Family Dog Helps Parents Expose Their Child's Abusive Babysitter

woensdag 11 september 2013

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AppId is over the quota
by Lisa Fogarty 2 hours ago

Shortly after relocating to Charleston last year, Benjamin and Hope Jordan searched high and low for a reliable babysitter for their then 7-month-old son Finn. Like many parents, they were probably filled with an anxiety that ceased slightly when the background check for their potential sitter, 22-year-old Alexis Khan, came out clean as a whistle. 

But Khan wasn't fooling their family dog.

"About five months into her being our babysitter, we started to notice that our dog was very defensive of our son when she would come in the door," said Benjamin Jordan. "He was very aggressive towards her and a few times we actually had to physically restrain our dog from going towards her." 

Suspicious, the Jordan's placed an iPhone under their couch to record the sitter with Finn while they were at work. What they heard later that day devastated them. 

Khan was caught on tape cussing at the baby. The curses soon turned to slapping noises and Finn's cries could be heard changing from distress to pain. 

Is your blood boiling yet? Can you even imagine how you would feel? 

"I just wanted to reach through the audio tape, go back in time, and just grab him up," Jordan said. "To know that five months I had handed my child to a monster, not knowing what was going on in my house for that day."

The good news -- the only good news to come from this sad story, other than the fact that the Jordans can take solace in the fact that they have one amazing pooch -- is that Khan was arrested, confessed to the abuse, and was sentenced this week to serve one to three years in prison. 

As part of her plea, Khan will be placed on a child abuse registry, which is the least that the courts could do after what this child and these poor parents went through. She actually qualifies for parole in one year -- which seems ludicrous to me.

I understand a punishment has to fit a crime and that I am especially sensitive to and passionate about this issue because I have a toddler, but is one year really enough time for this crazy woman to learn the lesson that she has no right to put her hands on someone else's child? She could have chosen any other part-time job -- why choose one that required her to be a loving caretaker? 

Do you think Khan's sentence is fair? 

Image via State Farm/Flickr

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Lisa Fogarty

Lisa Fogarty is a former old-timey print journalist who lives in Brooklyn with her husband and toddler girl. She still carries a notebook everywhere and is always on the lookout for tasty vegan food and blouses with collars that will finally put the Peter Pan out on its (adorable) tush.

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Child’s Eerie Whispered 911 Call Saves Family From a Knife-Wielding Attacker

woensdag 21 augustus 2013

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AppId is over the quota
by Adriana Velez 4 hours ago

"Help us." That's what a child's voice whispered to a 911 dispatcher -- a call that led to the rescue of a woman and her three children. The whispered call must have sent chills down the dispatcher's spine. What horrible act made this child call 911? Whatever was happening, clearly it was not over, and the child may have been risking their own safety with this cry for help.

Fortunately, that call was successful. Sunday morning police arrested Miguel Espada for attacking a woman named Melissa Armey. Armey says the two were arguing when Espada threw her to the kitchen floor and threatened her with a dart, gesturing that he would plunge it into her neck. "I'm gonna kill you," she claims he told her. Armey tried to run away, but Espada grabbed her hair and then threatened her again, this time with a butcher's knife. She says he made slashing gestures toward her neck, saying, "I'm going to kill you if you call the police. I hate you and your kids and I'm gonna kill you."

Hence the whispered call.

Armey and her kids did manage to make a break for it before Espada was arrested. According to the report, Espada lived in the house of the incident, so this sounds like it could have been a domestic abuse case. Thank goodness one of Armey's children was brave enough to get help. It's sad, but sometimes adults get caught in complicated situations and feel like they don't have options -- when actually they do. And it takes their children to recognize how dangerous and wrong their situation is and get help.

If this is a domestic abuse situation, I hope there's some follow-through that will keep Armey's family safe long-term. I was just reading this article about how inept our system usually is at dealing with domestic abuse, and how taking a different approach could save lives. This child's brave action got their family out of one dangerous situation -- I hope it also saves the family.

Would your children be brave enough to call 911 if you were being threatened?

Image via Shardayyy/Flickr

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Adriana Velez

is a staff writer who dabbles in food, parenting, news, entertainment, molecular biology, and anything else that that pops into her head. She lives with her elementary school-aged son in Brooklyn, land of urban farms and artisan everything.  

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