On March 19th 2008, our daughter Kendras day care provider Talisha Lavette Smith-Sherrod, struck her so hard on the left side of her head that she caused our child to suffer a brain hemorrhage. Talisha Smith did not inform us of this incident after it happened. Instead she allowed our child to suffer for 8 hours while in her care without the medical attention she was in desperate need of. Instead she lied to us about the events of that day in an attempt to cover up her heinous act. We spent the next 6 days in the Childrens Hospital and ICU. During her stay in the hospital the opthamologist also found Retinal Hemorrhages which is an indication that our then 6 month old baby was violently shaken in addition to being struck. The doctors made comment to us in the hospital that just another half pound of force to our baby's head and she would not have survived.

On Dec 8^th 2008 Talisha Smith-Sherrod plead guilty in court to the felony charge of “ Great Bodily Injury to a Child” . Judge Kenneth Goode gave her a 10 year suspended sentence of 5 years PROBATION! Talisha Smith got what is in effect a slap on the wrist for injuring our beautiful daughter Kendra Gaddie.  I ask all who read the words printed here and are outraged by the results of this case, to please voice their discontent to their State Representative in the hopes of affecting change in the way that sentences for violent crimes against our children are handed out. Together we can ensure that no parent ever has to watch the criminals who hurt your child and are convicted of these types of crimes, smile at you and walk out the door on the day of their sentencing.

 We are asking all who visit this site to pass this site information on to whomever you feel can affect the needed change. Pass it on to all parents. Our plan is to get minimum jail sentences in place for those who commit violent crimes against children. We feel that PROBATION for crimes of this nature is nothing more than a slap on the wrist, Justice it is not!. Not for any innocent child.

Passage of Kendra's Act Delayed

The passage Kendras Act (S348)was
delayed in the SC legislature. Senator Brad Hutto of Orangeburg has placed a minority report on the Bill which stops all further debate until we can get it set for special order at the begining of next session. Senator Hutto is oposed to manditory minimums. Our position is that for crimes against children "Probation" should never be an option on the table. Please help us by calling your Senate and House Representatives and asking for their support of this bill. Working together we can make this happen!

To ALL South Carolina residents and parents that agree with what we all would like done: please go to the next link.  

If you navigate to the following link you can enter in your zip code and get a listing of all of the Representatives you can contact. You can also email most of them right from the page

 http://www.congress.org/congressorg/home/