A toddler drowned only a few feet from her babysitter while the woman allegedly browsed Facebook.
Kariasa Thomas, 37, of Dallas was charged with reckless injury to a child after the drowning, according to the New York Daily News. Thomas was at her apartment complex's pool last Friday evening, which was closed, with her husband, daughter, and four of her friend's children aged 3 to 7, authorities said.
The little girl didn't know how to swim so Thomas had the child just stand on the steps leading into the pool, according to an affidavit reported by the Dallas Morning News. Thomas sat at the side of the pool, playing with her pitbull and logged into Facebook for about 15 minutes.
When the toddler didn't respond to her voice, Thomas borrowed a security guard's flashlight to look for the child and "accidentally kicked" the child's body as she stepped into the pool, the Daily News reported. The toddler was pronounced dead at an area hospital.
Thomas was booked on Saturday and her bail was set at $25,000.
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We wrote about a similar story in 2011, when a Colorado woman played an addictive Facebook social game while her child drowned in the bathtub. Another mother in Florida pleaded guilty to strangling her child for interrupting while she was playing FarmVille on Facebook.
We understand that checking Facebook, playing games or texting can be engrossing, but people have to be cognizant and responsible enough to know when to put the smartphone away, especially for the safety of themselves and others.
