The woman RUNS A PRESCHOOL and turns her back and walks away from a preschooler who is insisting on entering a gorilla enclosure???
She didn’t walk away. Honestly, she likely didn’t think it was possible for him to get to the water. I wouldn’t have.
I think it’s so odd how there are so many perfect parents who never take their eyes off of their young children, ever. I’ll be honest.
-Once my toddler and I were chatting with a neighbor. My child was playing next to me and then a few seconds later I realized she wasn’t there. I turned just in time to see a car stop in the street to avoid hitting her.
- once when that same child was 4, she was dangling her feet on the edge of a pool at a family party (we had forgotten swimsuits) while sitting next to dad. He took his eyes off her for a second and she slipped into the water, luckily only getting a mouthful of water and a scare.
- once at a family get together my other child, as a toddler, wandered a few steps away and tumbled down an entire set of stairs landing on the concrete floor at the bottom. How she tucked and rolled and managed to not even get a bruise is a mystery. There were 4 adults in the room when it happened.
We all screw up sometimes. Most of us are lucky and there are no serious consequences. None of us have any way of knowing whether this one incident is an example of how these parents regularly watch their children, or if it was an exception.
She’s an administrator at a pre-school. Not quite the same thing.
I totally agree with you, @mom2twogirls. I’m amazed (although I shouldn’t be, I suppose) at all of the vitriol being let loose upon this mother. Have none of those who are criticizing her ever lost track of a child? Ever? I surely have. I lost mine at a big department store, when my 4-year old daughter thought it would be fun to hide from me inside one of those round clothing racks. She was with me one second, gone the next. It was terrifying. I think each of us has had one of those moments.
I am a parent of a child who would have made it into the gorilla area. No question. I’ll own it.
There’s been an enormous amount of vitriol and almost of none of it directed against the father. Woman who have the same name as the zoo mother have received hate mail. One has changed her FB picture to one that says, “I’ve never even been to that zoo!”. It seems like internet news releases a lot of instant judgements and self righteous anger.
It depends what the kid is like usually. Does he say something and usually act on it? If so, the mom/parent could have paid more attention since he repeatedly said he was going in. If so, it’s not just turning your back for a second. If your kid says he was running to the street, do you turn your back on him? If the kid says a lot of things and doesn’t follow them through, then it could be just a matter of turning your back for a second.
Doesn’t the landscape change when the kid starts telling you he’s going in the gorilla pit? At that point it seems to me you hang onto him physically or you leave the exhibit. I babysat my death-wish nephews at this age and endured their screaming, kicking me, etc. when I held their hands (well, gripped their elbows) near a busy street. Their mom did the same thing. Kick all you want, kid, it’s my job to keep you from killing yourself. One did run smack into a pole on my watch, but it was on the sidewalk.
If the kid hadn’t warned her what he was going to do, that’s potentially a different story.
Yes, a gorilla pit is attractive nuisance, but that doesn’t mean the zoo needs to make it physically impossible to get in – which can’t be guaranteed anyway. The protections have to be reasonable. If a fence worked for 38 years, it’s a good fence.
None of this means the family won’t sue and get money.
I have four kids and one of them could have been the kids who got into an animal enclosure at the zoo. I dressed her in overalls a lot when she was little because that gave me a strap I could grab quickly. I probably should have gotten a child leash for her, but then I would have certainly faced a ton of criticism for that and been labeled a ‘bad’ parent.
We were lucky that nothing terrible ever did happen so we are called ‘good’ parents but I know that in an instant,it could have turned out differently.
@jym626 it is engendering more outrage. There is an online petition, with over 300,000 signatures asking that the parents be charged. Here at the zoo, animal rights activists held protests and vigils on Memorial Day, go figure.
I have a very strong willed child who got into many situations. We alternated emergency rooms in the days before electronic records!
I also took her to the Milwaukee zoo at least once a month for the first nine years of her life. She was leashed for most of the first four. And had she insisted that she was going to enter the gorilla enclosure I would have taken her by the hand and walked her to another exhibit. Been there,done that,and have the t-shirt, except for her it was polar bears.
I just can’t go along with charging the parents, at least not based on what we know so far. Was there negligence on the mom’s part? Yes, possibly. Even then, many of us moms briefly lose track of our kid somewhere along the journey of parenthood. We’re just lucky that nothing terrible happened. But certainly there was no intent on the part of this mom.
Those few minutes that she had to watch her son in the control of a gorilla who could have done the most horrifying things without batting an eye, thanks to his enormous strength - all while other people filmed and watched - is that not punishment enough?
I’m a huge animal lover and it’s terrible that an endangered gorilla had to be killed. But sometimes accidents do happen, sadly. Maybe this is a good argument against zoos. I don’t know.
It’s funny that because it worked for 38 years, it must be proof that it was good enough from the zoo’s perspective but not from the parent’s perspective. Why wouldn’t a parent think it an impossible wish by a kid that he go in there if it has never been done before? Why are people assuming this is a kid that usually gets into mischief? why are people assuming that this kid doesn’t usually refrain when told no?
Not one witness has said this kid was all over the zoo behaving dangerously all that day, let alone in the minutes before it happened. In fact, what I read was that it was seconds between mom telling the kid no and him zipping into the bushes on the other side of the railing and then quickly falling into the moat. The mom said his hand was in her back pocket and as soon as she realized it was gone, she started looking for him. There were bystanders there who couldn’t grab him fast enough either.
Just an aside . . . we have a place called Lion Country Safari in West Palm (or is it Loxahatchee?). It’s mostly a drive-through animal exhibit. When we first moved here, the big cats wandered free in their area. Sometime later they put the big cats in enclosures.
I used to wonder how they got liability insurance. It’s not hard to imagine someone jumping out of their car to pet the kitty. 
The mom almost immediately came back with a “not my fault” statement online…FB or Twitter? Idiot.
My husband and I have a child who had ADHD. Any of us here with a super active kid knows/knew it require a hyper vigilance to keep a hyper child safe. A four year old who would breach those barriers is definitely “active”, plus witnesses heard the mom and child arguing about it, him insisting he wanted to go in the water and her saying no, etc. Buy a clue, Mom. You can’t let a child like this “run amok” anywhere where there might be danger or they could get hurt. Or snatched by someone! I don’t care who says what about harnesses, there are some kids who need them. And I’ll end by saying even my very active child would never have done this. This was over the top by any standards for a four year old.
“Why are people assuming this is a kid that usually gets into mischief? why are people assuming that this kid doesn’t usually refrain when told no?”
Speaking for myself, it’s knowing members of my extended family, that’s all. We’ve had two kids who’d literally climb the walls and fling themselves down a ten-foot drop, and those were the kids with the habit of ignoring “no” and generally disregarding their own safety. Meanwhile the cousin of those kids is spending ten minutes at the top of a 4-foot slide deciding whether it’s too scary. Different personality types.
Maybe this kid breaks the pattern, but he sure rung a bell to me.
Way too many people who have never met any of this family and were not witnesses to the events seem to think they know what kind of kid and parents they all are based on second hand accounts (from people who themselves aren’t even criticizing the family!)
When the kid said “I want to go in there”, the parents should have told him in no uncertain terms that the gorilla could tear him apart. I think city kids have no idea how dangerous wild animals can be. I’ve witnessed some crazy situations in national parks, in which kids are too close to bears, bison, alligators etc. and the parents are too blase and are taking photos. Maybe they’ve watched too many movies and cartoons that make wild animals seem like humans. The animals are wise. They talk! They never beat a child bloody just because.
If your kid insists running into the street, you don’t just say no. You say no AND grab him tight.
I’m a lawyer. It was reasonable for the zoo to expect that their fencing and safeguards were adequate. It was also reasonable for the mother to expect that her child would not be able to breach all the safeguards in seconds and get into the danger area and that she did not have to keep a death grip on him the entire time. Sometimes bad things just happen.