There’s been a big bru-ha-ha brewing in the Mommy-blogging and Twitter communities this week over the death of a child. It’s not the first time a parent has tweeted about their child’s death. It is the first time the parent has gotten a harsh backlash for it, including accusations of neglect.
On Monday, December 14, Shellie Ross was outside with her two-year-old son Bryson. When a fog started rolling in, she tweeted about it scaring her chickens back into the coop and added a picture via Twitpic at 5:22 pm. At 6:12, she tweeted, “Please pray like never before, my 2 yr old fell in the pool” after she found Bryson in the bottom of the family pool. According to Brevard County Fire-Rescue records, a 911 call was received at 5:38 pm. Within minutes, paramedics arrived, finding Bryson unconscious and in cardiac arrest. At 11:08, Shellie tweeted that she was “Remembering my million dollar baby” and posted a picture of her deceased son.
The next morning, Madison McGraw entered the story by requesting verification of the story. Until that point, the response was the typical one of sympathy and condolences. After that, Twitter became a battleground between those sympathizing with Shellie and those accusing her. An interesting observation: those that sympathize with Shellie know her; those that accuse her do not.
Here’s a look at the core timeline:
5:22 pm – Tweet from @military_mom: Fog is rolling in thick scared the birds back in the coop (5:22 PM Dec 14th from Echofon)
5:38 pm – 911 call to Brevard County Fire-Rescue
6:12 pm – Tweet from @military_mom: Please pray like never before, my 2 yr old fell in the pool. (6:12 PM Dec 14th from Echofon)
11:08 pm – Tweet from @military_mom: Remembering my million dollar baby http://twitpic.com/tkt9t (11:08 PM Dec 14th from Echofon)
7:54 am – Tweet from @madisonmcgraw: @Florida_Today are there any reports of 2 year old drownings in FL? @military_mom claims her son died yesterday & is tweeting it (7:54 AM Dec 15th from web)
There were 16 minutes between the last tweet and the 911 call. Any mother knows that a veritable lifetime can happen inside of 16 minutes when you have a two-year-old. We also know how quickly those kids can run and get away. Never mind 16 minutes – 16 seconds is plenty of time for a child to get into all kinds of mischief or danger. How many of us have had a child get burned, eat medicine like candy, or make a disastrous mess in the few seconds that we had our backs turned?
The 911 call was made by her other son. I can only imagine she was fishing Bryson out of the pool and attempting resuscitation while he made that call. 34 minutes after the call, Mrs. Ross tweeted that Bryson had fallen in the pool. Note that she did not say that he had drowned, or was dead. She simply stated that he had fallen in the pool and asked for prayer.
It was only after everything was done and over with that Madison McGraw entered the picture. After reading of Shellie’s original tweet then reading the “death tweet,” McGraw then intently read her timeline for two hours, according to her blog post about the story. McGraw then apparently made it a personal quest to vilify Shellie Ross, tweeting frequently about the situation, saying that the mom was ”ALWAYS tweeting” and that Bryson would still be alive had his mother not had a Twitter account, chickens, or an iPhone.
Let’s see: the mother is a well-known and well-followed Mommy-blogger that posted a prayer request after an accident; the accuser is an unknown author that began a social media crusade almost eight hours after the mother’s last tweet revealing her son’s death. Hmm, I think I smell another publicity stunt.
