The Unnecessary Death of Jessica Hathawaye

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The Unnecessary Death of Jessica Hathawaye

When will the day come when parents realize children are not possessions to be manipulated!? Children are people, too, and need guidance - don't we all? - but is it necessary to force our beliefs and practices upon them, demanding they emulate only the lifestyle we lead? It sickens me to see the tragic waste of human life, specifically the lives of children. Going one step further, it sickens me to see parents who lack the common sense that God gave a dog! One can't drive an automobile without passing a test, but any idiot can have a child. It wasn't bad weather that killed Jessica Hathaway. It was the effects of her mother's non-conformist lifestyle and preaching.

Imagine a small seven year old girl, living in a quiet town on the coast of northern California. One would envision the child playing with dolls, serving tea from her Barbie play-time tea set to her mom or dad, maybe even showing off her schoolwork from the day's lessons in grammar school. A very believable childhood scenario. Not for Jessica Hathaway. Jessica wasn't allowed to play with dolls or teddy bears. Jessica Hathaway wasn't allowed to go to grammar school with the other children. Jessica wasn't even allowed to read children's books.

Introducing New Age mother and self-acclaimed spiritual healer, Lisa Hathaway, Jessica's mother. Lisa has her own ideas about how to raise her children, as do we all, but Lisa's ideas ride the fence between extreme New Age philosophy and 60s idealism. Lisa encouraged Jessica to follow her bliss, though it seems obvious the real encouragement was to follow her mother's bliss. A seven year old child finds bliss in a chocolate candy bar, or in playing house with friends, but certainly not in reading technical material from an equestrian magazine or flying a plane across the country.

Jessica Hathaway never watched television; there wasn't one in her house and she wasn't allowed to watch anyone else's. Truthfully, we all could use a little less television. Jessica didn't go to school, Lisa felt the children should forge their own way in life. Real life the best tutor, experience the best preparation. That could apply to an eighteen year old, but a seven year old? Lisa failed to file a home-schooling plan with local authorities, another display of her anti-conformist attitude. School is an unfit place for my children, Lisa has said.

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