No one really knows why J. Daniel Scruggs, a troubled 12-year-old in Meriden, Conn., wrapped a tie around his neck and hanged himself in his bedroom closet. But there are clues. He had been without a father since he was 3 months old. His grandfather, the closest thing to a dad in his life, had died the year before. He was bullied at school, so terrified that he would defecate in his pants so he would be sent home. His home was filthy. His mother worked two jobs, leaving little time to be shared with him.
No one knows for sure why he chose death, which is why the criminal conviction Monday of his mother looks both so desperate and so callous. The prosecutor who brought charges of "risk to injury of a minor" against Judith Scruggs said he wasn't trying to hold her responsible for the death, but the jury foreman told the Hartford Courant the case was "about a young child who wasn't given the opportunity to live a healthy life who, in the end, had his life tragically cut short." In other words, this was about making the mother pay for the suicide of her own son.
The evidence presented to jurors certainly portrayed a home in considerable disarray, with conditions one police officer described as "filthy and disgusting," and Scruggs had been remarkably slow to respond to the visible clues of her son's despair. But, outside the courtroom, a report issued by the Connecticut Office of the Child Advocate found plenty of blame to pass around: "J. Daniel's safety system, including his mother, the school, the state's child protection agency, and the Superior Court for Juvenile Matters each neglected to conduct complete assessments of the boy's emotional strengths and weaknesses." In fact, a state Department of Children and Families investigator had checked into Daniel's situation and concluded there was no neglect, closing the case one week before he died.
Suicide is now the third leading cause of death for teenagers, and it might be comforting to think that prosecuting the mothers could somehow help. But putting this mother in prison will do little to improve the state oversight, school responsibilities and parental awareness that might help to prevent the next tragedy. Singling out Daniel's mother won't help the next boy who feels victimized.
