I didn’t want to post another story about a failure of Jeb Bush’s Department of Children and Families to protect an African-American toddler so soon after my previous post (Jeb’s “Culture of Life™” doesn’t apply to poor li’l black girls), but how can I ignore this?
(Tampa Bay Online) TAMPA — Even though the boy would shake and wet himself, his father, Ronnie Paris Jr., would box with the 3-year-old, slapping him in the head until he cried because he didn’t want his son to grow up to be “a sissy,” the boy’s mother testified Monday.
Others corroborated Nysheerah Paris’ testimony as the prosecution built its case during the first day of the capital murder trial of Ronnie Paris Jr., 21, accused of abusing 3-year-old Ronnie Paris until the boy slipped into a coma Jan. 22.
He died six days later with swelling on both sides of his brain.
“He was trying to teach him how to fight,” said Shanita Powell, Nysheerah Paris’ sister. “He was concerned that the child might be gay.”
It’s hard to figure out why Ronnie would be so concerned about his toddler’s potential gayness. I mean, it seems like he regularly attended Bible study; his Bible-study friend, Sheldon Bostic, testified that he even warned Ronnie about being so rough with his three-year-old. I’m pretty sure when Jesus said something about “Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God” he never added, “well, except for the sissies.” So it would be unfair to blame any religious influence on Ronnie’s apparent homophobia. They always say, “love the sinner – hate the sin”, but at three years old I doubt there was any sinning going on yet.
When little Ronnie was five months old, back in 2002, Florida’s DCF removed him from the Paris household when x-rays at a hospital visit showed the boy had a broken wrist and a broken leg. What brought the boy to the hospital? Frequent bouts of vomiting and dehydration. The infant child couldn’t yet use language, but was quite obviously communicating some problems at the Paris household.
The DCF placed little Ronnie with foster parent Faye Bing. Bing testifies that during the thirty-one months she had custody of little Ronnie, the vomiting episodes abruptly ceased and the boy was eating and drinking well.
The prosecutor handed her [Bing] a picture taken at Bing’s Bradenton home in December, before the 3-year-old was reunited with his parents [on Dec. 14, 2004].
Bing smiled. “Healthy,” she mumbled.
“Did the child start getting ill when he was reunited with his parents?” Harb asked.
“Yes,” she said.
“Did you visit the child” once he was returned to his parents? he asked.
… The woman who says she would gladly have adopted the boy told a caseworker she noticed burns on his head during one of her visits.
Six weeks later, January 22, 2005, little Ronnie Paris was abused until he slipped into a coma. By January 28, 2005, little Ronnie died as he was removed from life support, suffering from swelling of the brain. Jeb Bush never once intervened to demand that little Ronnie be kept on a feeding tube in hopes that he would miraculously recover. Bill Frist wasn’t available to make any videotape diagnosis. Tom DeLay never arranged an emergency session of Congress and George Bush didn’t have to jump on Air Force One in the middle of the night to sign emergency legislation.
The question that remains to be answered is why Florida’s DCF felt the need to reunite little Ronnie with his parents after two-and-a-half years of positive results under Bing’s care? And during the six week period when the Parises resumed custody of little Ronnie, when the vomiting episodes recurred and when Bing was noticing burns on his head, why didn’t DCF immediately return the child back to Bing’s custody? How many strikes does an abusive parent get in Florida, anyway?
UPDATE: Paris was convicted today and could face life in prison. I also found the original story from February when Paris was arrested, which gives more background to the story.
