Cops Storm Texas High School to Investigate Miscarriage 'Suspect'

Screenshot/CBS-DFW

It's hard to say what's most disturbing about this tale from a Texas high school. Certainly, a fetus found in a girl's restroom is one cause for alarm. But the way local law enforcement handled the situation is even more chilling. 

The cops were called to Dallas' Woodrow Wilson High School last Friday afternoon, when a custodian found a fetus in a second-floor student bathroom. At the time, police had no idea about the identity of the mother, nor what happened to her pregnancy. But considering that miscarriage is incredibly common and self-induced abortions in the school bathroom are not, the former explanation seems like a fairly good place to start.

The Dallas cops, however, saw things differently. They showed up a Woodrow Wilson High ready to Fight Crime—one student reported seeing a police helicopter on the scene. 

"Police have been saying all along whoever's responsible for this is being considered a suspect," said KDFW reporter Brandon Todd in broadcast Friday evening. "The child abuse division is heading up the investigation. However, they do hope the mother will come forward on her own." 

Why would she come forward on her own when the police immediately pegged her as a criminal? And while we're asking questions—is anyone surprised that the cops had things wrong?

Our "suspect" was eventually identified and—whattaya know?—she suffered a miscarriage. Police have "spoken to all involved" and the matter is no longer considered a criminal case, a spokesperson for the Dallas Police Department said Tuesday.

Comments

[Acosmist]

Miscarriage is more common...so we should profile for it! Cool, so profiling is all right now.

[Zeb]

Where's the profiling here? Beyond the assumption that whoever produced the fetus was a female student (which seem like pretty safe assumptions), I don't see much profiling here.

[JW]

Serving and protecting you, until morale improves.

[Swiss Servator, Bern baby Bern]

So they figured out what it was and stood down? Good, yes? Overreact at first, probably. Correct their error, yes?

This would have been much more outrageously outrageous if there was an arrest or violence done. This gets a smirk at most.

[Andrew S.]

It's the initial overreaction that leads to all the other problems with militarization. Just because this one ended up less bad than the others doesn't mean we should ignore it.

[robc]

Exactly. This seems like a case to send one cop max. And really, one isnt necessary. Cps could handle the initial work.

[Restoras]

Does CPS have body bags though? Wouldn't they need one for the fetus? I bet only SWAT has real body bags.

[Free Society]

They picked up a Boston Market rotisserie chicken container on the way over to the High School.

[Restoras]

Those things are leaky.

[Dances-with-Trolls]

That is so fucked up. +1 sir

[RussianPrimeMinister]

Oh my freaking GOD, FS. . .

+1 Pure Evil

[Swiss Servator, Bern baby Bern]

Maybe Wendy! can turn this into a campaign commercial, eh?

[Almanian!]

-1 fetus nice

[Anonymous Coward]

At least the cops didn't feel threatened and half a sudden bout of PANIC-FIRE.

[robc]

Swat gonna swat.

[sasob]

Why was it considered a "criminal case" in the first place?

[Jordan]

Because otherwise the occupying baboon army wouldn't have gotten to play soldier.

[Square]

It's part of the push to treat fetuses as fully developed adult humans.

[Restoras]

Well that's just silly. It's obvious they aren't fully developed human beings.

[Free Society]

That's got nothing to do with it. This same thing could easily have happened in the most pro-abortion town with the most pro-abortion police force in world. All you need is power and people who want to exercise it.

[Square]

You first need the concept that if a woman fails to bring a fetus to term, a crime has been committed.

[Restoras]

Not necessarily. Someone sees a miscarriage in a toilet, doesn't know what to do. Calls 911 - and says there is a dead baby in a toilet (doesn't know if it is a miscarriage but it looks like a dead human baby). 911 dispatch does whatever the hell they do when someone says 'ermagerd dead baby in a toilet in a school' and the cops rush in with their toys because god knows they only use them against the most harmless threats, and what could be more harmless than a dead baby in a toilet?

[Square]

See the comment by Hazel Meade, below.

If the girl miscarried late enough in the term for there to be something resembling a baby in the toilet, she would not have walked away, and there would be 1/4" puddle of blood on the floor.

[Restoras]

Right. Begs the question.

[Square]

Begs which question?

[RussianPrimeMinister]

The SHUT THE FUCK UP question.

[Dances-with-Trolls]

Overtime.

[Zeb]

What crime did they think happened? Littering?

[Jordan]

If authoritarians are going to go on a rampage, there's no more fitting place than a place named after Woodrow Wilson.

[Obama's Buttplug]

In the bathroom no less.

[Ted S.]

The accompanying image should have been a screenshot of the miscarried fetus in the toilet.

[Obama's Buttplug]

That's kind of fucked up, Ted.

[Almanian!]

I bet the cops told dead-baby jokes the whole time this was going on.

[gaoxiaen]

I guess they brought their pitchfork.

[N]

Am I really going to have to be the one who makes the "miscarriage of justice" joke?

[Free Society]

It's a lonely thankless job to supply the world with cynical jokes. God bless you.

[Almanian!]

What Free Soc said

*salutes*

[Suthenboy]

And so far down the thread.

Everyone but you is fired.

[HazelMeade]

How big was the fetus?

Most miscarriages happen in the first three months.
If this was a 3 month old fetus the assumption should probably be it was a spontaneous miscarriage. There are exceptionally few women who are going to have 5 or 6th month miscarriage and not need immediate medical attention.
A 6 week miscarriage is more like passing a large blood clot.
You could have that happen and totally flush it down the toilet.

Closer to 3 months and it might clog up the toilet, which is probably what happened. Someone with a 2 and 1/2 month pregnancy had a miscarriage, went to the toilet and passed it on the toilet, then tried to flush it unsuccessfully.

[HazelMeade]

I hope I just made John's head explode by the way.

[SugarFree]

"We just want to poke around in the toilet before you flush it, ma'am. You don't have anything to hide, do you?"

Waitaminute, if you can just flush the evidence then it requires a dynamic entry! [flashbang]

[HazelMeade]

Pregnant women should be periodically subjected to random raids by the CPS SWAT team just to make sure they aren't having any miscarriages.

[Christophe]

- Random police raids lead to increased stress.
- Increased stress leads to increased miscarriage rates.
- Increased miscarriage rates lead to increased funding.

This has the classic characteristics that made the War on Drugs so successful.

[SugarFree]

Impossible. The police would never investigate a miscarriage as a crime. I've been told this.

[Zeb]

No, and it definitely wouldn't happen more if abortion were considered murder.

[SugarFree]

At least we agree.

[HazelMeade]

ALternatively, if I was a high school teacher and I found out that a student had had a miscarriage and tried to hide it, I might be concerned that she had been raped or was being sexually abused by a parent. So I might want to find out who she was just to send her to the counsellor and be like "Honey, next time you have a miscarriage, please go to the school nurse, and if there's anything you want to to tell me it's totally confidential."

[Restoras]

Yeah, get the state involved. That'll be helpful.

[RussianPrimeMinister]

As unhelpful as getting the state involved might be, this would probably be the most reasonable answer to the situation.

Especially since rape and sexual abuse are two legitimate things the state should deal with.

[Careless]

"next time you have a miscarriage in high school"

*sigh*

[Juice]

Helicopter?

[SugarFree]

In case the fetus grew wings.

[Dweebston]

I was under the impression that all unborn fetuses are in fact tiny cherubic angels winging their way to Jesus.

[Almanian!]

Just the dead unborn fetuses get wings. The live ones have boots.

[LessIsMore]

So ... I'm usually right on board with the problem of police militarization, overuse of SWAT, etc. and skeptical as hell of police showing appropriate response and common sense ... but am i missing the part where there's any evidence of the police "storming in" to the school, or showing excessive display of power, etc.?

The only cite this article has to support that is that "one student reported seeing a police helicopter on the scene" - however the link provided doesn't have evidence of that anywhere in the article or comments.

From the two articles linked here, I don't see the evidence of explicit overreation by police. Again I'm not quick to stick up for police, ever - but I'm even more hesitant to jump to unfounded reactions/conclusions.

Someone illuminate me if I've missed something - I'm at work so not all web content comes through.

[Square]

There is some debate as to why responding as if a crime were in progress is appropriate.

[Anon E. Mouse]

Maybe it's just me, but I thought the cops were there to investigate crime, and not act as social workers. If you call the cops, don't be surprised if they assume a crime has taken place.

[PRX]

I live within 2 miles. there was a chopper hovering for about an hour last Friday just about where Woodrow is. my neighbor and I talked about it.

[PRX]

I think it's the only high with 2 Heisman winners, Carroll Shelby, and the guy who invented frozen margaritas.

[Elizabeth Nolan Brown]

I had the links mixed up, I just realized (thanks) - the girl talking about the helicopter is here - http://www.myfoxdfw.com/story/.....igh-school

[mickeyg]

remind me not to hire you when you are fired

[Paul.]

Hmm, I remember a story back in the 90s/early 2000s where a woman went to an abortion clinic but delivered a baby. Police investigated that as a crime which led to all kinds of quips about how a woman that doesn't get an abortion is now a 'suspect'.

[The Late P Brooks]

I wonder why she didn't go to the school nurse's office.

[Restoras]

Guessing she didn't know what was happening. Felt bad cramps - ran to bathroom...and something else happened.

[Pulseguy]

She could have self-induced, not wanting parents to find out etc.

[PRX]

so this is why there was a police chopper hovering for an hour.

[PRX]

tonight on a very special episode of Chopper One...

[Christophe]

WTF. Even in a country where abortions are illegal, who the hell treats a dead fetus in a public toilet as a criminal case? If you deliberately induce a miscarriage, you're going to do it in a private place, where you can deal with the aftermath much more easily. This is ridiculous.

[Elizabeth Nolan Brown]

That's exactly what I was thinking. Didn't want to speculate too much in my post, but it happened at a high school. The fetus was found in the toilet. My first thought would be a hs girl who either didn't know or hadn't told people she was pregnant who had a miscarriage unexepectedly while at school, and then didn't know wtf to do about it. Why the hell would someone purposely go to a school bathroom during school hours to induce a miscarriage?

[Pulseguy]

If you're allowed to have an abortion, and you choose to do it yourself, how is that a crime? It could require an ambulance, but why a full on GROUP of cops?

[mickeyg]

This makes no sense whatsoever....killing a fetus is perfectly legal because of abortion laws. Even the parents don't have to be told if the girl is older than 12. Finding fetuses around a school should only necessitate the calling of the janitorial staff, not SWAT.