by Isabella Cerveira
An incident concerning child endangerment happened on March 01, 2023, in the afternoon at the Cuyahoga Community College Eastern Campus, 4250 Richmond Rd, Highland Hills, OH 44122. The case has sparked the attention of campus security and the safety of the students and community on campus life.
According to the authorities, on March 01, 2023, a police officer was approached by a student who informed them that they had seen a small child alone inside a vehicle with the windows rolled up. The officer went to the parking lot to investigate the case when they checked the plate of the car and confirmed that in the rear side of the vehicle was a toddler buckled up in the car seat alone.
In the police report, the officer noticed the small child’s eyes were closed, yet he could not define whether the toddler was sleeping or unctuous. Consequently, he contacted the Central Dispatch of the Highland Hills Fire Department to check the health situation of the small child; while waiting for the fire department, the office succeeded in opening a small amount front window using a big, easy tool, then proceeded to open the window and then the door to reached out the small child and checked the toddler’s vitals, which gladly had a strong pulse.
As soon as the paramedics were taking the toddler out of the vehicle to head to the Highland Hills Medics to proceed with more examinations, the mother, followed by a second and older child, approached the car; she started to be away from the vehicle for about five minutes which the officer refuted based on the time he was investigating the incident. The officer escorted the Highland Hills medic crew and child, and once the stated result indicated the small child was well, the mother reunited with her toddler.
The police interviewed the mother for the misdemeanor of child endearment based on negligence. According to Ohio law, when someone puts a child in a dangerous situation or will is charged with a first-degree misdemeanor and faces a jail sentence of up to 180 days and a fine of as much as $1,000, negligence means that the person surrenders to take actions to regard the child’s safety. Because of the incident, Cuyahoga Community gave the mother a citation for Endangering, and the court date happened on March 07, 2023. In addition to the interview investigation, the police contacted Children and Family Services, yet the service declined to come to the scene because the child was found to be healthy.
According to the officer, in those cases, the Children and Family Services maintain contact with the family to follow up on the toddler’s safety. The identity of the mother and the small child was preserved in alignment with the toddler’s safety and by the guidelines regarding the identification of minors in the media since it is also related to a sensitive family case. The picture and information contained in this article were released under current public records laws.
