Small Details that are interesting in the Cooper Harris case, #1

[amymarie]

Back in the late 1980s and early 90s I was a TA in a Head Start Day Care. It wasn't like regular Head Start in that the children were there for working parents and court ordered day care and it was an all day program. Maybe because it was a federally funded program, but the rules were quite stringent. If a parent didn't call in when their child was absent, we HAD to call them.

A lot of preK programs and Head Start are federally or state funded. How much they get is often determined by how many children are there. Because of that, they probably take the extra effort to call the parent. I know that when my daughter was in state funded preK, she would get kicked out if she had more than five absences.

In regular daycare though, you have to pay (in advance) whether you are that a lot. I always called when my kids weren't going to be there but I don't think that was the norm. Parents were no call no shows on a regular basis. And I could see parents getting mad at the daycare for "checking up on them". Just my opinion. But I can see why a large daycare would not call every time a kid is out. They are busy taking care of the kids who are there.

 

[Chewy]

I don't post much. But this case has me.

This morning I was reading the Cooper thread, and my 4 year old said he was going outside to get his toys. I read for about a minute and jumped out of the bed freaked out. I knew my dad who is staying with us was outside on the deck so I wasn't concerned, but then it dawned on me his toys were in the van
(we went to a cookout last night and packed up a bunch to take with him). I ran down downstairs and my dad was sitting was sitting on the deck. I said, in panic mode where is Kyson?? And he said in the van getting his toys. When I went to the van the doors were locked and windows up with him in it. My heart stopped beating. Thankfully, he knows how to unlock it and was only in for a minute. And thank God my dad was outside and would have checked on him in matter of a minute had I not come outside. Btw- you can see the van from where he was sitting.

It's crazy to me that this happened as I was literally reading this thread. It makes you pay a little extra attention to your little ones.

I have been playing and loving on him all day. Even though I just wanted to lie in the sun and relax. I chose to suck it up and fight pretend dinosaurs and snakes that were attacking us!!!

These people are a disgrace to parents. And as parents we are not perfect.... See above.

Wow this made a thought come to my mind. Cooper was getting old enough to be able to get out of the seat and unlock the doors. He could have squirmed out of the car seat and unlocked the door and gotten out. This is why they changed the seat straps.

 

[yorick]

Not sure where to post this or if it has been addressed: Why did a bystander perform CPR if poor Cooper was so far gone that there was a smell and rigor mortis?

 

[CherCher]

Not sure where to post this or if it has been addressed: Why did a bystander perform CPR if poor Cooper was so far gone that there was a smell and rigor mortis?

I think that many people (especially non professionals trained in CPR) will try anyway.

 

[momrids6]

Not sure where to post this or if it has been addressed: Why did a bystander perform CPR if poor Cooper was so far gone that there was a smell and rigor mortis?

because the bystander thought trying was better than letting Cooper lay on hot pavement while he made phone calls to everyone but 911.

 

[oh_gal]

Apparently (I read it here, somewhere) Mom was planning a Mickey Mouse 2nd birthday party for Cooper -- someone "found" it on Pinterest. What do you all make of this? Is it a clever cover, or does it point to Cooper's death being an accident, caused by negligence, and dad's obsession with sexting?

 

[tlcya]

Not sure where to post this or if it has been addressed: Why did a bystander perform CPR if poor Cooper was so far gone that there was a smell and rigor mortis?

Because when RH pulled into the lot and jumped out of his vehicle he told bystanders his child had been choking.

Eyewitness Edward Cockerham, 49, told MailOnline: 'I was interviewed by the police last night and I told them I thought the guy was acting, he was really over-reacting to the situation.


'I know he had lost his baby but he was acting up more than he should have been. It seemed like acting to me. When he pulled in and people started asking him what had happened, he said that the baby had just started choking.


'But the baby didn't look like it had been choking, it looked like it had been sweating, like it had been in a swimming pool, his hair was all wet.

'I think the dad knew all along that his baby was dead because he'd been left in the car, I think he was looking round for a place where there was people so he could make it look like the baby had choked and it wasn't his fault.’

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...t-car-toddler-son-died-way.html#ixzz36hhT7I8z
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

IMO those bystanders were attempting to render aid based on the info provided by RH. They figured out pretty quickly that something was fishy with that story.

ETA hope this isn't power posting, just provided this same snip for daisy7 in another thread because she asked for the link.

 

[tlcya]

Apparently (I read it here, somewhere) Mom was planning a Mickey Mouse 2nd birthday party for Cooper -- someone "found" it on Pinterest. What do you all make of this? Is it a clever cover, or does it point to Cooper's death being an accident, caused by negligence, and dad's obsession with sexting?

Or does it point to just RH planning a child free life? Still :fence: on LH

 

[yorick]

Apparently (I read it here, somewhere) Mom was planning a Mickey Mouse 2nd birthday party for Cooper -- someone "found" it on Pinterest. What do you all make of this? Is it a clever cover, or does it point to Cooper's death being an accident, caused by negligence, and dad's obsession with sexting?

I don't use Pinterest nor do I understand it completely, so take this with a grain of salt (and correct me if I'm wrong).

I believe Pinterest has a social media aspect where others can see what you pin. I believe, like all forms of social media, that many things are done for attention on there. Like, "Look at this cute thing I pinned for my son, I'm a great mom." I don't think she even had to be fully committed to planning a party as long as she looked like she was doing mommy things on there.

Maybe the attention need isn't there as much as something like Facebook, but I'm sure some of it still goes on. People judging each other on how cool, crafty, and cute their ideas are. People just being bored and browsing and pinning.

I think, if anything, that pinning the idea (or planning the party) would just indicate that her mind may not have been fully made up regarding the death of her son, if she's in on it.

It could be some odd fantasy she shared with her husband to get rid of him without ever expecting him to go through with it. Perhaps some crazy fantasy they had like those girls that killed over slenderman, until one of them goes full psycho and takes things to the next level.

In my mind I could see her saying, "If you do plan on doing it, don't tell me when you do it because I don't want to know."

Everything is just my opinion so please don't take offense to anything.

 

[stmarysmead]

The planning for the birthday party...IF Leanne was part of this murder...may just mean that the date to kill the child was fluid. Until they made a decision to "do it tomorrow"....of course, they would carry on just as usual. The grandparents, the church community would expect it and they could do no less.

And remember, this murder was weather-dependent. They couldn't just say.."a week before and we won't have to plan a birthday party. " Because there could be a long chilly rainy spell.

So as they waited, they would do everything that would be expected of the Happy Family. Till...the hottest day of the month arrived.

 

[blue22]

Not sure where to post this or if it has been addressed: Why did a bystander perform CPR if poor Cooper was so far gone that there was a smell and rigor mortis?

It's a boy, a tiny boy. I don't think you are rationally thinking about rigor or anything in a split second of a boy on the ground.

I think anyone would do SOMETHING, for a tiny boy on the pavement. Its a guttural reaction to help a child, even if it's not helping. The stranger clearly cared about Cooper more than his "dad."

 

[blue22]

Apparently (I read it here, somewhere) Mom was planning a Mickey Mouse 2nd birthday party for Cooper -- someone "found" it on Pinterest. What do you all make of this? Is it a clever cover, or does it point to Cooper's death being an accident, caused by negligence, and dad's obsession with sexting?

If you want your son dead, you certainly can't live your life like you want him dead. You have to be the loving mom.

And...she legitimately could have been planning this party, before this became serious.

 

[ashleyd8402]

He went to lunch with his friends and then they stopped together somewhere to buy light bulbs, right? He worked at Home Depot. Why wouldn't he just buy light bulbs there? He probably gets a discount at Home Depot. They certain have any and all kinds of light bulbs.

I totally agree that he planned to discover Cooper when he had his friends drop him off at his car with the light bulbs. Something stopped him - he lost the courage, or his friends pulled away too fast, or maybe (unlikely) Cooper wasn't completely dead yet.

 

[Karmady]

A lot of preK programs and Head Start are federally or state funded. How much they get is often determined by how many children are there. Because of that, they probably take the extra effort to call the parent. I know that when my daughter was in state funded preK, she would get kicked out if she had more than five absences.

In regular daycare though, you have to pay (in advance) whether you are that a lot. I always called when my kids weren't going to be there but I don't think that was the norm. Parents were no call no shows on a regular basis. And I could see parents getting mad at the daycare for "checking up on them". Just my opinion. But I can see why a large daycare would not call every time a kid is out. They are busy taking care of the kids who are there.

Exactly. One of my pet peeves is the thought that public schools call home due to concern for the safety of the children. They like to have you think that, but it's all about the money.

 

[tlcya]

RH worked at a corporate satellite office with their web design. No product there. But there was a HD store right across street from where he took lunch at Publix.

My thoughts on the impromptu light bulb errand are all over these threads so I won't bore you folks with them again.

 

[sorrell skye]

I'm rewatching the probable cause hearing videos, and one thing that stood out to me is that RH works in a different building than his two buddies that he went to lunch with on the 18th.

This stood out to me, because rather than meeting them at Publix for lunch, RH had AH pick him up & drop him off.

Although the corporate building isn't that far away from the Treehouse building, it seems to me that it would have saved time to meet up at Publix rather than carpooling, especially with all the lunch-time errands they went on after they ate.

To me, this is another example of RH knowing his baby was in the car. IMO, he didn't want to drive his own car to lunch with baby Cooper dead in the back seat, so he asked AH to pick him up, even though they worked in different buildings.

 

[flourish]

Back in the late 1980s and early 90s I was a TA in a Head Start Day Care. It wasn't like regular Head Start in that the children were there for working parents and court ordered day care and it was an all day program. Maybe because it was a federally funded program, but the rules were quite stringent. If a parent didn't call in when their child was absent, we HAD to call them.

That's who I work for-Head Start. Up until this year, my local Head Start, both full and part-day programs, didn't specify that teachers were to call every day for every absent child. They did add that to the policy this past year, but it still didn't happen consistently. It's a fine policy in theory, but we found that in practice there were only a few teachers who managed to get it done every single day.

In any case, it will be interesting to find out what went down here.

 

[human]

I teach preschool, it's not always very consistent that we call for absences. Schools can't take on the liability that could come from a...like, universal expectation that they call within an early enough time-frame to prevent any forgotten children from baking in their parent's car. That sounded super snarky and I'm not meaning to be...I just mean schools have a lot going on, and if we add to that the expectation that they call every single time, then some future Ross Harris is gonna sue the school because if they'd have called earlier he would have remembered the baby he left in the car...idk maybe I'm just feeling extra cynical after reading about this guy all day...and I should probably just go to sleep now...but I'm not gonna!

We always called. It was in our Federal rules. But, we had a computer system where we entered the data.

I imagine a program could be made that automatically took the absences entered and the program would contact the parent by email or cell depending on preference.

When I worked,we called. If no one answered, a message was left. If a disconnected number, we called emergency contacts listed by the parent to see what the situation was.

We documented our attempts because at some point,we had to.give up trying.

We needed to know about attendance because there was a waiting list and if parents were not coming, we wanted to fill the spot with someone who needed it.

There were other issues such as illness, legal, whatever. The parent may or may not discuss.those.

The situation we had was with parents who were very transient, however

 

[human]

A lot of preK programs and Head Start are federally or state funded. How much they get is often determined by how many children are there. Because of that, they probably take the extra effort to call the parent. I know that when my daughter was in state funded preK, she would get kicked out if she had more than five absences.

In regular daycare though, you have to pay (in advance) whether you are that a lot. I always called when my kids weren't going to be there but I don't think that was the norm. Parents were no call no shows on a regular basis. And I could see parents getting mad at the daycare for "checking up on them". Just my opinion. But I can see why a large daycare would not call every time a kid is out. They are busy taking care of the kids who are there.

For Head Start, it is because it is not fully funded. In order to meet Federal guidelines, you have to maintain a waiting list. That is so families can be served in order,not willy nilly.

People below the poverty level,as Head Start demands except for.special.needs, are often highly mobile.

We called to make sure they were still coming or if there were issues that needed assistance.

The space was needed for other families if there was an opening.

 

[human]

Why he took Cooper to Chicken-Fil-A that morning...that puzzles me? That point blew a big hole in his defense due to the very short amount of time it took to drive from there to his workplace. Had he not gone there, it may have been easier to believe he forgot the child was in the back seat. So if he planned this horrible thing, why the stop for breakfast?

Regarding that text he made to his wife about 'picking up his buddy'. As I recall from the hearing, LE and prosecutors were not able to confirm that text was made. It was the defense attorney that made that statement.

Regarding throwing lightbulbs in the car...I have done that and front the driver's side. Lightbulbs are packaged in such a way you can toss them on cushioned seats and not worry about them breaking.

Leanna's blase' comment "Ross must have left him in the car" (said that twice to day care workers)... boggles my mind why she said this.

Not to dis you, but I think she had more important things on her mind.

She was actually thinking of the vanity lightbulbs.