Friday, November 15, 2024

"Slow down! Michigan mom's texts to son may come back to haunt her"/ "The perils of praise" (parenting articles)

Aug. 28, 2024 "Slow down! Michigan mom's texts to son may come back to haunt her":

Today I found this article by Tresa Baldas on USA Today and Yahoo and AOL:  

Just weeks before he killed his friend in a car crash, Michigan teenager Kiernan Tague was blasting across highways at more than 140 mph in his family's Audi sports coupe, photographing the speedometer and getting texts from his mom: "Slow... down!"

According to police reports, his mom knew about his driving habits through a special safety app called Life360, and once texted him: 

"I have screen shots of you ... doing 123 mph ... It scares me to my bone."

But she didn't take away his keys.

Rather, she bought a faster and more powerful car, and allegedly gave him access to it: a BMW X3 M series that can reach up to 177 mph. That's what Kiernan was driving the night he lost control at 105 mph on a residential street in Grosse Pointe Farms, a Detroit suburb, 

hitting a pole 

and then a tree, 

killing his passenger: 18-year-old Flynn MacKrell, a stellar, 6-foot-4 swimmer known for his gentle ways, easy smile and shaggy red hair.

"To say this is a living hell is an understatement," Flynn's mom, Anne Vanker, said through tears in a recent interview with the Detroit Free Press, part of the USA TODAY Network. "My life has been ruined. My family’s life is ruined. No one should ever, ever have to lose a child like this ... I still can’t believe my son — my big calm son — is gone."

Nine months after Flynn's tragic death, his family is seeking justice: Not just for the driver's actions, but for his mom's inaction.


Family wants mom charged: 'He was speeding over and over, and mom knew it'

MacKrell's family is asking Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy to pursue criminal charges against the driver's mom, Elizabeth Puleo-Tague — much like another Michigan prosecutor, Oakland County's Karen McDonald, sought parental accountability after the deadly mass shooting at Oxford High School in 2021. 

She charged the gunman's parents, James and Jennifer Crumbley, who were convicted of involuntary manslaughter this year in a landmark prosecution that put parents everywhere on notice.

The Crumbleys, who bought the gun that their son, Ethan, used in his rampage, are serving 10-year prison sentences after separate juries held them responsible for the lives of four students — 16-year-old Tate Myre; 17-year-olds Madisyn Baldwin and Justin Shilling, and 14-year-old Hana St. Juliana — killed by their son. Ethan Crumbley also injured six students and a teacher.

The MacKrell family is hoping for a similar result.

"We believe there is cause to bring criminal charges against Mrs. Elizabeth Tague," the family writes in a letter delivered in July to Prosecutor Worthy. 

"The (police) report and the investigation clearly illustrate that not only were Mr. Tague’s driving habits criminal — frequently filming himself speeding at more than 100 mph on our local Detroit roads

 — but that (his mom) was intimately aware of his behavior, but did not take the actions of a 'reasonable' person to prevent harm."

The letter reads much like the legal arguments against the Crumbleys, who were accused of failing to take reasonable actions to prevent their child from harming others: 

Like not putting a cable lock on the gun he sneaked out of the house and used to shoot up his school, 

or not bringing him home from school when he drew a picture of a gun in class and wrote "The Thoughts won't stop. Help me" on a school worksheet. 

Instead, the Crumbleys returned to their jobs. Two hours later, their son fired his first shot.

Vanker believes the parents of the driver who killed her son were even more complicit.


'She was sitting on a ticking time bomb ... It's like she handed him an AR-15'

Vanker says the driver's mom knew for months her son was driving recklessly, 

warned him about it, 

but never did anything to stop it. 

Moreover, she says, the mom — who also drives a 2015 Subaru Forester — could have given Kiernan that car to drive instead of the Audi he was speeding around town in.

Perhaps most egregious, Vanker said, is that the mom, who had expressed concern about her son's speeding in the Audi, went out and bought the more tempting and faster BMW.

According to police reports, on the night of the crash, Kiernan's mom was in Canada and left the keys to the BMW at home.

"She was sitting on a ticking time bomb. 

She knows he's out of control, yet she basically gets him a weapon," Vanker said. 

"It's like she handed him an AR-15."

What she should have done, Flynn's family argues, was revoke her son's driving privileges.

As Flynn's dad, Thad MacKrell, put it: "No more cars — it's that simple."


Teen driver charged with 2nd-degree murder, designated an adult

The driver's mom, Elizabeth Puleo-Tague, of Grosse Pointe Farms, declined to be interviewed for this article. Kiernan's father, Brian Tague, is deceased. His parents divorced in 2019.

The Wayne County Prosecutor's Office offered no details about whether charges would be filed against Kiernan Tague's mother, saying only that Flynn MacKrell's family's request is under review, and that it received an official warrant request from the Grosse Pointe police.

 A warrant request typically contains police reports, forensic evidence, photos and witness statements to determine whether there is sufficient evidence to criminally charge someone — in this case, Kiernan Tague's mother.

Kiernan Tague, 17, who lives down the street from Flynn's family and became friends with him in 2017, was charged with second-degree murder in March and is awaiting trial in Wayne County Circuit Court. 

He is not charged as an adult, but is "adult designated," which means, if he's convicted, the judge could sentence him as an adult or a juvenile, or impose a blended sentence. Second-degree murder carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.

"I want him in prison for as long as possible," said Vanker, maintaining he deserves no leniency. "Why should he get a break? This kid had every break and every privilege there is."

Tague's attorney, Mitchell Ribitwer, declined comment, beyond saying: "This was tragic for both sides."


Life360 records: Teen drove 127-155 mph weeks before tragedy

According to police reports, cellphone exchanges and Life360 records obtained by the Free Press, here is a glimpse of Kiernan's driving patterns in the weeks and months before the Nov. 17, 2023, fatal crash:

In July and August 2023, he hit speeds of 127 mph, 143 mph, 102 mph, 150 mph and 155 mph — all on separate days. Photos of his speedometer tracking these speeds were found on his cellphone.

In the two weeks before the fatal crash, Life360 recorded 94 trips by Kiernan, nearly half of them over 90 mph. The highest speed recorded was on Nov. 1, when he drove 153 mph for 20 miles.

Videos on Kiernan's cellphone show him drag racing twice, in September and October. Another video shows him driving recklessly through the Millender Center tunnel in downtown Detroit.

This data infuriates the MacKrell family, they said, especially because the driver's mom had access to it.

"There were all these signs," Vanker said, fuming over why Elizabeth Tague bought the BMW in October 2023, one month after sending her son concerning texts about his speeding.


Mom and sister warned teen about speeding in texts

On Sept. 14, 2023, Elizabeth Tague texted her son: "Slow... down right now!" A Life360 report showed him traveling 123 mph.

About two weeks later, Kiernan got a text from his sister about a Grosse Pointe girl who was killed by a drunken driver.

"Speed limits exist for a reason," the sister texted her younger brother.

Kiernan responded that he knew the victim, and said: "Jesus. That's tragic."

Two hours later that same day, he got a text from his mom:

"I have screenshots of you doing 90 mph in the middle of the night when I didn't even know you had left (a friend's) lake house ... And again two weeks ago going 123 mph just because."

The text continued: "And your obsession (word choice intentional) with cars having upwards of 600 hp — It's not healthy. It's not safe. And it scares me to my bone."

Three weeks later, Elizabeth Tague bought the BMW.


Groundbreaking New York case may bolster Michigan prosecution

In a recent, groundbreaking case in New York, a mom and dad were criminally charged after their teenage son crashed a BMW into a truck at more than 100 mph last year, killing his 14-year-old passenger. 

The parents were charged with endangering the welfare of a child for allowing their son to drive when he was legally unable to do so.

Last month, the parents were sentenced to probation and ordered to take parenting classes.

"With this conviction, we have shown that the culpability in a fatal crash can go beyond the driver," Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said in a statement. 

"Parents who provide vehicles to their children and let them drive illegally can be held responsible in the case of tragedies such as this one."

That's precisely what the MacKrells are arguing in their request for prosecution. And, they maintain, they have the technology and data to prove it.


Police: Mother had 'little to no control' over her son

For the MacKrell family, Kiernan was the polite neighborhood kid who regularly hung out at their house after showing up on his bike one day. He always thanked them for dinners and often offered to help bring groceries into the house. He was a few years younger than Flynn and looked up to him, they said, noting he was a swimmer like their son, but went to University of Detroit Jesuit High School.

Anne Vanker said she didn't know much about Kiernan's family life, or his parents, other than they were going through a divorce and Kiernan appeared upset about it.

As for his driving habits, she knew nothing about them — until it was too late.

Following her son's death, the police would conduct an investigation that revealed not only Kiernan's driving patterns, but problems he was having at home, as evidenced in "extensive" text messages between him and his mom.

As one investigator wrote in his report: "There was much conversation about Kiernan taking/using his mother’s credit card without permission, being out during overnight hours without permission, and about Kiernan’s extensive reckless driving habits.”

The investigator continued: "The messages between the two suggest that Kiernan’s mother has little to no control over Kiernan. Kiernan regularly drove recklessly and took/used his mother’s credit cards without permission, despite his mother’s repeated orders not to.”

One text exchange, however, showed a cordial relationship between the two. "Will you pick up a bottle of wine?? … Please!" the mother texted her son on Oct. 2, 2023. "Sure," Kiernan responded.

One week later, his mom sent him a screenshot of a website explaining the penalties for having a fake ID.

Almost a month later, a fight would break out at home, with Kiernan breaking a table after his mom refused to let him use her car — though which vehicle was not mentioned.

"I simply asked you to take your car ... yet you refused. Now I'm running late and we have a broken table," Kiernan texted his mom on Nov. 3, 2023, two weeks before the fatal crash.

His mom accused him of "gaslighting" her.

Kiernan apologized: "I'm sorry about your table."


Teen driver no stranger to law enforcement

According to police records, Kiernan has had at least 22 documented contacts with police since 2018. The majority of police calls involve Grosse Pointe City police responding to complaints that Kiernan was out of control at home and breaking things in the house.

"His mother repeatedly told responding officers that she was afraid of Kiernan," an investigator writes in a report, adding the teen's most recent police contact before the crash was on Aug. 30, 2023, when police were called to Kiernan's house "because he was yelling and throwing items within the house because his mother refused to get him an American Express Gold Card."

In 2020, police responded to another call from the mom, who alleged "that Kiernan had just assaulted her and fled the area." According to a police report, Kiernan was being picked up at his friend’s house and became angry at his mother. 

"While in the front seat, Kiernan turned around and began punching his mother (who was in the back seat) and even bit her on her hand." 

Kiernan was arrested for domestic violence and lodged at the Wayne County youth home.


Thanksgiving break ends in tragedy

Flynn was a freshman at the University of Dayton when his dad picked him up from college last fall and brought him home for Thanksgiving break. It was about 8:15 p.m. when he got home. He hugged his dogs, jumped in his bed and put on a movie as he waited for his friend, Kiernan, to pick him up. The two had planned to visit a friend and then come back and play video games at Flynn's house.

Just before 9 p.m., Kiernan pulled up in his mom's new BMW and the two went to their mutual friend's house nearby. The three friends spoke in the driveway for a few minutes, then Kiernan and Flynn left.

What followed was a nightmare the MacKrell family cannot shake.

Kiernan took their son on a deadly, 7-second joy ride down Ridge Road, going so fast that the $70,000 sports car split in half following impact.

Their gentle-giant Flynn — the boy who wouldn't go to Cedar Point amusement park because he didn't like roller coasters — died in fear.

"Nothing's going to end the hell we've been through," Vanker said, crying as she noted she still can't clean Flynn's room. "It's inconceivable to me I've lost my son."

Two siblings also lost their younger brother that day: 20-year-old Thaddeus MacKrell and 23-year-old Lily MacKrell.

According to police reports, alcohol and drugs were not involved in the accident, which triggered multiple calls to 911 that night as horrified motorists and neighbors witnessed the BMW flying down the street.

"The vehicle was traveling at such a high rate of speed that the engine, transmission, front axle, and passenger compartment all separated from each other and scattered all over the roadway," an investigator wrote in his report.

Both the driver and passenger were in their seat belts.

Kiernan initially was able to step out of the vehicle on his own, but eventually collapsed and was transported to a nearby hospital with serious injuries.

Flynn was pronounced dead at the scene.


'I will see Flynn again'

On a recent morning, the MacKrell family gathered in their living room to share memories of Flynn and talk about their fight for justice. A large photo of the smiling college freshman adorned the fireplace mantle, along with an urn holding his ashes. The color orange, in honor of Flynn's tousled hair, was everywhere: Bracelets. Stickers. Flowers. His mom's outfit.

"Flynn was an angel. He was selfless. He wanted so much for you" said Thaddeus MacKrell, who got choked up as he talked about losing his younger brother.

Flynn was his brother's imaginative sidekick; the boy he pretended to be superheroes with as kids; the one who never outgrew his love of imaginary play, trampolines and backyard water slides.

"I've been robbed of the next 60 or 70 years of my life with Flynn," Thaddeus, an art student at the University of Michigan, said.

As his wife and son reminisced about Flynn, Thad MacKrell stared out of a living room window, struggling to find the words to express his pain and loss. 

He said he has had many sleepless nights, tortured by what was, and what could have been.

Flynn was his dreamer son, the imaginative kid who created fictional characters and stories in his head that he talked incessantly about until his family would say, "Write it down!" 

He dreamed of making movies one day and had a natural warmth that made people want to be around him, a trait that earned him the nickname the "Pied Piper."

This is how Thad MacKrell wants the world to remember his son: 

for how he lived, not how he died.

"Flynn wasn't worried about the future," his brother, Thaddeus said. "He wasn't worried about his own place in this world, because he innately didn't have to. He was in the moment. He was always in the moment."

And though he grieves daily, Thaddeus said, this much he's certain of: "I will see Flynn again."

Tresa Baldas can be reached at tbaldas@freepress.com.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Family wants mom of driver who killed son charged with manslaughter

28 August, 2024

I used a similar tracker app for my kids when they started driving. Had I caught any of them driving like this, even once, that would be the last time they got the keys. I cannot understand this parent's actions here. The X3 M is too much car for any new driver, and honestly too much for a lot of experienced drivers.

  • 28 August, 2024

    It makes absolutely no sense she would buy such a car except for the fact she was apparently bullied by her son and if she didn't do his bidding, he would break things and attack her physically. He needed to be in therapy, not given access to such a car.

    • 28 August, 2024
      I agree 💯 with you. She was probably afraid of him and did whatever he told her to do to keep the peace
      • 2 days ago

        She was terrified of him. Police have the reports where she went to them because his was physically violent to her. Police said he was totally out of control.

      • 2 days ago

        You call that peace? Reading this article, it sounds like that family lived in hell. When she called the police, she should have followed through and pressed charges. I personally do not understand women who get abused, call the police and then relinquish their statement. It sounds like he is very violent and were called many times to the house, so why the police just didn't take him in for a night or two is beyond me. The sad part is we can talk about what should've, could've or would've been done, but it is too late. Hopefully the good that comes out of this article is it will open the eyes of parents who have kids doing this and they put a stop to it. I live in Milwaukee and will not drive on the North side. The young people are driving out of control. They don't stop at stop signs or red lights. It is out of control.

    • 2 days ago

      The mother needed therapy too. What's wrong with parents who can't see that sometimes saying "NO!" is the greatest show of love?


    My opinion: When I read about car accidents and especially with teens, I will always remember 


  • Sarah Mroz who died in a car accident when I was in high school.

Please be careful driving.

I have written about her before.

  • This is from my Oct. 2023 blog post:


job interviews/ romance scams/ crazy car accident story





This is from my Oct. 2023 blog post:

"Give yourself some breathing space" comments/ Glenda Rigon's death/ Sarah Mroz's death







Apr. 5 , 2015 "The perils of praise": I cut out this Globe and Mail article by Erin Anderssen on September 9. 2011.  It's about praising kids on effort and work.  Don't praise them over something minor.  I tried to find the whole article, but I only found an excerpt of it. 

I cut it out because it's about teaching kids about perseverance, resilience, failure, and working hard.  Here's the excerpt:  


Too many compliments are not constructive, child experts say. But do you dare tell your kid he's average?

On an Ottawa soccer field in late June, Lothar Wulf was watching his son's competitive team lose badly. With few exceptions, they weren't exactly hustling. On the sidelines, the parents tried to be encouraging. "Good try," a few shouted when yet another scoring opportunity passed by. Finally, Mr. Wulf threw up his hands: Enough with the "nice tries," he said. Why can't parents be more honest with their kids? Better to be realistic and tell them: "Try harder."

...But are all these compliments constructive? And do they really make kids happy?

...For one thing, some students count on their parents to bail them out, says one Ottawa high-school teacher.

 "You know that if you give them a bad mark - but a fair mark - mom or dad will be phoning the school." Or, the teacher says, "I see kids that can't take any constructive criticism, they just fall apart. They're so fragile."

It's better to learn how to handle stumbling blocks and independence in Grade 9, she argues. "You don't want to be the 30-year-old guy whose mom is coming in to defend you after you've had a bad performance review."

...Children, he says, need to see their struggles with times tables as a learning moment rather than a statement about who they are - something parents and teachers can foster by focusing on effort and solutions as opposed to achievement.

Shallow praise has been a disaster to self-esteem - and success - says Barry Schwartz, a psychology professor at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania. Kids sheltered from failure or disappointment don't learn independence.

"It's a delicate balance, between being honest and discouraging, 

and dishonest and unrealistically encouraging," 

he says. "There's no recipe to follow." 

Parents want kids to have high expectations, 

he says, but what's the point if they aren't strong enough to get up again when they don't meet them?

Perseverance has been shown to be a better predictor of success than test scores and IQ, Prof. Schwartz says. 

In the end, there's something essential to be learned from a C on a report card or a loss on the soccer pitch: Life goes on. ...




These are the other 2 blog posts:

"Work trips are starting to look a lot like vacations"/ "Working from a tropical island is the new working from home"



"Back-to-office plans fall flat amid arbitrary rules, lack of communication"/ "20% of Canadians mostly working from home: StatCan"





My week:



Nov. 11, 2024 "Free transit actually is a thing, and you might be surprised where": Today I found this article by James Dunne on CBC.  I wrote about if there should be free transit before:


While public transit in many Canadian cities struggles with fares going up and ridership going down, in one community the passenger count has more than doubled in the past two years.

Transit ridership in the town of Orangeville, Ont., will, by the end of the year, have increased by 150 to 160 per cent, according to Mayor Lisa Post.  

"It's really impacting the entire community positively," she said. 

How it adds up

Free transit is seen by advocates as a social equity policy that helps people with lower incomes.

And, when priced right, reliable transit can also reduce traffic and pollution.

Orangeville isn't the first city in Canada to offer free transit for everyone, but it is the largest. Canmore, Alta., (pop. 17,036) went fare-free in 2022, after a few years testing it out in the summer. Mont-Tremblant, Que., (pop. 11,000) started its free transit program in 2019.  

Orangeville is twice the size of Canmore and, before going fare-free, about 100,000 riders a year used the three routes of its bus system. 

In 2023, the year free transit began, it had 225,000 riders and it's on track for more than 260,000 this year.

The budget for Orangeville transit is almost $1.2 million a year and in 2019, the last year for which data is available, fare revenue accounted for about $150,000.

What riders say 

Post says researching free transit included speaking with local food bank users who said not having to pay fares made "the difference of being able to get bread and milk." 

In addition to residents with low incomes, she says the program helps seniors get to medical appointments and more social outings, and young people get to school and part-time jobs. 

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/free-transit-orangeville-1.7378695



Nov. 12, 2024 Kotn: I was on BNN Bloomberg and I found out about this company and the charity work they do:

The idea for Kotn was dreamt up during a hot New York summer by three friends, our Co-founders, Ben, Mackenzie, and Rami. Spurred on by the thought, Rami took a trip back to his familial home of Egypt where he found himself living in a cotton-farming community in the Nile Delta for six months. There, the first real seed of Kotn was planted.

21

schools

3,712

farms

148,968

lives impacted




Our Schools


If you’re reading this now, you know your ABCs. But in rural Egypt, where our Egyptian cotton is grown, 32% of people don’t. With your help, we’re working to change that. In developing relationships with our farming communities, we learned that access to education for their children was their main need. So we started The ABCs Project.

21

Schools Funded

15

Built

88%

Girls Enrolled


With each Kotn order, we donate a portion of the proceeds annually to fund and build primary schools in the Nile Delta and Faiyum, Egypt, investing in our farming communities’ long-term economic growth. With the support of the local NGO Misr El Kheir Foundation, our goal is to provide every child in our farming communities with a safe, accessible, and quality education.


To date, we’ve funded 21 schools. This year, with your support, we’re donating a portion of proceeds towards the buildout and operations of even more schools.

Want to donate?





Nov. 13, 2024 Leo opinion:

Lisa A, Coquitlam , British Colombia, would like to know:

Have you started your holiday shopping yet?

No    60.29% (4445)

Yes    39.71% (2928)



My opinion: No, because in my family we don't exchange gifts.  This saves a lot of time, effort, and money.


Nov. 14, 2024 I have a cold: I only drank 1 coffee in the morning.  I drank a lot of water.  I took Advil.  I rested.