I was going to write my usual Thanksgiving tribute to those that have made 2022 a bountiful year, when scanning the news, I came across this piece that got my blood boiling.
The headline declared, “Woman arrested for forcing her son to walk home.”
So the story goes, two brothers were arguing in the backseat of the family car, as their mother was driving them home from karate practice. The mother, to break up the horseplay asked 8-year-old Aiden to get out of the car and walk the ½ mile to their house, a route he had walked dozens of times. Aiden agreed.
Lo and behold upon arrival at their house the family was greeted by a patrol car with Aiden in the backseat. A woman along the route had called the cops to report a child was seen walking on the sidewalk.
The mother was handcuffed and taken to jail, charged with endangering a child, a felony carrying a mandatory minimum of two years in prison.
Child Services had the family agree to a safety plan, which meant the mother or father could not be alone with their children for not even one second. The grandmothers had to visit and trade off overnight stays in order to constantly supervise the parents. Two weeks later, thankfully, Child Services agreed to lift the restrictions, finding the original complaint unfounded.
The prosecutor and cops however continued with the criminal charges. The mother was forced to either go to trial where if she lost she could fact a maximum of 20 years in prison, or cop a plea which required 65 hours of community service. She took the latter.
Along the way however she was fired from her pediatric sleep consulting business. The child endangerment charges (felonies) were unacceptable to management.
In her pre-trial essay which required her to admit guilt and remorse, the mother thanked the officers for teaching her how wrong she was to have her son walk a half mile on a warm day in his own neighborhood.
Now this story seemed a little far-fetched, but with further investigation, I found it to be true. This did not occur in an inner-city or dangerous neighborhood, but in a Waco, Texas suburb. I find it very offensive that a mother would be treated in this manner- she wasn’t even allowed to put on a pair of shoes before she was hauled off to jail.
I harken back to the good old days. My parents would have been tried for the same endangerment I suppose. Back when I was a pre-teen I walked every day one mile to and from school. Many of my friends did the same. We preferred walking, or riding bikes to sitting on the school bus for a half hour or so.
But nowadays, times are different. Wokeness has penetrated every aspect of society, including, apparently law enforcement. To waste their time on the prosecution of a mother in this circumstance is nonsense. My heart bleeds for the trauma this family has endured.
ON A HAPPIER NOTE I hope everyone had (has) a wonderful Thanksgiving and don’t forget to patronize your local businesses this Saturday on what is now called SMALL BUSINESS SATURDAY.