Tag Archive for: Shanesha Taylor

Remember Shanesha Taylor?

In July, I wrote about Shanesha Taylor. She was a mom who left her two young children in the car when she went for a job interview in Arizona on an 83 degree day. People found her children and called for help. Shanesha was arrested.

When Shanesha’s mugshot got into the press, her tears caused a strong reaction from the public. People ended up donating more than $115K in donations (source). They believed Shanesha deserved a second chance and the prosecutor in this case gave it to her.

The court took her apology and desire for a second chance and said that she must deposit $60K into a trust fund account for the children by a certain date.

I didn’t believe Shanesha was sincere at all and wrote about it in July. You can read my thoughts here.

As suspected, Shanesha didn’t put any money aside for her kids, and when asked for show proof that she still had the funds, she was unable to do so.

She is now facing child abuse charges for leaving her kids unattended in the car, and will be tried in December!

I am all about giving people a second chance, but this woman was way to flippant in the media to deserve it, and I suspect prosecutors watched closely as well and weren’t about to let her slip through the cracks!

Shanesha Taylor Leaves Kids in Hot Car

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Shanesha Taylor claims desperation as the reason she left her kids in the car in Arizona when she went into a job interview. She left two very young children, 2-years and 6 months, in their car seats with the windows cracked only an inch with the keys in the ignition. When the children were rescued, it was already 100 degrees inside the car.

This week prosecutors dropped felony charges, if she attended programs for parenting and substance abuse.

I am troubled by Shanesha’s responses in this interview. The way Shanesha talks about the babysitter and the reason she didn’t have one is hot for me. You can clearly see her speech patterns change, and what I call “thinking-on-her-feet behavior”. She doesn’t appear to be recollecting what actually happened. This is a huge red flag.

I seriously question if she ever had a babysitter.

When Matt Lauer asks Shanesha, “Despite the circumstances, did you act reasonably and responsibly?”

Listen to Shanesha’s response.

She says “That’s a difficult question”.

What??

I can understand she may have made a bad decisions because of stress, but I don’t understand not owning up to it now–especially considering she is getting a second chance!

She doesn’t yet own what she did was dangerous, and furthermore her answer shows no emotional compassion (regret/remorse) that she nearly killed her kids with her poor decision making at a supposed time of “crisis”.

With this response, I am worried for Shanesha’s children. People only make changes when they are willing to own up to their shortcomings and claim the errors that they made. No one is perfect, but given a second chance if she cannot clearly see what she did was the wrong choice, she has a high propensity to make the same decision again, and this next time could cost her children’s lives.

I am also sad that so many people stood up to help her when she shows no remorse or compassion for her children, the danger she put them in, and for her bad judgements.