Foster Mother Charged In Murder of 2-Year-Old Girl

http://www.inquisitr.com/892429/foster-mother-charged-in-murder-of-2-year-old-alexandria-hill/

A Texas foster mother has been accused of murdering 2-year-old Alexandria Hill.

Sherill Small called 911 on July 29 and said that Alexandria had stopped breathing. The girl was taken to a Rockdale area hospital, and then flown to White Children's Emergency Hospital in Temple, where she remained in a coma until she was taken off life support last Wednesday.

According to Rockdale Police Chief Thomas Harris, Small tried to hide what cause Alexandria's injuries. Doctors said the explanation Small gave to police were not consistent with the child's injuries.

"Initially the story was [that] the child was running backwards and fell," Harris told KWTX. "You don't get these types of injuries from a 2-year-old child running backwards and falling."

Doctors said Alexandra had retinal hemorrhaging in both eyes, as well as brain hemorrhaging. Small initially said she was swinging Alexandria in circles and accidentally let go of her hands. She later admitted that she was frustrated with the girl and she swung her over her head and down near the ground three times. The third time, Alexandria's head hit the floor. Small was arrested on August 1 and charged with criminal homicide.

Alexandria's father, Joshua Hill, said his daughter was placed in foster care because he and her mother "smoked pot at the time." Court records showed that the girl's mother had a medical condition that didn't allow her to be left alone with the child.

Hill said Alexandria moved in with Sherill Small after he and his wife complained that a previous home wasn't safe. He said she came to visitation with bruises, and had mold and mildew in her bag. At one point, Hill told police they would have to arrest him because he didn't want Alexandria to go back into state care.

But things were different with Small, Hill said. Alexandria seemed happy with her.

Sherill Small was a licensed foster parent through Texas Mentor, and gained custody of Alexandria Hill in January. She was required to undergo training as part of her licensing.

Joshua Hill and Mary Sweeney, Alexandria's mother, are working to file a lawsuit against the state and the foster agency. Sherill Small is being held on $100,000 bond.

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Really? We're going to take children from their homes because their parents smoke marijuana? Why are we still punishing people for smoking a harmless drug like pot?

I don't know, maybe because it's illegal? XD

I'm sorry, regardless of what you're doing no matter how "harmless" it is, if it's illegal to be doing, you don't deserve to have kids living with them.

However, that is very unfortunate that the little girl was killed by her foster family. I think that shows foster parents should be screen quite a bit more than they are now to be sure nothing like this would happen.

The US Foster Care System is broken. Utterly broken. The statistics, and there are many, affirm the negative results of the system. However, we can't compare the result with children that would have been left in their homes, with parents that may be deemed unfit. Perhaps there is a slight positive result. Such evidence isn't available yet. However, it is clear that the remedy, even if it could improve a situation, isn't proficient whatsoever.

In this case, we are not sure what medical history the biological parents or the extent of the marijuana use and possibly other medications/illicit drug use that are not yet disclosed in reports. Before we can make an assessment as to whether the child should have been taken out of the home, we must first know the complete situation.

For instance, another source adds, "According to court records, Alexandria's mother has a medical condition that does not allow her to be left alone with her own child and Hill's marijuana use had become so bad he almost dropped his daughter down the stairs." This is a serious claim, and frankly, I am not a fan of articles that suppress this sort of information to make a political statement, or from poor investigatory skills.

I am all for someone smoking marijuana as a personal remedy for an ailment or for recreation, but when you are caring for a toddler, operating machinery, among other activities, the individual is infringing upon the safety of others. Those taking certain medications are not allowed to perform several functions for this reasoning, and the same should apply to marijuana that has evidence of affecting motor-skills temporarily, to the extent of alcohol, that is still inconclusive. Parents should be able to consume alcohol for instance, but if in excess, or in frequency and certain perilous or damaging events involving the children unfold accordingly, the parent could endanger the child in the future. The same could be said for THC exposure; perhaps a parent can smoke marijuana so long as it is done in a way in which doesn't risk the child's safety.

So, yes, the taking of the child out of the home may have been justified; however, the placement of the child into this home is unacceptable and the statistical data conveys that there needs to be a restructuring of the system as abuse runs rampant among the system. That is not to say it is common to all or most foster parents. I personally know several foster parents and their children or former foster children that, at least on the surface seem to provide, not only adequate care, but excellent care of these children/young adults.

Dyl-icious said:

I don't know, maybe because it's illegal? XD

I'm sorry, regardless of what you're doing no matter how "harmless" it is, if it's illegal to be doing, you don't deserve to have kids living with them.

However, that is very unfortunate that the little girl was killed by her foster family. I think that shows foster parents should be screen quite a bit more than they are now to be sure nothing like this would happen.

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Why is marijuana illegal though? Millions of American smoke it daily, does that make them unfit to have children or take care of children? Marijuana is less dangerous than alcohol, but you don't see CPS taking children from households that drink every day.

Dyl-icious said:

I don't know, maybe because it's illegal? XD
I'm sorry, regardless of what you're doing no matter how "harmless" it is, if it's illegal to be doing, you don't deserve to have kids living with them.

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So... Their daughter deserved to die because they smoked pot?

They didn't deserve her because they smoked pot. She deserved better parents - Parents who quickly moved to put her in a pine box and six feet under.

It might just be me, but I think that she would have been better off with the parents that smoked pot.

Very misleading thread name if that's the only point you're going to be bringing up here.

Do I know why it's illegal? Nope.
Do I know why alcohol is legal but not marijuana? Nope
One thing I do know though.. It's illegal. Doesn't matter why or how it became that why or why things that are much worse than it aren't illegal, it's still illegal.

If you don't like the fact that marijuana is illegal, stop being a lazy ass and do something about it. If you don't like the fact that alcohol is legal when it shouldn't be, do something about it. Don't just whine on forums about it, that gets nothing done.

Mr. X said:

So... Their daughter deserved to die because they smoked pot?

They didn't deserve her because they smoked pot. She deserved better parents - Parents who quickly moved to put her in a pine box and six feet under.

It might just be me, but I think that she would have been better off with the parents that smoked pot.

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We don't know that. Court reports show that the father showed signs of lack of coordination and nearly dropped the baby while going down the stairs. There could exists other facts that gave justification for taking the children out of the home, given that their family members expressed that the couple lacked adequate parenting abilities. It's not a matter of the lesser of two evils, we should focus on eliminating child endangerment, in either case.

Parents may be able to smoke weed without endangering their child. But for all we know, marijuana misuse may have been one of several factors that were considered in this case. And frankly, we should not be arguing over whether all cases of smoking weed should be acceptable or not for adequate parenting. As mentioned, their are substances such as alcohol or even prescription medications (legal or not) that can may place a child at risk in some cases while not in others. So we can't chop this all up to, "the child was taken out of the home because the parents used marijuana".

I personally think the much more important matter at hand is not the marijuana smoking parents, but the waste of oxygen that the foster mother is, and the overall credibility of these types of institutions.

This story pissed me off for several reasons.

1) Marijuana
I'm going to make this really clear PC, but I've smoked pot.

Yeah I know, take a breath. It's really hard to take in.
It's okay. Everything's gonna be okay.

But really.

Hell, there was a period of time that I smoked pot literally 3 times a day, for a good two months. I had a dealer, I had the memorabilia, I went to headshops, I snuck out in the night to have a good toke, I even toked at 4:20 with some friends, and while I never got in trouble with the law, it's always there and I know people who have. Now I'm not gonna make this a long ramble on whether or not I believe it should be legalized (I do believe that it should be legal but restricted like Alcohol), but these people were smoking pot nowhere near the vicinity of their child. I freaking know people who smoke pot right in front of their kids, and I will tell you right now, from what I know about this situation, they, while breaking the law, aren't doing anything incredibly harmful to the kid. Just remember that it's okay to get ****ing drunk in front of your kid and go on a verbally abusive tyraid but smoking weed after they go to bed is enough to take them out of the house. Yeah, how about ****ing no.

For people who have never been exposed to someone who's high, at most they are annoying. Really. I mean, you just feel really good and want to watch TV or something. From my personal experience you don't attack people while you're high or get aggressive because you just feel really nice about everything - you're just taking everything in and enjoying it. I'm not going to debate the health risks or anything but I'd much rather be around a high person than a drunk person. If you really wanna know, this is what people get like when they're high, or an example of such. Yeah, you can't be like that all the time but seriously.

Now on addiction and misuse, while some people can get hooked on marijuana, marijuana in of itself isn't super addictive, and from personal experience, I can tell you that I did get cravings after stopping after a scare at work, but other than that the withdrawal effects are nill. I think I'm more addicted to McDonald's than I ever was to marijuana. Those who are vulnerable to being addicted in the first place, such as those with gambling, pornography or overeating problems, will likely have trouble with marijuana, but like those things it is a psychological addiction. Addiction is a nasty thing to deal with no matter what it is but marijuana in of itself is not very addicting outside of those vulnerable to addiction.

If they were dealing or something I'd have a different opinion but they're not. They're just toking. They're not doing it in front of their kids, they're not dealing the drug, they're not driving while high, they're not using all their resources to buy bongs and hash, they're not using it so much that it makes them unable to take care of the child, they're just ****ing toking late at night, out of the kid's way. ****ing. Really.

2) Priorities
So let's just assume that, for the sake of argument, that smoking pot nowhere near your kid is a bad enough thing to take your kids away. So is taking a child to an abusive foster care center really much better than being surrounded by tokers who don't even toke when the kid's awake? Shouldn't resources be spent on trying to make this place a better place for kids who actually come from abusive households (like the aforementioned alcoholic)? I understand that the government, especially Texas, just gets off to the fact that THE DRUG WAR this and THE DRUG WAR that but honestly, I'm willing to bet that the majority of Americans would rather have money allocated towards making sure that children in foster homes are being treated well as opposed to hunting down some kids with a joint or something.

Just like I know people who smoke pot, I know people that were raised in abusive foster homes. One of my best friends comes from a foster home where he was beaten regularly with a ****ing FRYING PAN. He has ****ing PTSD because of this ****. Yeah, I'd rather stop that than some chillin' tokers. Really. When was the last time you heard of someone dying from a freaking Marijuana overdose in comparison to being beaten with a FRYING PAN.

I'm so ****ing done with this country and it's war on drugs. This **** makes me want to light up tonight.

Dyl-icious said:

I don't know, maybe because it's illegal? XD

I'm sorry, regardless of what you're doing no matter how "harmless" it is, if it's illegal to be doing, you don't deserve to have kids living with them.

However, that is very unfortunate that the little girl was killed by her foster family. I think that shows foster parents should be screen quite a bit more than they are now to be sure nothing like this would happen.

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Gay marriage is illegal in many states in the United States, so I guess it's okay for someone in a "civic union" who are trying to get their marriage rights to have their adopted children taken away. About 60 years ago the union between multiracial people was considered illegal, so I guess we should take them away too. And pissing in public can get you on the sex offender list so you shouldn't be allowed to have custody of your kids either, right?

The law is the law but the law isn't always right. The law once said that Black people were 3/5ths of a person in the United States, said it was okay to completely cripple Jews in Germany and to send off people with an opposing opinion to their deaths in Stalinist Russia.

Dyl-icious said:

Very misleading thread name if that's the only point you're going to be bringing up here.

Do I know why it's illegal? Nope.
Do I know why alcohol is legal but not marijuana? Nope
One thing I do know though.. It's illegal. Doesn't matter why or how it became that why or why things that are much worse than it aren't illegal, it's still illegal.

If you don't like the fact that marijuana is illegal, stop being a lazy ass and do something about it. If you don't like the fact that alcohol is legal when it shouldn't be, do something about it. Don't just whine on forums about it, that gets nothing done.

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Oh my god this is not how law making works.

Going back to gay marriage, I take it that every single gay rally and years of being abused by people and all that, they just were being too lazy until finally now? Or what about Black people fighting for their civil rights for almost 200 years since the USA's inception? They weren't fighting hard enough I guess.

No. Laws are decided by the people we vote into congress. And we have to trust them to do the things that we voted them for. They don't always, but they may succeed in other regions. So for example, going back to black civil rights, people avoided the issue and let the Seperate but Equal clause run for almost a century because well, while people were fighting for that cause (and boy did they fight) they couldn't win because blacks had the cards stacked against them in Jim Crow laws, and that the people in office did very little to actually stop this (and actually promoted white supremacy).

Well, marijuana is #8 on the most dangerous drugs list. To be fair, alcohol is #1. Based on statistics where users harm themselves or others while under the drug's influence. That being said, pot is anything but harmless.

Dyl-icious said:

Very misleading thread name if that's the only point you're going to be bringing up here.

Do I know why it's illegal? Nope.
Do I know why alcohol is legal but not marijuana? Nope
One thing I do know though.. It's illegal. Doesn't matter why or how it became that why or why things that are much worse than it aren't illegal, it's still illegal.

If you don't like the fact that marijuana is illegal, stop being a lazy ass and do something about it. If you don't like the fact that alcohol is legal when it shouldn't be, do something about it. Don't just whine on forums about it, that gets nothing done.

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How absolutely rude. The topic was meant to engage a discussion and bring information to others. And the fact that you'd assume something so offensive about me is abhorrent.

We don't know that. Court reports show that the father showed signs of lack of coordination and nearly dropped the baby while going down the stairs.

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You've got to be kidding me. Just because the father almost dropped the baby once or that he seemed "uncoordinated", he is unfit to be a parent? Do you realize how many parents have nearly dropped their children before? It's not a sign of neglect or unworthiness, it a sign of being human and being clumsy. Even if he was high, how many parents are drunk and try to handle their kids? This isn't a one-time event by a terrible father who can't take care of his own daughter. It's happened before, I can assure you, and a lot of times it's much, much worse.

It really seems like people are nitpicking at these parents, trying to find SOMETHING That truly justifies having their child taken away. Oh, the mom had seizures; oh no, a medical condition! Take their child away. Oh, the dad sometimes smokes pot when the child sleeps? What a bad father, going out of his way to make sure he does it at night and away from his daughter. Take their child away!

Gay marriage is illegal in many states in the United States, so I guess it's okay for someone in a "civic union" who are trying to get their marriage rights to have their adopted children taken away. About 60 years ago the union between multiracial people was considered illegal, so I guess we should take them away too. And pissing in public can get you on the sex offender list so you shouldn't be allowed to have custody of your kids either, right?

The law is the law but the law isn't always right. The law once said that Black people were 3/5ths of a person in the United States, said it was okay to completely cripple Jews in Germany and to send off people with an opposing opinion to their deaths in Stalinist Russia.

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This. This is so true.

Silais said:

You've got to be kidding me. Just because the father almost dropped the baby once or that he seemed "uncoordinated", he is unfit to be a parent? Do you realize how many parents have nearly dropped their children before? It's not a sign of neglect or unworthiness, it a sign of being human and being clumsy. Even if he was high, how many parents are drunk and try to handle their kids? This isn't a one-time event by a terrible father who can't take care of his own daughter. It's happened before, I can assure you, and a lot of times it's much, much worse.

This. This is so true.

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Well again, it's an article of evidence, that I never claimed to be sufficient evidence in of itself for removing the child, though it does favor the decision to remove the child from the house. Additionally, this is one fact of very few we do know about the court proceedings including family members advocacy for the child to be removed from the household; we cannot simply assume the court did not have other articles of testimony that also bolstered their decisions; this may have been the only article of evidence that alluded to marijuana usage and the affects on childcare. That is why I have not taken a stance on whether or not the child should have been taken out of the home or not - the evidence is insufficient to make a claim. I am simply playing the devil's advocate in that we don't have all or even most of the facts in the case, and we should not simply assume that marijuana use was the main factor in the court's decision. There seems to be a profuse amount of assumptions and definitive assessments of the situation in the thread, including in response to my posts, of which, I never claim to have advocated that the child be taken or left in the home of the biological parents.

Additionally, I expressed that alcohol abuse can inhibit certain functions necessary for proficient childcare. So yes, I would also say that is a major, if not more of a factor in child endangerment if the substance is abused. While, recreational use may in many other cases does not substantially affect the parent's ability to take care of a child.

I urge everyone to please read carefully and be thoughtful not to simply allow a predisposition to your opinion on marijuana, which I have always supported in legalization, affect how we address the this case as well as the flimsy Foster Care System. It's a necessary system that needs reforms. I also agree with a point that I think Corvidae made reference to which is that removing the child should be a last resort. It is expensive to pay for hiring foster parents. Additionally, this would lower not only the costs, shifting resources to current homes, it would also allow for a smaller applicant pool of foster parents. Of which, would allow for higher requirements and selectivity of foster parents. This woman had a incident of child abuse in the past, or at least serious allegations. She should have been removed from the applicant pool. With this, the Foster Care System would allow for more scrutiny, and highlight the excellent foster parents that do exist currently in the program, while eliminating the negative stigma, which is justified, by removing foster parents that are under-qualified or have allegations/incidents of abuse, which is just beyond me that she was still qualified!

This topic isn't about Marijuana. If it was I would be taking a lot of time out of my evening to educate, considering some of you seem oblivious to the dangers. Can we focus on the real topic here? A two year old was killed.

Anyway, this is awful. I'm not familiar with the american adoption system, but surely severe background checks should be done, along with plenty of check-ups after the adoption. It is disgraceful that this happened without them noticing, and I'm not surprised that the original parents are pissed, devastated and filing a lawsuit.


EDIT: At the person who decided to leave a post comment, my knowledge from Marijuana comes from scientific journals, which I had free access to whilst I was a biology student. I am now a science teacher, and give a balanced approach to Marijuana. I'm assuming the person who left a comment thinks that just because I mentioned 'dangers' I forsake all the rest. Plenty of people think that it is a safe drug just because nobody on record has died of an overdose - they forget there are others ways to mess up your life than simply dying.

Actually, it's about both marijuana and the foster care system. Marijuana because the child was taken away from a household that they shouldn't have because the parents toked, and the foster care system's serious flaws, and how the war on drugs has a greater priority than monitoring the foster care system, which caused the child to die. So yeah, the discussion on weed is relevant. Nobody's going around trying to say it's totally safe (although frankly I believe the risks people claim are inflated), and at least I specifically tried to avoid making this an argument about legalization and health benefits and all that crap. It's not about legalization, it's about whether or not that child should have been taken away in the first place.

What's offensive to me is that these two factors were able to coincide to end in this girl's death. Marijuana didn't make the biological parents bad parents from any evidence that's been gathered, and there's nothing to prove that, besides the fact that they were technically breaking the law (and a law that has quite a few challengers), there's no reason why the child should have been taken away. Maybe there's something that isn't being reported here but it's obvious that despite their occasional recreational use that they were otherwise responsible parents, as is evident from their visitation trips.

Again, coming from someone who's done that crap in the past and wouldn't mind doing it again, its not something in of itself that makes parents neglectful, although it can be abused by addictive personalities.

Another personal experience that comes to mind is how I had a friend whose mother was a complete lush and eventually died when I was 17. She lost her license, didn't have a job, had furious bouts of drunken rage and the like, but my friend was never placed in foster care, nor was she transferred to the divorced father after these incidents. The woman got in trouble with the law multiple times because of alcohol but again, apparently under the law this drunken fit was okay to be a mother. So my question is this, if someone gets caught toking but doesn't have a serious enough influence in their life in that the toking is the only crime they commit, why is it that they had their children taken away but not this mess? Again, I believe part of it is because of the "war on drugs", and especially since this happened in such an anti-drug state, it doesn't surprise me that this jurisdiction went through, despite being absolutely asinine.

Going back to the foster care system, it needs some serious revamping. Again, she shouldn't have lost her kids in the first place but there's absolutely NO EXCUSE to why this child should have been given to someone so irresponsible and destructive. Honestly, I don't get why they tried with a second person! With such a mild offence I personally would have, at most, put them on sort of a probationary period. Again, this crap cost the life of a young girl. What ********.

We don't know the full circumstances of the child's removal from their original home. Drugs are mentioned, but that is most likely a small attribute that the media clung to: therefore, marijuana legality/seriousness is not relevant.

People are just assuming it is so they can throw in their rage.

Dyl-icious said:

I don't know, maybe because it's illegal? XD

I'm sorry, regardless of what you're doing no matter how "harmless" it is, if it's illegal to be doing, you don't deserve to have kids living with them.

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That makes absolutely no sense. Are you implying that illegal activity by definition endangers children? That's preposterous. Plenty of things that are illegal do not place children in any harm. Are you really saying people should lose custody if they engage in technically illegal but otherwise harmless activities? So if I jaywalk, or illegally download music, or buy illegal fireworks from Mexico, should my children be taken away, too? That's absurd and very narrow-minded.

Dyl-icious said:

Very misleading thread name if that's the only point you're going to be bringing up here.

Do I know why it's illegal? Nope.
Do I know why alcohol is legal but not marijuana? Nope
One thing I do know though.. It's illegal. Doesn't matter why or how it became that why or why things that are much worse than it aren't illegal, it's still illegal.

If you don't like the fact that marijuana is illegal, stop being a lazy ass and do something about it. If you don't like the fact that alcohol is legal when it shouldn't be, do something about it. Don't just whine on forums about it, that gets nothing done.

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1. "Doesn't matter why or how it became that why [sic]"
Why not? Are you saying that it's perfectly fine to have absurd laws that protect no one and harm people who have committed no wrong? "It's illegal, that's all that matters." What nonsense.
2. "If you don't like the fact that marijuana is illegal, stop being a lazy ass and do something about it. [...] Don't just whine on forums about it, that gets [sic] nothing done."
First, I don't need to be actively working toward solving a problem to be right about the fact that there is one. Second, "whining on forums about it" raises awareness of the problem and can serve to persuade those who support the status quo. Those people will eventually talk about it with others, and those others with others, and so on. And eventually, some of the people who learn of it might be in a position to effect real and permanent change.

O07_eleven said:

Marijuana is an illegal drug. It is illegal because it negatively affects mental faculties, state of mind and physical co-ordination. Whether alcohol should also be illegal because it also has some of those effects is of little concern to me, I don't drink heavily or take drugs, if someone engages in this behaviour it is my opinion that they are either uneducated about the health risks of marijuana or choose to completely ignore them because of the positive emotions they found they had whilst taking the drug overrides medical facts.

Off the top of my head from P.E class, marijuana has many negative effects, it can trigger psychotic disorders like schizophrenia in people genetically pre-disposed to having such an illness, many studies are also looking into the long term effects of marijuana, it lowers cognitive functions and causes some form of memory loss. Don't think that a certain drug is harmless because you had a good time. Marijuana can completely ruin another persons life. I could pull up dozens of medical and government health resources to show the harmful effects of Marijuana BUT!...

That is not the primary issue here. The issue is that the foster care system failed to properly screen this Sherill Small woman who inflicted a horrendous and tragic fate on an innocent 2 year old girl. Now from that small excerpt you and quotes from Feneking I agree with the decision that the biological parents were not fit to care for that child, due to marijuana use and other factors. The issue is for me now is how was the foster woman selected to care for a child and how did this occur when she supposedly went though training? Does the government need to impose stricter regulations or restructure the foster care system altogether?

Marijuana usage is only a small part of what the article appears to be about, if you want to make a thread about whether it's acceptable or not to smoke marijuana in certain circumstances or its legalization then you should do that.

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You can't just make an argument and then say we can't respond to you about it because it's only partially topical. That's hardly fair.

If something negatively impacts cognitive function, so what? I can understand banning it while, say, driving. But banning personal consumption at home? That's nanny-state behavior. Am I no longer allowed to eat unhealthy foods because those negatively impact cognitive function, too? Perhaps getting less than 7 hours of sleep should be a misdemeanor, since that severely impacts mental function.

Dyl-icious said:

I don't know, maybe because it's illegal? XD

I'm sorry, regardless of what you're doing no matter how "harmless" it is, if it's illegal to be doing, you don't deserve to have kids living with them.

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That makes very little sense. When deciding if the kid should be taken away, they should consider, oh I don't know, how good of a parent they are. I really don't think pot smoking, in this case pot smoking that was probably just occasional, affects how you as a parent take care of your child.

Honestly, though, there are two problems here.
1. Taking away a child because of pot.
2. The fact that a child was given to someone who let her die.

I'm not sure if much more needs to be said beyond that.