… letting her son walk to the park alone
Via Reason. Their house is half a mile, or a 10-minute walk, away. There are registered sex offenders in the area. Should letting junior go alone be mom’s call or the state’s?
This isn’t the only case recently of a mom being locked up for letting her kid play alone in the park. I don’t think we blogged it at the time but the story of Debra Harrell is pure Kafka. Her daughter had a cell phone, the park she played in was crowded with other kids and parents, and Harrell herself was stuck at work trying to earn a living for the two of them, but no matter. She was arrested for neglect, had her daughter temporarily taken from her, and was reportedly fired from her job at McDonald’s before quietly being reinstated after outrage over her case exploded online. (An Internet fundraising effort for her began with a goal of $10,000. It stands at $41,166 as I write this.) Conor Friedersdorf asked a good question after the Harrell uproar: Does averting the tiny risk of child abduction in a situation like this justify the near-certainty that a child will be traumatized when the state arrests his mother and removes him from her care?
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Florida mom charged with felony child neglect for … letting her son walk to the park alone « Hot Air
Via Reason. Their house is half a mile, or a 10-minute walk, away. There are registered sex offenders in the area. Should letting junior go alone be mom’s call or the state’s?
This isn’t the only case recently of a mom being locked up for letting her kid play alone in the park. I don’t think we blogged it at the time but the story of Debra Harrell is pure Kafka. Her daughter had a cell phone, the park she played in was crowded with other kids and parents, and Harrell herself was stuck at work trying to earn a living for the two of them, but no matter. She was arrested for neglect, had her daughter temporarily taken from her, and was reportedly fired from her job at McDonald’s before quietly being reinstated after outrage over her case exploded online. (An Internet fundraising effort for her began with a goal of $10,000. It stands at $41,166 as I write this.) Conor Friedersdorf asked a good question after the Harrell uproar: Does averting the tiny risk of child abduction in a situation like this justify the near-certainty that a child will be traumatized when the state arrests his mother and removes him from her care?
more
Florida mom charged with felony child neglect for … letting her son walk to the park alone « Hot Air