Baby's gone blue

This story disgusts me. Kids having kids is such a stupid epidemic -- it's also an issue of environment and sex education. Of COURSE a 15 year old would rather party than being stuck at home watching their kid. That's why you DON'T HAVE KIDS TIL YOU'RE OLDER. I've got news for her: She's not going to be able to go to parties while she's in jail for drowning her baby, either. She should be sterilized as part of her sentencing, or at least put on court-enforced birth control like depo-provera shots or something.

And who the frak scratched/kicks/punches/spits on a police officer?!? Again, environment and education. You gots to be nice to the po-leece, or they won't let you go par-tay.

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www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-baby-drown-web-apr24,0,4262329.story

South Side mom drowned daughter so she could 'go to parties,' prosecutor says

Teen didn't want to be a mother, officials say

By Robert Mitchum and Dan P. Blake

Tribune reporters

2:39 PM CDT, April 23, 2008

A South Side teenage mother who authorities said no longer wanted a baby because she couldn't go to parties was held on $600,000 bond Wednesday on charges that she drowned her 5-month-old daughter in a bathtub earlier this month.

Rozlynn Rodgers, 19, was charged Tuesday with first-degree murder in the April 4 death of her daughter, Makalah, at their home in the 7800 block of South Ingleside Avenue. She later told authorities that she drowned the child because she no longer wanted to be a mother, officials said.

Rodgers told police "she didn't want to be a mom anymore because she couldn't go to parties if she had to take care of the baby," Assistant State's Atty. Mary Anna Planey said Wednesday during a bond hearing before Judge Laura Sullivan.

Planey said that Rodgers placed the baby in a full bathtub on the afternoon of April 4. When the child slid under the water, Rodgers sat and watched for several minutes, Planey said. Another person in the house called 911 after Rodgers removed Makalah from the bathtub.

The baby later was pronounced dead of cardiac arrest, and the medical examiner reported that her lungs were saturated with water, Planey said. Though the original autopsy by the Cook County medical examiner's office was inconclusive, the manner of death was later changed to homicide, police spokeswoman Laura Kubiak said Wednesday.

Rodgers also was charged with aggravated battery to a police officer after she attacked a police officer during her arrest, Kubiak said. While in custody Tuesday, Rodgers became disruptive and knocked over a table in an interview room, Planey said. Later, Rodgers scratched, punched, kicked and spat in the face of a detective, Planey said.

A public defender said Rodgers was a full-time student at Las Casas Occupational High School and planned to graduate in June. Her next court appearance will be on May 12.

The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services launched an investigation into allegations of death by neglect the day Makalah died, spokesman Kendall Marlowe said. He said the agency had no prior contact with the family and that there were no other children in the home.