Childhood Obesity on Trial in South Carolina

Lawyers, health and welfare advocates, product manufacturers, and perhaps even farmers might want to pay attention to a story coming out of South Carolina that is starting to get national attention.

Jerri Gray has a son named Alexander Draper Gray, who, at the age of 14 weighed 555 lbs. Alexander’s weight prompted South Carolina authorities to arrest Gray in June and charge her with criminal neglect, reports Ron Barnett in the USA Today. After finding Gray and Alexander in Baltimore, MD, Gray has been brought back to South Carolina to face her charges and Alexander is currently in foster care.

Barnett reports that Gray’s arrest warrant was issued after she failed to appear at a previous court hearing in which Alexander was to be turned over to foster care. The State Department of Social Services was alerted of Alexander’s health, after which they moved to take custody of the child. Gray’s warrant alleges her son’s weight was ‘“serious and threatening to his health”’ and ‘“created an unreasonable risk of harm.”’

The key to the case could turn on whether or not the threat facing Alexander was imminent. Barnett writes in his article that, according to University of Virginia School of Law professor Richard Balnave, most state laws require the danger to the child be imminent, in that the parent could have taken action to prevent said danger but didn’t, before neglect is found. Since many health problems related to child obesity do not arise until adulthood it is difficult show the imminent threat, and thus charges are not filed.

For her part, Gray’s attorney Grant Varner argues his client was following nutritional guidelines set by the State Department of Social Services, so Alexander must have gained his weight while at school or when not in his mother’s immediate care, thus she is not negligent for his weight gain. Varner also points out in Barnett’s story the potential for ‘“Pandora’s box”’ to be opened (litigiously speaking) if Gray is found guilty of the charges. The question of where civil liability issues can take this area of law may become a province of the court system for some time.

Cases like Gray’s have been considered previously in Texas, Pennsylvania, California, New York, New Mexico, and Indiana. As Barnett reports, in each case, with the exception of the California case, the court moved to expand the medical definition of neglect to include “morbid obesity” and ruled the children were guilty of neglect. However, criminal charges have only been brought in California and Indiana, and the parents were not sentenced to jail time in either case.

To read the Barnett story click here. To read more information on childhood obesity click here.

Posted: 07/22/09