According to the statement by Boulder County Sheriff’s Commander Heidi Prentup, the mother fell sick on March 2 after taking a breakfast smoothie that her pre-teen daughter spiked with bleach.
“Mom noticed an odor of bleach in the drink and thought her daughter had cleaned the glass prior to making the beverage and did not rinse all the bleach out,” the statement by the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office explained.
The mother, who was not named, fell ill after she took the drink and was treated at the the Boulder Community Hospital. But after she returned from hospital, she noticed the smell of bleach in the water carafe she kept by her bed in her room and became suspicious. She had written off the first incident as an accident but now she confronted her daughter.
The girl, who has not been identified, admitted to her mother that she poured bleach into her water carafe as revenge for taking away her iPhone, according to the statement by the sheriff’s office.
The police statement said, “This is when she learned her daughter had developed the plan to kill her for taking away her iPhone.”
The mother immediately contacted police.
According to ABC News, the 12-year-old girl was detained on Friday at the Boulder County Juvenile Center on two counts of attempted first-degree murder.
Sgt. Bill Crist of the Sheriff’s office said, “She had pre-planned this a couple different times.”
Police said that investigation is ongoing and that the District Attorney’ office is reviewing charges against the girl.
Online readers have been struggling to understand why the pre-teen attempted to kill her mother. While some said she was too young to understand fully the potential deadly consequences of her actions, others thought that her actions were evidence of underlying sociopathy.
A reader on ABC News commented, “It’s highly likely that if it wasn’t the iPhone it would have been something else. It’s far more probably that this girl is some sort of sociopath.”
But a second reader disagreed, saying that the girl, being very young, was probably so addicted to her iPhone toy that when it was taken from her she lost control of her actions: “My bet is on the iphone addiction, being like a drug. And we know that kids — as well as adults — react in bizarre ways when drugs are taken away.”
Many readers on the Daily Mail agreed with the “addiction” theory, saying that the girl was so hooked on her phone that she was unable to control her reactions when her mother took away her phone. A reader commented, “Even the mildest mannered teen (or preteen) will go temporarily insane when their mobile device is taken away. In my opinion their brains are being re-wired.”
Another reader said, “It is terrible how these devices have taken over people’s lives. A study showed that people look at their phones the same way they look at loved ones and go through withdrawal if they are removed. Ridiculous.”
A reader sparked a debate on MSN News by suggesting that the girl’s behavior was evidence that young children need spanking: “Spare the rod and spoil the child, – these kids are nothing short of brats, and TV plays a part of screening repeated ways to be horrible via programs sensationalizing these acts.”
But many readers disagreed and expressed the view that spanking only complicates issues.
A reader commented, “Beating your children is unhealthy, sadistic and barbaric. It’s only used by those to ignorant or lazy to parent properly. I’ve managed to raise two children without beating them. Any parent that beats a child should have the same done to them 10x over. I can’t believe that this is even still an issue in the 21st century.”
However, a few readers pointed out that the information in the media about what led to the girl’s behavior is too scanty to make a balanced and accurate assessment of the girl’s behavior. The reports give no background information about the past relationship between the girl and her mother.
Had the mother been abusing the girl? Was there a long history of conflicts between the girl and the mother preceding the action?
What does the reader think?
