No, LIB it is harsh and controversial...

There is some anecdotal evidence to show that some of our more creative bretheren came from bad parenting.

Back to the topic though, I think it is too simple to say he is a "bad" parent - now I realise that this is controversial! But, from what I understood he had a psychiatric condition - or did I catch that wrong?

If he did, then I think it is important to understand that psychiatric conditions are not just "made up". They are real and cause real abnormal behaviour (case in point). So unsuitable yes, but not necessarily bad.

If he didn't, then you can ignore my post, and he is a bad parent.

Either way, terrible for the mother and survivors.

..the mother, by the way, is a prostitute.

If I understand it correctly the father has been found by a psychiatrist to be of sound mind. The mother is trying to pin the blame on the authorities because she warned them two years ago that something like this might happen but they still gave him custody as she was linked to prostitution. The mother is Brasilien, and I think in situations like this where one parent is Swiss and one is not the authorities tend to side with the Swiss parent if they are not married.

I think its the child the father tried to kill 20 years ago who is now in his 30's that is suffering from psychiatric problems.

So the Swiss authorities thought it better to give custody to a homicidal father, with a proven track record, over a prostitute mother?

That's what they're discussing at the moment.. there are some huge questions to the Vorsorgebehörde/Child services pending... this isn't over by a long shot...

...yes. These 2 individuals should have never had kids in Switzerland.

It seems like this is the case. As much as I love a lot of things about Switzerland the rights of a non-Swiss parent of a Swiss child seem to be sadly lacking.

I do think there is possibly more to this story then is being told though.

Not possibly but definitely.

...come on now, I'm not that harsh and controversial. Deep down I am cuddly and warm.

i don't watch the news and don't read newspapers. i figure if it's important enough, i'll hear about it anyway.

yes, and it'll be on the EF sooner or later anyway.

Just wanted to respond to your original question. I think it is importart that the school or perhaps group of parents gets together to help the class cope with such an event. Perhaps a child psychologist or similar.

In the case of my daughter's class of 5 year olds a few years ago, they had to cope with the death of a classmate. It was very traumatic. One of the mothers was a psychologist, and she provided a few pages of written advice for parents on how to cope and help young children understand and deal with the situation. The school also brought in a bereavement/psychologist specialist for young children, to help explain and cope at their level of understanding. I think it all helped, but daughter still has some sad moments about the indicent 2+ years later. Best to have some professional help available to all those concerned in my opinion.

I don't think so.

I knew the names of our childrens' classmates when they were in Kindergarten, and if a photo and name of one of those children were all over the newspapers, I can't imagine how I would have missed it. Still, local school, local news. Impossible that the neighbourhood parents weren't talking about it.

As a parent I would rather my child heard this news from me, and not at school.

Agreed, but the OP has stated several times that they were on holiday abroad when it happened. the son only found out yesterday at Kindergarten.

A horrible incident and of course a terrible shock to a young child.

On the other hand, life is like this and it would not be a good thing to shield a child from this knowledge.
Bad things happen.....we can't and shouldn't wrap our kids up in cotton wool.

And that, understandably, the name of the child had not been released in the news at that time.

Just more evidence of Switzeland's racist sexist policies

how many expats watch the local news, read the local paper (which in our area is once a week) etc etc, how many watch and read while on holiday?? the first thing we do when getting back from hols (usually on the day before school starts again) isn't to phone up all the local parents to see if anyone died!

Of course not.

But if you haven't watched the news for weeks you don't go announcing stuff on the EF without first checking whether maybe it isn't already common knowledge.

This incident hits close to home because of the first attempted murder by the father.

Not far from where I live, back in the 90's, the father beat his first son and left him in a ravine to die. He called the authorities 18 hours later to confess what he had done. Rescuers found the boy alive. The man was prosecuted and sent to jail.

He later married a Brazilian prostitute and they had a child. The woman got out of prostitution and found a regular job. She also left her husband but he got custody of the child. Unfortunately, the community officials, whom I believe are just regular citizens chosen for a public position, overlooked the risks of this man. The mother had warned officials but was ignored. Her lawyer had warned officials but was ignored.

Who's to blame? The father and the officials. The latter refused to take the warnings seriously.

It was reported the father had thought about killing himself after he killed his son but had second thoughts. A shame about those second thoughts.