12-year-old violently killed by her mother over virginity

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) - A woman angry with her 12-year-old daughter for having sex forced the girl to drink bleach and sat on her until the child died, a police detective said. The girl's 9-year-old brother was forced to watch the attack, Detective Warren Cotton testified Thursday in a preliminary hearing for Tunisia Archie, 31.

Cotton said Archie... told authorities she was disturbed because ``her daughter told her that she was no longer a virgin.''

She said she poured bleach into Jasmine's mouth and the child vomited, he said, then sat on her until she stopped breathing, Cotton testified.

Archie forced Jasmine's 9-year-old brother Jacorey to watch the attack and ``told him that if he shed a tear that she was going to kill him, too,'' Cotton testified.

It's incredibly hard to comment on a story like this succinctly: it's hard to comment on it at all, because it's just so terrible and tragic.

One of the toughest parts about this is that we know from users at Scarleteen that what Jasmine's mother thought virginity was and what Jasmine did may have been two completely different things. For all we know, Archie masturbated and decided that meant she wasn't a virgin anymore: for all we know, she was raped. Whether or not she actually had any sort of consensual partnered sex, we'll likely never know.

It's possible Jasmine's mother is not a sane person, and it's possible she was an abusive parent already. But it's also possible neither of these things is so, and while something like this isn't at all common, people getting or feeling or behaving very out of control about ideas of virginity and chastity, about teenage sexuality in general is not, sadly, uncommon. There is a long, long history of some heinous atrocities around notions of virginity, and a far longer list of less awful, but still violent and/or abusive aproaches to virginity, to teen sexuality and development, to women's sexuality. As we've said in other places before, in many ways, most ideas about virginity are rooted in gross sexual oppression, in viewing women and their bodies as property, in all kinds of things which are in no way lovely, spiritual nor empowering.

Again, this is obviously an incredibly sad and extreme case, but for the sake of young women like Jasmine, we'd be doing everyone a service by thinking long and hard about the sexual ideals and ideas we espouse and applaud, the many ways in which they have been applied and might be applied still, and how we might all be served by changing the way we look at things and what we subscribe to. It's the very least we can do.

Comments

This mother is without a doubt mentally ill. I am familiar with this case, because I live in the same city. The mother has suffered from mental illness for a long time. She was prehab psychotic at the time of the murder. The mother should not have to live the rest of her life prison where she will not recieve the mentall health services she so desperatly needs. She should be sent to a psychiatric facility and made as sane as possible. This will cause more damage because in her "right" mind she will realize exactly what a horrible thing she has done.
God Bless Jasmine. Remember God looks after fools and babies and if this case he is looking after them both.

I remember when this first happened, I was nine years old. Had everyone's parents making sure they told their kid they loved them and hugged them a little extra tighter that day. I don't understand how this case seems to have just been entirely forgotten about. I'm 21 now and I couldn't forget if I wanted to. Too tragic not to be singed into my head, at least.

The mother lacked the basic idea about the changes that happen in pre-teens. The possibility of being mentally ill is also true if we look at the way she killed the girl, just because she said that she lost her viginity (she masturbated actually!). But the important part is that it seems that there was no communication between the mother and daughter about sex and changes during puberty. The idea of losing virginity freaked the mother so much...it clearly shows a mentality that is not open towards sex.
The notion of virginity, and it being so very 'impotant' has been ingrained so deeply in minds of people that for some, the fact of their children losing 'virginity' is shocking... so much that they can't comprehend and judge their behavior...or try to talk their children about it. The idea of virginity is an emotional thing, not physical.

i feel sick stomach after reading this.More so because where i live in the south(Alabama) things like this are fairly common as far as beating teen girls for having sex or even so much as kissing.My mother was thrown out of her parents house at 15 for having sex she died when i was 7 and now i'm going through the same thing.My grandparents found out only yesterday that i'm not a virgin.Some older people have twisted ideas on how to deal with teen sex.

this is awful. i felt horrible reading this.

I fell very horrible for the brother who had to witness his sister's horrible death, and at the same time, watching his mother have an episode over her 9 year old daughter telling her she isn't a virgin (She's nine! Did she even know what sex is?? I know a sweet girl about the age of ten, and if she told me she wasn't virgin, the first thing I would think is, "Hm. So I've got this little girl telling me shes not a virgin, so either she has no idea what sex is, or shes been raped"). I couldn't stress enough how foolishly this mother reacted. We all know the little girl should have been quesioned, and not murdered for letting her mother into her life, but I really don't think the mom had any idea of what she was doing. She could have blacked out. I can't picture a mother doing this on purpose, particually over virginity. I'm just devastated. I hope the brother recongizes how dysfunctional his mother's reaction was, and lives to go the opposite direction.