by Pa Rock
Outraged Citizen
Here is a story from today's news that I find disturbing at a very personal level:
Dr. Casey Smitherman, the superintendent of Elwood Community Schools in Elwood, Indiana, was arrested earlier this month and charged with three felonies and a misdemeanor for the outrageous crime of seeking medical attention for a student at her school. The actual facts of the case are somewhat more complex, but at its core the school administrator, who is herself a mother, was trying to obtain medical care for an ill student.
The facts run something like this: Dr. Smitherman was informed that a particular student was absent from school. This 15-year-old boy was someone with whom she had interacted in the past, and she was concerned by his absence - so concerned that she drove to his home to find out why he was not in school. There the boy, who was apparently home alone, told her that he was ill. She first asked if he had eaten, and he had. She then decided, based on her own experience as a mother, that he had symptoms of strep throat, and she drove him to an emergency clinic. That clinic refused to see the uninsured lad.
Dr. Smitherman then made a poor decision based on a humanitarian instinct. She took the boy to another clinic and presented him as her son on her own insurance plan. There she was able to get him seen by a physician and provided with a prescription for Amoxicillin which she purchased at a local CVS, again under her son's name.
The crimes for which the superintendent have been charged center around defrauding an insurance company.
As a former public school teacher, school administrator, and state child protection worker, I have had several prolonged dealings with insurance companies and medical providers in efforts to get medical care for children in need. I have, on occasion, made purchases out of my own pocket for things like school supplies, school meals, groceries, clothing, and even medicine, but I never got as creative as Dr. Smitherman and tried to pass a kid off as my own to get needed services.
But in twenty-first century America I will not fault her for following her human instincts. Why shouldn't any child have access to medical care when they are sick?
Donald Trump ran for office promising to do away with "Obamacare" and to replace it with something better. Now, two years later and halfway through his first (and hopefully only) term, all the Trump administration and a compliant Congress have been able to do is to weaken (perhaps mortally) the program and drive over seven million Americans from the rolls of the insured - and no longer even pretend to be looking for a better alternative - or any alternative for that matter. The Trump GOP agenda on health care is to end any government involvement in the process, a strategy that effectively denies coverage to the millions of America's working poor.
That strategy may make fiscal sense, at least on paper, but it is heartless neglect when a child can't go to school due to illness, and can't get well due to poverty. God bless the humanitarians who step into the breach and try to fix the benign neglect of a nation one child at a time.
Dr. Smitherman, you may be a felon, but you are also a damned fine human being!
(To the credit of the community of Elwood, Indiana, both the prosecutors and the local school board appear to be supportive of Dr. Smitherman and her flawed efforts to help a child in need - at this time, at least.)
Outraged Citizen
Here is a story from today's news that I find disturbing at a very personal level:
Dr. Casey Smitherman, the superintendent of Elwood Community Schools in Elwood, Indiana, was arrested earlier this month and charged with three felonies and a misdemeanor for the outrageous crime of seeking medical attention for a student at her school. The actual facts of the case are somewhat more complex, but at its core the school administrator, who is herself a mother, was trying to obtain medical care for an ill student.
The facts run something like this: Dr. Smitherman was informed that a particular student was absent from school. This 15-year-old boy was someone with whom she had interacted in the past, and she was concerned by his absence - so concerned that she drove to his home to find out why he was not in school. There the boy, who was apparently home alone, told her that he was ill. She first asked if he had eaten, and he had. She then decided, based on her own experience as a mother, that he had symptoms of strep throat, and she drove him to an emergency clinic. That clinic refused to see the uninsured lad.
Dr. Smitherman then made a poor decision based on a humanitarian instinct. She took the boy to another clinic and presented him as her son on her own insurance plan. There she was able to get him seen by a physician and provided with a prescription for Amoxicillin which she purchased at a local CVS, again under her son's name.
The crimes for which the superintendent have been charged center around defrauding an insurance company.
As a former public school teacher, school administrator, and state child protection worker, I have had several prolonged dealings with insurance companies and medical providers in efforts to get medical care for children in need. I have, on occasion, made purchases out of my own pocket for things like school supplies, school meals, groceries, clothing, and even medicine, but I never got as creative as Dr. Smitherman and tried to pass a kid off as my own to get needed services.
But in twenty-first century America I will not fault her for following her human instincts. Why shouldn't any child have access to medical care when they are sick?
Donald Trump ran for office promising to do away with "Obamacare" and to replace it with something better. Now, two years later and halfway through his first (and hopefully only) term, all the Trump administration and a compliant Congress have been able to do is to weaken (perhaps mortally) the program and drive over seven million Americans from the rolls of the insured - and no longer even pretend to be looking for a better alternative - or any alternative for that matter. The Trump GOP agenda on health care is to end any government involvement in the process, a strategy that effectively denies coverage to the millions of America's working poor.
That strategy may make fiscal sense, at least on paper, but it is heartless neglect when a child can't go to school due to illness, and can't get well due to poverty. God bless the humanitarians who step into the breach and try to fix the benign neglect of a nation one child at a time.
Dr. Smitherman, you may be a felon, but you are also a damned fine human being!
(To the credit of the community of Elwood, Indiana, both the prosecutors and the local school board appear to be supportive of Dr. Smitherman and her flawed efforts to help a child in need - at this time, at least.)
2 comments:
Dr. Smitherman is not a felon. To be called a felon a person must first be convicted of a felony level offense. Dr. Smitherman has not been tried or convicted. She was granted a form of diversion reserved for first time offenders called in Madison County, Indiana "withheld prosecution".
She may yet face civil consequences for her acts from the insurance companies, there are two counts of insurance fraud being held in abeyance. Insurance companies, unlike prosecutors or judges, do not have a soul to save or a butt to kick and seem to get their kicks from making life intolerable of living persons. Simple restitution should be all that they are entitled to.
Had the prosecutor brought the case several things could have happened. First the jury could have voted to exonerate this educator. Second they could have convicted her. Third. the judge could have sentenced her and then suspended the imposition of sentence. That results in a non-conviction because the conviction is not complete until imposition. Fourth the judge could have suspended execution of sentence which would be a felony with none of the attended consequences of prison time.
Dr. Smitherman is a good person, a good educator, and an asset to her community. Had she been employed by the Shawnee Mission School District in Johnson County, Kansas (and I suppose others around the nation) she would not be in her current situation. In a partnership with the school district and Health Partnership Clinic students have access to medical care at Merriam Park Elementary.
This person is amazing! We should all learn a thing or two from her selflessness which I'm sure she knew was putting her job at risk for the benefit of a sick child.
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