Where in the World is Jessica Tata?

Photo: Michael Paulsen (Houston Chronicle)

Stuck in her own reality that she is responsible for the deaths of 4 children, Jessica Tata has reportedly fled to Nigeria.  Last week, Tata felt that it was okay for her to leave 7 children (all under 3 years old) unattended at the day care that she runs out of a home in Houston while she went shopping at Target.  When she returned to the house, the structure was engulfed in flames.  As she stood and watched from the front yard, neighbors came to try to help the trapped children.  Of the seven children, three of them died that day, and one later died in a hospital due to injuries suffered from the fire. 

I have so many thoughts about this, and everytime I talked about it, I try to remain calm and remind myself that maybe everyone else doesn't feel as passionately about this as I do.  My biggest concern is what she is being charged with.  Granted, the charges could change (I assume) as more facts come out about what really happened that day.  As of this morning when she hopped on a flight to Nigeria, she is being charged with reckless injury to a child, with a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. 

In high school, I remember watching a program in our auditorium where we had to criminals come in their prison outfits to talk to us about the dangers of falling in with the wrong crowd.  One of these two gentlemen told us his story about why he was in prison.  Ends up, he was in a car accident that killed a mother and a baby after he had been drinking one night and decided to drive himself home.  His prison sentence:  Life in prison for 2 counts of manslaughter. 

So, looking at the two situations here, both are obviously VERY tragic events that could've been avoided had the two people responsible had been just that,  "Responsible".  In my opinion, if the "criminal" who came and talked to us in high school was found guilty of two counts of manslaughter for accidentaly taking two lives, how is it that this coward isn't being charged with four counts of murder/manslaughter, and three other counts of reckless injury to a child?  Add that potential prison time up for a second.  On second thought. . .why bother?  Lock her up, throw away the key.

Maybe I am a bit passionate about this because Blythe and I also have decided to drop Carter off every morning at a day care that is run out of a woman's house, and we very well could have been the one's to get one of these horrific phone calls that these four sets of parents had to receive.  I can not even imagine what they have to be feeling right now.  But, whether we may disagree with what her prison sentence should be or not, how is it that she was able to get out of the country?!?!?!

We have this "No Fly List" out there somewhere, and regardless of all the crazy things I've heard about the list, you would think that the name of someone who had possibly just murdered three children would've made its way onto that list within 72 hours after the fact. 

Now, I'm certainly not trying to be "Debbie Downer" here as I talk about this, but I've been too angry about this since I heard about the fire last week.  When I woke up this morning to hear that she had fled the country, I  lost all hope of trying to focus on anything today other than the things I've just written.  Hopefully, now that these thoughts are out, I'll be able to move on to thinking about more positive things.  For now, I hope you will join me in letting your thoughts and prayers be with the parents of these children.

Peace Out,
Luke

I got all my information for this post from the Channel 13 News this morning, and Chron.com this afternoon.