If You're A Doctor Or A Teacher, You Cannot Win On The Duty-To-Report Under Garland Yates' Jurisdiction

It's a bit of a re-hash, but necessary to make the point.  This blog exists because thirteen years ago, I answered a nurse's phone call in the middle of the night and intervened in a neonatal case being botched by another physician.

By ALL accounts, I saved the child's life.  Defying the prior threats of hospital executives (and naively expecting ethics and right to trump greed and might) I reported the incident/doctor to hospital peer review the next morning. 

I was fired two weeks later.  My life has never been the same.  For years, mired in litigation and black-balled for miles, I could barely make ends meet.  I'm not supposed to be bitter or angry over what Randolph Hospital's executives did to me - or what I've endured since. 

When I finally felt "safe" in doing so, I eventually reported what happened to the N.C. Medical Board - to the Joint Commission (JCAHO) - and to the U.S. & N.C. Departments of Health & Human Services (i.e. the governments in whose service I labored at the time the incident happened). 

For that, I was sued for "libel".

When the lawsuits were settled in my favor (three years after the nightmare began), I was swindled by perjury, contempt and fraud.  Perjury does not have a statute of limitations in North Carolina.  I've reported the crime (in 2003) .  . . the multiple felonies . . . to every local/state/Federal law enforcement agency under the sun.

Those agencies have done nothing (enabled by local journalists who, despite all their noble prattle, turned a deaf ear).  An investigation by local law enforcement has not even been conducted - even though the charges involve a "non-profit".  The executives I accuse are simply too important in the great scheme of things.  I've been told our noble DA is exercising his discretion . . . the effect these white-collar criminals have has on my life be damned.

Ala Nifong & the Duke Lacrosse fiasco, the North Carolina Attorney General asserts that he cannot intervene in the case unless he is asked (since I honorably completed state and Federal service obligations while employed by a "non-profit", I think it's a BS excuse).

The IRS/Feds have told me that my case simply isn't important enough to pursue.  Of course, these are the same nimrods who still haven't indicted John Edwards.  And the IRS is the same agency that is now charged with ensuring that patients are properly served under Obamacare.

If the Feds don't help the doctor fired/sued/swindled for putting a patient first, just exactly WHAT do you think they'll do for you, the patient?

I digress. Very similar to their duty to report anything that might put a patient in harm's way, doctors have a legal duty to report child neglect and/or abuse as soon as they are made aware of (or even suspect that) it has happened.  It's a practice I freely embrace, because it's not our jobs to figure out what is criminal and what is not - or to investigate anything (beyond taking a history and doing an exam).  Our primary concern - and duty - is to ensure the health, safety and well-being of the child - by promptly reporting what we know or suspect to the proper authorities so THEY can investigate.

Teachers have the same duty.

For that reason, I've followed the case of Vivacious Crews . . . the former principal of East Montgomery Middle School in Biscoe - who was charged (under a new law in North Carolina) with failing to report crimes of a sexual nature (assaults nvolving members of the school's soccer team - who were subsequently charged with misdemeanors) as soon as she knew about it . . . with some interest.

I'd link the story in the Courier Tribune - but there's no point, because it's behind their uber-stupid paywall. 

(There's a reason Ray Criscoe is back down to publishing six days a week . . .. a newspaper's credibility is deeply intertwined with its economics.  I "understand" perfectly.)

Now, given my own experience in Randolph County, it's not hard to read "COVER-UP!!!" into Ms. Crew's actions, as she tried (I think misguidedly) . . . through a series of interviews with parents and students over a period of several days . . . to sort out who did what to whom before she reported what happened to law enforcement.

But it wasn't Crews' job to do that.  It was her job to report what she had been told - about an alleged assault of a sexual nature on school property - to the police.  And she should have done it immediately (I do have to wonder why the parent involved - if she was so hellbent on prosecuting someone - went to the principal first instead of the police?  Why put school personnel in the middle?). 

Not immediatly reporting the allegations ultimately cost the principal her job.  But it was a mistake in judgement . . . and perhaps a lack of experience . . . that, IMHO, just doesn't rise to the level of a crime.

Never you mind.  The Randolph County DA's office (which also "serves" Montgomery County) exercised their discretion and prosecuted her anyway.  They were grandstanding - as that office is prone to do.

And on Friday, a jury acquitted Crews of the charges.

Of course, I have a rather unique prism through which to view Garland Yates' DA's office, and the case.  It's also been my experience that when they're on a tear, rightly or wrongly, some parents take no prisoners and you'd best not be in their way.

But "intent" actually does MEAN something - should mean something - in a case like this, and it's not as if Ms. Crews knowingly put her hand on a Bible and swore a series of false answers to the Court in an effort to seal-the-deal on a vendetta, save some money and line her pockets.

Let's review:

Under Garland Yates' jurisdiction, if you report something bad that happened to a child, you can be fired, sued for libel, and swindled of just restitution.

If you don't report, you can be fired and criminally prosecuted.

There's no way to win.  Rocks and hard places and all that.

I wish Ms. Crews the best as she re-builds her life.  I'd advise her to get-the-hell-out of this neck-of-the-woods to do it.  I'm glad both of her parents saw her vindicated.  I also think some of the other players involved in this case need to look at their own motivations and intent in their efforts to brand her a criminal.

Apples, after all, do not fall far from trees.  We lead by example and our kids, if they survive what is reported, are what we teach them to be.  Everybody could have done a better job here.