfit parents - isn't that a given?

Yes. The answer is yes.

What drives a 14 year old girl to kill a baby?

There are many other options out there. At 14, how is she not aware of them? What scares a 14 year old girl into killing a child? She didn't even have the mind to rid herself of it - she simply left it in her cupboard! Surely, if she had the capabilities of an adult, she would have thought to rid herself of it. Between you and me, isn't that what we would have done if we'd killed a baby? (Yes, I know you never would, neither would I, but work with me here!). According to this article she hid the pregnancy out of fear that her relationship with her parents would change if they found out - does that sound adult enough to be tried as one?

No. The answer is no.

Where is the father in all of this?

This question has me feeling very curious. Who impregnated her? Was it someone from school or was she being used and abused by someone older? If it was a guy her age, did he know about the pregnancy? If he did, how did he react? In a way that would deeply hurt a young, vulnerable girl in a situation that even to adults can seem impossible and terrifying?

Probably. The answer is probably.

What's with all the jaw dropping gifs?

I just can't believe that these obvious issues weren't addressed. I'm pretty sure you had the same reaction reading the article.

I knew you did! You're my people!

While I'm not trying to defend this girl's actions, I feel that in cases like this it's important not to lose your head, look at the bigger picture, and ask the right questions, especially because those involved are so young. We all know that what she did was terrible, so we would be much better of if you journalists actually addressed some of the questions surrounding cases like these, rather than wasting our time labelling a 14 year old girl from an obviously dubious family "a monster".

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Yours,