Child Found Wandering Highway
In Devils Lake, North Dakota, an 18-year-old babysitter was arrested after the 3-year-old child she was supposed to be caring for was found standing in the middle of Highway 20. According to authorities, the tot wandered from an apartment building when the young woman went into the garage to smoke marijuana. A sheriff’s deputy got the child off the road safely. (USA Today, 4-23-2010, p.6A)

The Babysitter Made Me Smoke Pot!
In Council Bluffs, Iowa, a 16-year-old boy was arrested after the children he was babysitting said he “made them smoke marijuana.” The teen had been caring for the three children, ages 3, 5, and 8, while their mother was away. They were all related. (USA Today, 1-26-2009, p. 6A)

Starving the Children
In New Haven, Connecticut, a woman who was babysitting a boy apparently starved him to death by depriving him of food and drink as punishment for wetting the bed. The babysitter, Sharon Patterson, was ruled incompetent to stand trial; Her brother, Robert Patterson, 31, accepted a plea agreement that will likely mean probation for failing to intervene. (USA Today, 9-18-2008, p. 6A) After later being ruled competent, Jackson was later charged with manslaughter in the death of 23-month-old Amari Jackson. (USA Today, 2-20-2009, p. 8A)