As I stand in the window of my classroom and watch children coming to school, my mind wanders to a little boy that will be absent from his own school today. This boy has haunted my thoughts for many days. I find myself forgetting what I am doing or where I am every once in a while as that little boy's face claims my attention. When I close my eyes, I can see him, almost feel his smile.

I know his name and where his home is located. I even know what school holds his attendance records. He has a thirteen-year-old brother. He liked to play basketball and was afraid of dogs. There is so much I know about this little boy even though I never met him. A little boy I'll never know, except that he could have been any boy in any neighborhood. For this reason, I am going to use an alias instead of his real name.

Allen was a ten year old boy that died in a park near his home on Monday, March 5, 2001. That evening he left his home to go play basketball. While Allen was in the park, a pack of dogs attacked and mauled him to death. Reports indicate that Allen's body was chewed up beyond recognition. A man walking his own dog through the park the next morning found Allen's body with two dogs still feasting on it.

There had been no reports of missing children during the night. Police had to check with the local schools to see which students were absent on Tuesday to help them identify Allen. His ball was found not far from his body in the park, which also aided in the identification of the boy. Allen's mother did not know her son was missing. She supposedly told police she thought he had spent the night with a friend. This friend had no memory of Allen wanting to spend the night and the mother of the friend did not even know Allen or Allen's mother.

Neighbors reported hearing a bunch of dogs making noise. They believed it was just a group of dogs fighting and did not go to check on the noise. There is no way to tell for sure which dogs exactly were responsible for the attack. The autopsy report indicated that Allen lived through most of the attack.

Charges of child endangerment have been filed against Allen's mother. She could be facing many years in jail for not knowing where her child was during his last hours alive. His brother has been placed with a foster family while the mother is under arrest. There has been no mention of a father. Supposedly, Allen's family just recently moved to the area from another state.

Out of the ten dogs found, their owners have reclaimed some. It was not necessarily strays that attacked Allen. The thing about dogs is that until they are domesticated and trained, they do not usually attack humans. Their first choice of defense is to run away. A dog's instincts are geared toward preservation, not aggression. Once a dog gets a feel for the attack, it will attack over and over again. City strays are usually dogs that people have taken responsibility for, trained and then neglected.

There have been at least two memorial services and a funeral held in Allen's honor. The park where he died has a display of cards, stuffed animals and flowers in Allen's memory. It also has a memorial that was built to serve as a constant reminder of the little boy that no one bothered to pay much attention to before he died.

There is so much that bothers me about the whole situation. Why didn't Allen's mother check on him? Why didn't someone in the neighborhood check to see what all the noise was about? Why would domesticated dogs attack a child in such a way? Why were these dogs allowed to roam the streets when there are leash laws in affect for city animals?

Every day since Allen's death these questions have swirled around inside of me. As I go over the events and the facts that have been given to the public in general, I go numb. I am not sure how to express my feelings or thoughts so I sit writing in order to try and make sense of all the insanity of the situation. So much has been done in Allen's honor since he died, I can't help but wonder why nothing was done for him while he was still alive.

We have a little boy that very few people noticed until he was violently and tragically killed by dogs that should not have had the instinct to kill and eat him. No one knew where he was or even seemed worried that his smiling face was not near by. Noise that should have alarmed people went by without so much as a nod in acknowledgement. It is enough that should make anyone tremble with the implications of the whole situation. Yet, the only things we hear about are the funerals and memorial services. They showed people crying and mourning this child on television and I wonder how many of them really were close to him.

What bothers me the most about Allen's death is my own answer to a very specific question. When I ask myself what I would have done had I been in the neighborhood and heard the noise coming from the park, I cannot answer definitely that I would have done something. I very well could have just brushed it off as noise just as others had done. This knowledge of myself appalls me. Why have so many of us allowed ourselves to become detached from our own species?

I shed tears for a little boy that I never met. My heart aches for a child that I am not sure I would have helped if I had been in the place to help him. And, my conscience is troubled when I think about the fact that I probably would not even have written something like this had Allen's picture never flashed across my television screen announcing his death.

Chrystal McCoy
04/15/01