I want to continue making readers aware of an especially troubling case in Maryland that involves the death of Ji’Aire Simms, a three year-old boy nicknamed “Sumo” because of his chubby cheeks. He died in May this year from hypothermia and dehydration after being pushed in a playground swing for 40 hours straight by his mother, Romechia Simms, age 25, who reportedly had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. She never left his side and continued pushing him during a rain storm and after he already had died. (He’d been dead two days when the police arrived.)
This week, The Washington Post reported that a judge had lowered Simms’ bond so that her mother,Vontasha Simms, could get her troubled daughter out of jail and, hopefully, into treatment before she is brought to court to face charges of manslaughter and first-degree child abuse punishable by 45 years in prison.
What’s upsetting about this news story is not that Simms has been released from jail, but her mother’s claim that Simms did not receive any mental health treatment while incarcerated.