Monday, May 17, 2010

Nursery at court?

The hallway outside the courtroom in Scarborough is full of children. They crawl around, screaming, on the not very clean floors.

Crying children are a fixture of courthouses across Ontario. They are so common as to go unremarked. I suppose the accused or their family have no place to put the children when they go to court.

But it's hardly a healthy place, the sounds of chesty coughing is matched only by wailing babes. And as is not so widely known, TB is common enough among the denizens of criminal courts.

I suppose proposing a nursery at the courts might sound too much like socialist irony, but it's not a bad idea. And I don't mean the suggestion as social commentary ... .

8 comments:

WesternGrit said...

Very good idea. We need to break the chain of neglect somewhere... This would be a good start.

deBeauxOs said...

Psst, James.

They're called child care centres.

"Nurseries" is Victorian.

Anonymous said...

Gee. As a juror it was my responsibility to make sure my kids had supervision. The judge and courts could not give a rats ass what I did with them; just don't bring them to the courthouse.

deBeauxOs said...

Gee, Anonymous - not everyone is as lucky as you are, to have a reliable caregiver for your children, whenever and wherever you require that service.

I'm a mother, and I was able to organize care for my daughter when necessary by asking family members or friends to help me.

Anonymous, do be careful not to injure yourself when you fall off your high horse.

James C Morton said...

deBeauxOs

Good point -- on the other hand I still call the things you wear at the pool "bathing costumes" ...

Anonymous said...

I think you missed my point debeauxOs.

Even if you or I could not arrange childcare it was our responsibiloity to be there.I was required by law to attend.So was everybody else.We did not have the option to bring them along.

So, the accused get to bring their kids to play in the hallway while the rest of us would be fined.

Anonymous said...

I suspect some people going to court leave their kids unattended at home. No?

Okie said...

Full courtrooms, and waiting areas full of Children.

A measure of the current state of affairs. Great gig for the Justice Industry though.

Where there once were few, now there are many