This Just In...
Kevin Fischer is an award-winning veteran broadcaster who has been seen and heard on Milwaukee TV and radio stations for nearly three decades.
Kevin, who is a legislative aide to state Sen. Mary Lazich (R-New Berlin), can be seen offering his views on the news on the public affairs program, “INTERchange,” on Milwaukee Public Television Channel 10. He lives with his wife, Jennifer, in Franklin.
Another unattended child dies: Someone needs to be charged
By Kevin Fischer
Saturday, Jul 26 2008, 07:38 AM
A few years ago while filling in for Mark Belling on Newstalk 1130 WISN, I did what some might consider something unusual on that program: I read part of a press release from a Democrat legislator to praise its content.
State Senator Spencer Coggs (D-Milwaukee) was proposing legislation aimed at people who leave children unattended in hot cars. Listeners who have heard me on WISN know this is an issue that makes me very angry, and I have zero sympathy for these individuals.
Cogg’s bill was the result of the death of little Asia Jones who died of hyperthermia after she was left for eight hours in a sweltering vehicle outside the Come and Grow with Me Learning and Arts Center in West Allis in June 2005. Temperatures inside the van may have reached 128 degrees. The driver used a typical excuse….he forgot, and escaped charges because prosecutors said there was no law under which he could be charged. Asia was two years old.
The “Asia Jones Bill” authored by Senator Spencer Coggs and Representative Tamara Grigsby who has appeared with me on Channel 10’s InterCHANGE was approved by the Legislature and signed into law in March of 2006 by Governor Doyle. The law makes it a Class A misdemeanor for a child care provider to leave a child in a child care vehicle unattended. Any child care professional who violates the new law can be fined up to $10,000 and imprisoned for up to nine months. If a child dies, the person responsible is guilty of a Class G felony, which is punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment and a fine up to $25,000.
This week, a child was left in a day care van in Milwaukee for seven hours and died. As of this posting, no one’s been charged. Someone needs to be held accountable.
