Woman charged after baby found in high school bathroom (tried to flush it and failed)

A teenager is in jail on a million dollars bail, accused of delivering a baby in the bathroom of her high school and then throwing it in the trash..

Police say 19-year old Cherlie Lafleur gave birth to the baby Tuesday at McCaskey East High School in Lancaster County.

The fetus was delivered and found at McCaskey East High School in a restroom, the dead fetus was found at about 10 p.m. last night by custodian in a trash can.

Police confirm they have identified and arrested the 19-year-old woman who delivered the fetus as a student at the school, she at first tried to flush the fetus down a toilet, when that didn't work she put the premature baby in a trash can.

“It's unusual, it has happened in the past, it has not happened in the last five years since I have been in office,” explained Lancaster County Coroner Dr. Stephen Diamantoni. “An autopsy was performed this morning, the autopsy revealed the fetus to be a male approximately 27 to 28 weeks gestation, that is roughly 12 or 13 weeks before the due date.”

The mother is 19-year-old Cherlie LaFleur, who is originally from Haiti. She has been charged with concealing the death of a child.

She was arranged Wednesday evening and in being held at the Lancaster County Prison with bail set at one million dollars, but was the fetus born alive?

“We can not always determine if there was a heartbeat at the time, realistically a child this premature is less likely to take a breath normally in controlled situation in a hospital, in an uncontrolled situation, born elsewhere, the likelihood that the child took a breath would be less, not impossible,” commented the Coroner.

“Right now it is an open investigation, so we are following the lead of the police department and working in cooperation with them to get all the details before we come to a judgment about what exactly took place,” District spokesperson Kelly Burkholder stated.

At a school baseball game, we talked to students and parents. Most had only found out about the incident Wednesday afternoon, although some had seen detectives and police today on the 'C' floor.

“Because they are clueless, I mean the girls who get pregnant obviously don't know what they are doing and to leave a baby in a toilet that is ignorant,” student and softball player Julianna Berrious commented.

“Maybe the parents weren't in the loop to give advice to the kid, the kid was maybe afraid of what the consequences might be,” added parent Joe Bawiec.

“You're taking care of another living thing, so it is just crazy,” one person stated.

Dr. Diamantoni is not only the coroner, but a family practice physician as well.

“We deliver many inner city teens, who face many challenges, challenges of drug use, challenges of unstable homes, challenges of unplanned pregnancies, but I can tell you there are superb programs out there to help teens through those difficult times and help assure that they will have healthy babies,” Dr. Diamantoni stated.

“We always want to make sure we have the interest of our students in the forefront and when situation like this happen we want to come together as a team and see what we can do better,” Burkholder concluded.

We have also confirmed there was a voluntary meeting of teachers this afternoon at the school.

Final autopsy results are still pending and even with the arrest of the mother the investigation by police is still ongoing. If you have any information Lancaster City Police would like to hear from you.

The School District of Lancaster released the following information on Thursday:

LANCASTER, PA – May 2, 2013. The School District of Lancaster continues to work with local authorities as they investigate the recent finding at McCaskey East. As previously reported, late yesterday afternoon a 19 year-old McCaskey East student was charged with concealing the death of a child after a fetus was found in a high school bathroom Tuesday evening.

McCaskey Campus staff met this morning to discuss the most recent events as they continue to unfold. Today, the District has safe rooms established at both high schools. Staff members or students directly affected by this current situation are encouraged to meet with counselors who are readily available in these rooms.

For anyone impacted by this tragedy or other life-altering event, McCaskey offers many student services including a Teen Elect program to support students who are pregnant and both male and female students who are parenting. In addition, trained mental health professionals provide on-site counseling services. Our Community Education Liaisons are available to connect families with needed resources. Any student, staff, community or family member can make a referral to these services by contacting their child’s school or our Coordinator of School, Family and Community Partnerships at 396-6501.

The District’s first and foremost priority is the health and well-being of our students. We appreciate the community’s support in ensuring all of our children are physically, socially and emotionally safe _______________________________________

Lancaster City Police have arrested and charged a woman after a janitor found a male fetus in the bathroom at McCaskey East High School.

Police say Cherlie LaFleur, 19, of Lancaster (formerly of Haiti) is charged with concealing the death of a child.

Police say LaFleur gave birth to the baby in the bathroom on Tuesday afternoon and then tried to flush the infant in the toilet. They say when that attempt failed, she disposed of the child in the bathroom trash can.

LaFleur was arraigned and was taken to Lancaster County Prison on $1 million bail. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Around 10 p.m. Tuesday night, Lancaster City Police were called to McCaskey East High school for the report of a deceased infant inside of a bathroom trash can.

Officers located the infant and detectives responded as well. The Coroner's Office also responded to the school, as did School District personnel and the District Attorney's Office.

Several of the custodians at the school were interviewed and provided information to detectives.

An autopsy Wednesday found that the infant was between 27 and 29 weeks and was a male. The final autopsy is pending.

As detectives reviewed the video, they determined the mother of the infant. She is a 19-year-old student at McCaskey East High School and lives in Lancaster and is currently being interviewed.

At this time the investigation is in the beginning stages and is being handled by Lancaster City Police and the District Attorney's Office.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Lancaster City Police at 735-3300. ___________________________________________

The Lancaster County Coroner has confirmed that a fetus was found at McCaskey East High School Tuesday night.

At this point the Lancaster County Coroner's Office is working with the Lancaster City Police Department to find out a cause.

CBS 21 is on the scene and will provide the latest information as it becomes available.

"This is what happens when you try to do an end-run around the syndicate. Now if she had done the right thing and paid $500 to her local planned parenthood affiliate, she wouldn't be in any trouble at all. "
~~~~~~~~~~~p> She was "charged with concealing the death of a child. "

Why aren't abortion clinics required to report live births?
~~~~~~~~~~~

That article states:

"The charge of concealing the death of a child can be made even if the child is born dead,"

On that thread muir_redwoods posted:

"They’ll charge her with practicing medicine without a license."
~~~~~~~~~~

The jury still hasn't returned a verdict on Gosnell.

Kind of jumping the gun on the labels, aren't you?

All of my own miscarriages were all well under 16 weeks, so I don't really know how a 27-29 week spontaneous abortion would “present”.

I didn't dialate beyond “2” at 36 weeks, after many hours of medically induced labor, and I ultimately delivered my baby via a surgical c-section, 24 hours after my water broke.

I can't even imagine my body suddenly physically expelling my six-seven month old fetus into a toilet bowl, absent agony.

I doubt very much that you can judge her, markomalley.

Or do you have special experiences that might explain your willingness to call her specific situation infanticide?

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