Sunday, October 17, 2010

Michel Pollard, 13, Jailed for Poisoning Adoptive Mom

Beyond the Headlines; Update on My Previous Post


Janet Tinoco, 50, told  Orlando detectives that she recently learned that Michel Pollard, whom she had adopted from Mexico, was placing insecticide in her food.


The adopted mother, Tinoco said that over the past year her health had deteriorated and she learned recently from doctors that traces of arsenic were found in her blood.  Pollard later confessed during a therapy to putting insecticide in Tinoco’s food.


Pollard, who attends Good Shepherd Catholic School and is in 7th grade,  was placed in a secure juvenile facility on August 13.


Tinoco said tests were being done on her other two biological children to determine whether or not they too were poisoned.
Is anyone upset that her other two kids are identified as being her biological children?

I wonder how long ago she adopted the girl; how old was the child when adopted? Neighbors said they adopted her "years back" and "even sent her to private school." Catholic School according to the report I read.

I wonder why they have different last names?

And, FOX News reports: "If a charge is brought against the girl, it likely would be for felony poisoning. Because she is adopted, she can not be deported." !

Was this child torn from "the only family she has ever known"...a fact we only seem to bemoan as a society when they are being taken from unrelated strangers to their natural parents but never in reverse!

My heart is with this Mexican child until we learn the details. A child doesn't do harm like this for no reason...and why did the mother make a police issue of it and not just a matter for family therapy and help for the child?? 
 

10 comments:

Triona Guidry said...

This is another example of media bias. They distinguish between adopted and biological because "adoption=bad seed" and "biological=good." All it does is stigmatize adoptees.

Sending to private school doesn't mean they treated her well. I think the authorities need to investigate if there was abuse or any other reason for the girl to act this way.

Mirah Riben said...

While at the recent St. Johns conference, I got to see the film, I Love You Mommy, about an 8-year old Chinese girl being made to leave the loving foster family (Mom, Dad and sister) she had lived with most all of her life, to be taken of by total strangers - having never even seen a non-Chinese before!

Her trauma is palpable as she is expected to accept this stranger immediately as "Mommy." She is forced to suddenly be immersed in total English language and forgets all of her Chinese within 18 months to the point that she is then unable to communicate any longer with her foster sister expect through translators.

It was very painful for me to watch. It felt to me like abuse. Some may see the end justifying it all, I do not. Point is, do we know if this young Mexican girl was torn from siblings? Do we know how it feels to be her? How angry he might at those who took her from all she has known?

It amazes me how in contested adoption - such as the one currently in the headlines involving Grayson - we hear outcries NOt to tear the child from "the only family they have ever known" and yet we do it all the time to children identified as "orphans" and praise it!!

Does it not feel the same to the child no matter who is doing the pulling away and the tearing from the known to the unknown? Watching it played out in the film was like witnessing a kidnapping...with the kidnappers sometimes dying the child's hair and changing their appearance...only in this case it was the language that was changed to make her "American."

And the adoptive mother, arrives back from 10 days in China and the first thing she says at the airport is how good it is to hear English again, while forcing this child to learn English form DAY ONE in the hotel in China!! Then admonishing her repeatedly in long English sentences: "I cannot help you if you cannot communicate to me what it is you want!" It was excruciatingly painful to watch.

We know far too little about how this child came into this family or how she was treated.

It is odd IMO that the ap called the police and didn't instead seek help for the child.

Anonymous said...

The girl confessed to the poisoning while in therapy. Doesn't that mean thar they did seek help for her? I don't care which movie you saw. Does anything make it ok to try to poison other people? By the way, the girl has the last name of the adoptive father, like in any family in which the wife decides not to change her last name.

Mirah Riben said...

Thank you for clarifying the name.

Yes, at some point she spoke to a therapist. Was that court ordered after the fact? In any event the adopters called the cops and had the child arrested and charged as a criminal instead of choosing to deal with therapeutically.

Anonymous said...

You are all absolute fools. You have no idea what you're talking about- the girl POISONED the family, with the intention of KILLING them. I happen to know that the family was not at all abusive towards the child, and that they did not "snatch" her away from her biological family- her real mother abandoned the child and she was living in an orphanage in Mexico. These caring people adopted her with the intention of making her a part of their family, just as much as their own two biological children. However, the girl was suffering from some sort of psychological damage from her previous living situation, and for whatever reason decided to lash out at the family that had taken her in. She was plently old enough to know what she was doing (she was 13), and although her actions were undoubtedly influenced by the unfortuante circumstances surrounding her early life in Mexico, this does not excuse her behavior. What bothers me most is that many people seem to be blaming the FAMILY for what happened, when they are the true victims in this situation. Now they are suffering health problems from which they may never recover, and people seem to be more concerned with the fate of the girl who did this to them. I've never been so disgusted with anything in my entire life.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous,

"Blaming the family" - Wasn't this little girl part of that family too? In calling the police and sending her to jail, they're actively turning her away from the family. Also, in the case of mental illness you would never send someone to jail for mental health care. You could Baker Act them (but she's a minor so that isn't an issue) or send them to a mental health facility. Obviously, she needs medical mental health attention along with serious compassion and therapy.

"Fate of the girl" - You mean the fate of their daughter, right? Because she IS their daughter. Not just some girl who poisoned them. Also, when you say the family members are the true victims, you're absolutely right BUT you aren't including Michel in that statement.

Finally, unless you were living with that family you honestly don't know if they were abusive or not at all.

Mirah Riben said...

Thank you. EXCELLENT points!

Anonymous said...

I know this girl personally. I was in foster care with her in 2012. She is literally crazy! She talked about poisoning our foster parents throughout my stay at the group home. I aged out 8 months later so I do not know what else has been "planned" in her head. This girl is not just an innocent little girl. She is rude, cruel, violent, and crazy. Just an fyi.

Anonymous said...

I know this girl personally. I was in foster care with her in 2012. She is literally crazy! She talked about poisoning our foster parents throughout my stay at the group home. I aged out 8 months later so I do not know what else has been "planned" in her head. This girl is not just an innocent little girl. She is rude, cruel, violent, and crazy. Just an fyi.

Mirah Riben said...

Multiple rejections and abandonment can do that to a person, especially one who may have some psychological problems to being with.

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