Seventh grader saw dead dad in DUI presentation

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http://www.wbir.com/news/news.aspx?storyid=30878

The mother of a Knox County student suing the schools and the Knoxville Police Department for more than a million dollars speaks out.

Marla Higginbothem says her daughter saw graphic pictures of her dead father during a presentation designed to discourage drunk driving.Advertisement

While Knoxville police usually shield the public from accident scenes, last August they showed some Holston Middle School seventh graders pictures of mangled bodies and bloody cars.

They say the program’s goal is to scare kids straight at the age studies show many have already taken their first drink.

However, Higginbotham says she knew right away her daughter saw something she shouldn’t have.

“How would you feel, when you see your biological dead father? Or anyone, anybody’s father laying in a pool of blood with his lips half of and his face distorted?” Higginbothem explains. “She didn’t get her feet in the car and she just began to ask me questions. I think she said she saw a Scott Cabage or somebody, and I said, ‘He’s probably kin to Daddy Lynn.’”

It turned out one of the dead drunk drivers was her father.

A KPD officer asked the health class if anyone knew William Lynn Cabage before showing the pictures, but the girl didn’t recognize the name.

“She didn’t know him as William, she knew him as Daddy Lynn,” Higginbotham explains.

Higginbotham also says her now 13-year old daughter hasn’t seen her father since 1997, when she was approximately 4 years old.

Still, she says the photos hit too close to home.

Knox County has been paying for a home-school teacher for the girl and her brother since August.

“I don’t think at that age you should show those graphic pictures,” Higginbotham says. “But if they choose to do that, they should have went to another city. Go to California. Go to Georgia. Go anywhere. Don’t go ten minutes away from where the accident happened.”

KPD says the photos prove deadly accidents do happen here, so they have greater impact.

One girl just learned more than she wanted to know.

“There is no amount of money they could give us that would take the negative images that my child will take to the grave with her,” Higginbotham says.

News
Jerry Owens , Photographer
Kay Watson , Reporter
Last updated: 12/21/2005 7:25:34 PM

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IMHO - that’s too young for that.

Why would they show local pics/video? Assholes

I hope the father haunts the shit out of the KPD

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I don’t have kids but I have mixed feeelings about it. 7th grade is middle school around here and in smaller schools its high school like riverview in oakmont.

I think the method is fine, the execution was poor. You NEVER use local incidents and you NEVER disclose names even though its public record once you are deceased. They should have used examples from some other state preferably several states away…

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that would be fucking horrible

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maybe its because you’re job desensitizes you, but its pretty much plain as day to me that its fucking retarded for police to show pictures of mangled corpses, no matter where they are from. Shit like this is what makes people want to put their kids in private schools.

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wrong maybe if they showed people who died in DUI’s or people who OD and their bodies blow up like balloons because of all the fluid we would not have every kid in the US trying Oxy’s or blow by the time they reach high school. I know this will be hard for you to understand but I will put it in better terms. Most Americans DO NOT want their kids to turn out like you.

People put their kids in private schools because they baby them too much

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I don’t disagree with the scare tactic to discourage kids from doing certain things, but I do disagree with showing corpses especially local people.

I think it would have been just as effective to show the accident scene sans corpse, show a home video of the victim while they’re alive, and show a funeral picture or something…with the family’s consent of course. Just like those billboards with the “killed by drunk driver”.

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and iw ould think they would be smart enough to check that kind of shit…

i am drunkright now but i have a DD all the time if im drinking

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her dad died while drunk driving-- strike 1

the girl didnt even know her own fathers name-- come the fuck on. i know my dad’s name and i wish he was dead. her is this girl who “loves” her father but dont know his name–nigga please-- strike 2

7th grade is when it becomes cool to go party. the guys may not drink yet, but thats because the older jr’s and sr’s wont give them beer b/c they are too busy feeding booze to the girls in the same grade trying to get to 2nd base. foul tip…

finally, 7th grade, you are 12/13 years old. guys start playing w/ their weiners, girls grow boobs (and in some cases asses too). im sure they can see a dead fucking body by now. they only seen how many on cnn and if the lazy emo fucks actually read- on the front page of newspapers w/ pictures depicting war or whatever. strike 3 batter out game over.

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um no asshole, maybe if you would stop getting high and dancing in a fucking circle you would realize this shit happens and can happen at any time. Christ kids are watching horror films at that age and you have a problem with a real life horror?

Quit being an idiot.

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wrong i put my son in catholic school for smaller class size discipline religion and i do not want son taught any gay sensitivity classes…

last reason not to turn into darkstar…:stick:

but everyone might not agree but who cares its my son and this is how i raise him

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if the guy wasn’t a drunk-driving piece of shit, the kid wouldn’t be in this situation today. i wholeheartedly agree with showing kids the mangled corpses of drunk drivers.

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:rofl:

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^ agree

i feel bad tho