Making Not Reporting Your Child Missing a Felony

With all the attention that has been focused on the Casey Anthony trial lately, I decided to write about a new bill being considered that would make it a felony if you did not report your child missing within 24 hours.  The following is a website that discusses the cause: http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2011/07/13/not-reporting-missing-child-would-be-felony-under-bill.html

The basis of the bill is centered around the Casey Anthony trial.  Even though the consensus seems to be that America was convinced that Casey Anthony was going to be convicted of murdering her little girl, Caylee Anthony. With the jury handing down a not-guilty verdict on all of the main charges, the country is outraged. Protests have been seen all over the place as well as vigils and support walks being organized in support of Caylee Anthony, the three year old little girl that was found murdered around the corner from her grandparents’ house. One of the shocking points was that the little girl was missing for 31 days before the police was notified.  Shockingly, her mother was still not the one to report her missing. Her grandmother called the police. Casey Anthony began giving false statements to police about the whereabouts of her daughter.  Interestingly, this is what she was convicted of: four counts of providing false information to police.

The outcries for Caylee have been phenomenal. America wants justice for Caylee Anthony.  One of the avenues that have been chosen for this justice is a bill that would make it a felony for parents not to report their child missing within 24 hours.  I think that a lot of people did not realize not reporting a child missing was not such a serious crime. Now, they have been slapped in the face with it and as I said they want justice for this poor little girl, Caylee Anthony.

Personally, I could never imagine not reporting my child missing immediately after I realized that something was wrong and my child was missing. I would much rather be safe than sorry especially when it comes to my children.  The idea that someone could have a child that was missing and the parent did not report the child missing is unreal for “normal” people.  The fact that the child could be missing for over 30 days is completely senseless for most people. I know I could not even phantom a reason for not reporting my missing child. Fortunately, I have never been placed in a situation where I would have any reason to know that the non-reporting is anything less than a serious charge.  It has certainly opened my eyes to what someone can possibly get away with in our great country.  A defenseless child has been murdered and the idea that it could have been prevented by a report made to the police at an earlier time is devastating.  I think that those that fail to report a child missing should most certainly be charged with a felony and should receive jail time and/or a very strict fine.  Children are our responsibility and we have to take that responsibility seriously.  We must create an avenue for justice for Caylee as well as all of the children that have or will ever suffer if this is not done.

Team Project Issues/Progress Report

Our group is proposing to create a brochure/handout that will help students prepare an adequate cover letter and resume that will assist in acquiring the position that they have been working towards for so many years or to take the next step in the education process. We will outline some ideas of how to make your resume positively noticeable and include a few “what not to dos.”

After getting to know of the team members included in our group, we have such a diverse group that we concluded that a handout/brochure would be the most beneficial from our group. This will allow each of us to pull from his or her knowledge base and be an active part of the team without any of us having to research information for a major that we are not involved in. Every career field will use a cover letter and resume.

Our group project is moving along nicely. We are on schedule and haven't had to readdress our timeline to make sure that we got our work done. We have met on skype and conversed via email in order to make sure that each member knew what he or she was supposed to do and also to help if someone was having a problem with a particular issue.  We have drafted our proposal utilizing googledocs.  This has been a lifesaver in that we didn't have to circulate one email and have different sections put into the document, we each have access to the document on googledocs and can review our work or the work of our team members. As of earlier today, our proposal has been submitted.  The next step is to divide up the sections and begin to actually create our document.  Following the timeline created in our proposal will allow each of us enough time to create our portion yet still allow enough time for each of us to review the other members section and discuss any concerns or ideas that we have.

Overall we are on course and I do not foresee any problems with the timeline we created. We have an exceptional team and by working together will be able to produce an outstanding final project. We have taken the diversity of each of team members and included them all to reflect a part of each of us within the project we are working on. Our final project will be of great benefit to future students and be one that I believe will be referenced often.

As far as recommendations, I am not sure that I have any. We have all communicated effectively and worked together as a team.  When working with others communication is essential to make sure that each of you know what the other is doing.  When working with others virtually over the internet, it makes things that much more difficult; however, I think we have created a system that will allow us to proceed smoothly and effectively.

I look forward to continuing to work with a GREAT team.