A Sad Rush to Judgment

[UPDATE, added August 26, 2007: Something I meant to include in this post originally was a mention of my initial reaction to this tragedy, which was a rush to judgment. But as I read and heard more details, I felt very wrong about that. A good lesson for me in this is to always get my facts straight before forming an opinion.]

In conversations I've had by email, telephone, and face-to-face today, people have described Brenda Nesselroad-Slaby as a great person. A competent, caring educator. An accomplished musician who played piano at her church. A loving mother.

While I've never met Nesselroad-Slaby, those who've told me these things about her are all people for whom I have the deepest respect.

Nonetheless, the assistant principal of Glen Este Middle School here in our community, Nesselroad-Slaby has been villified over the past few days on local message boards, radio call-in shows, and at the proverbial workplace water coolers.

On Thursday, Cecilia Slaby, her two year old daughter, died in the Glen Este parking lot. It happened as she sat, strapped into her car seat in her mother's car. Cecilia may have been there for eight hours, as her mother did her job. With temperatures rising to 100-degrees here in the Cincinnati area that day, it's no wonder that Cecilia died. It's a horrible tragedy!

In fact, "accident" is exactly how our Clermont County prosecutor, Don White, a man who is tough on crime, has described the tragedy. He has indicated that while some charge may be filed, he has little thought that either parent intentionally caused the death of their child. Both Nesselroad-Slaby and her husband have been cooperative with authorities and teachers and school administrators on the scene when Cecilia was found describe a mother who was clearly distraught, hysterical with grief.

Over the past few days, local media reports have taught our community that about thirty such deaths occur in the US every year. Often, they happen in the households of busy two-income families where a sleeping child may be in the car seat of a parent who thinks it's not their "day" to take the little one to child care. Prelimimary indications are that that's what happened with Cecilia.

But some in our community are skeptical, others downright hostile, certain that Cecilia was murdered.

I suppose that, to some extent, the suspicions are understandable. Less than a half-mile from the Glen Este parking lot where Cecilia died, foster child Marcus Feisel lost his life.* Marcus, readers of this blog will remember, was wrapped in duct tape and thrown into a closet by his foster parents and their live-in lover. While the three spent several days in Kentucky at a family reunion, Marcus died. Two of the conspirators took his body and incinerated it, while a third told police and the media that the child had gone missing in a local park. Hundreds of community volunteers joined law enforcement officials in searching for Marcus. When the story of what really happened came out, all of us in the community wanted justice to be served. We also developed an acute sensitivity to the vulnerability of children.

With the memory of Marcus so fresh, particularly for those of us who live in the West Clermont Local School District where these events have happened, some skepticism about the circumstances of Cecilia Slaby's death was bound to surface.

But others refuse to even entertain the idea she was the victim of a terrible accident. "I think the parents did it on purpose," one co-worker told a friend of mine on Friday. I'm told that the West Clermont board offices were flooded with telephone calls from people who have already charged, convicted, and hanged Cecilia's parents.

I suspect that some of these reactions stem from something other than a desire to protect children. Among some people, guilty-until-proven-innocent seems to be the prevailing attitude. Their hearts are cold with sin.

I believe that a relationship with Jesus Christ, based on grace and not legalism, changes the way we think about our lives and the world. Our sin inclines us to violate God's command to not bear false witness which, as explained in Martin Luther's Small Catechism calls us also to "put the most charitable construction" on the actions of our neighbors. Jesus Christ, Who died for sinners--that's the whole human race--helps us to be more charitable and less judgmental.

I highly doubt that Cecilia Slaby was the victim of murder. If her parents had wanted to take the little one's life, they could have hatched a more resourceful plot, one that would draw attention away from themselves. Simply leaving Cecilia in her mother's parked car at her place of work is an unlikely way for two intelligent people wanting to get away with murder to go about it.

It looks like an accident to me and that those who are crucifying Cecilia's parents are not just jumping to conclusions, but assassinating their characters. Cecilia's death makes me sad. So does the rush to judgment some are making.

*Marcus Feisel died five-hundred yards from where I live. Our two children attended Glen Este Middle School, but years before Nesselroad-Slaby began working there.