Working Mom Arrested for Letting Her 9-Year-Old Play Alone at Park

[desy]

The Dr has it
The circumstance is you don't have adult supervision available, a 9 yr old still needs backup, however if the kid knew where mom was and she still was allowed to parent if needed, sketchy but OK.

 

[soulcougher73]

Another step down the ladder to Pussification of America.

 

[Doc Savage Fan]

I heard this story a couple days ago on the radio. I didn't know the woman was black...that changes everything! /s

My take then, as it is now, is that authorities have made the situation worse by taking the child away from her mother rather than making the situation better by helping the women find a reasonable solution. Would I leave my 9 year old at the park all day if I had a choice? No. But if I was given no other alternatives? Well...that's a horse of a different color. When I was that young, I was rarely at home during the day. I was walking 1.5 miles to school at 8 years old...sometimes accompanied by other children, sometimes not. Is our world less safe now compared to 40 years ago, or are we just much, much more paranoid?

Side note: Racist comments made by the OP should be addressed imo.

 

[bradley]

I think the issue is that there wasn't a responsible parent available - she was at work, not at home. Though, it doesn't say where she worked.

Debra Harrell works at McDonald's...

For most of the summer, her daughter had stayed there with her, playing on a laptop that Harrell had scrounged up the money to purchase. (McDonald's has free WiFi.) Sadly, the Harrell home was robbed and the laptop stolen, so the girl asked her mother if she could be dropped off at the park to play instead.

Harrell said yes. She gave her daughter a cell phone. The girl went to the park—a place so popular that at any given time there are about 40 kids frolicking—two days in a row. There were swings, a "splash pad," and shade. On her third day at the park, an adult asked the girl where her mother was. At work, the daughter replied. The shocked adult called the cops. Authorities declared the girl "abandoned" and proceeded to arrest the mother.

The park is a 38 minute 1.8 mile walk from the mom's job.
https://www.google.com/maps/dir/33....6479db09e21d!2m2!1d-81.955615!2d33.519807!3e2

The park is in a very nice area, near North Augusta HS.
https://www.google.com/maps/@33.532...ata=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1s6OaFLxMcvojcEnSQ9iR7eQ!2e0

The real world details make this story even more bothersome.

 

[theeedude]

Are 9 year olds allowed to walk to school alone?

 

[boomerang]

Actually estes rocket engines were more fun. :biggrin:

Yeah, until one day when bored I managed to burn off my eyebrows, my eyelashes, moved my hairline back about 1/2" all while getting 2nd degree burns on my face. You could unwrap them, crush them up and they would make one hell of a short-lived explosion. Really hard to light on a windy day though...

 

[Oldgamer]

I don't condone leaving any minor unattended without adult supervision in a public place for long periods at a time, however I know many of my own neighbors rich white folks who have the typical latch key kids, whose have 9 year olds who walk themselves to school and back home after school all by themselves, and are home all by themselves till their parents come home from work. Sometimes they play outside unattended with friends in the neighborhood till 7 or 8pm in the evening till their parents come home from work. So it does seem like we as a society tend to pick on minorities more with this stuff than we do with people who are in upper class or middle class white neighborhoods.

 

[bradley]

McDonald's fires mom who let 9-year-old play alone
http://living.msn.com/family-parenting/mcdonalds-fires-mom-who-let-9-year-old-play-alone

The South Carolina single mom arrested for letting her 9-year-old daughter play in a park while she worked at McDonald's has been given her daughter back—but has lost her job. The lawyer representing Debra Harrell pro bono says McDonald's has let her go, but he isn't sure why, reports ThinkProgress. A McDonald's spokeswoman declined to comment. Harrell has been charged with unlawful neglect of a child, and her lawyer says that although she has been reunited with her daughter, the Department of Social Services probe is ongoing.

According to the blog Reason, Harrell had been bringing her daughter to work and letting her play on a laptop, but she started dropping her off at a nearby park while she worked after their home was broken into and the laptop was stolen. The lawyer tells CNN he thinks it's "absurd" to say the girl was "abandoned" at the park a few minutes' walk from her house. "Because if this woman gets convicted, guess what? ... From now on, do officers now have an obligation every time they see a 9-and-a-half-year-old not in the presence of their parents, do the parents get arrested?" he says. "It truly is the classic slippery slope." Amid public outcry over the case, a fundraising page set up to help Harrell has received more than $31,000 in donations.

Way to solve a manufactured problem. Bravo.

Again....

The park was a 38 minute 1.8 mile walk from the mom's *former* job.
https://www.google.com/maps/dir/33....6479db09e21d!2m2!1d-81.955615!2d33.519807!3e2

The park is in a very nice area, sandwiched inbetween North Augusta HS and Paul Knox Middle School.
https://www.google.com/maps/@33.532...ata=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1s6OaFLxMcvojcEnSQ9iR7eQ!2e0

 

[JTsyo]

I think the issue is that there wasn't a responsible parent available - she was at work, not at home. Though, it doesn't say where she worked. If she worked a few blocks from the park, and her employer didn't have an issue with the kid popping in if there were some sort of problem, then I don't see an issue. But, if she dropped the kid off and then went to work 10 miles away... even though the kid is playing independently, there should still be someone responsible available, somewhere, for the kid.

At that age, I was going fishing with my younger brother, with friends, or alone. That meant I took my shoes off and waded into the river up to my waist, half a mile from my home. I rode my bike to my cousins house to play with them - 8 miles away. The local Amish kids, around 10 years old, often run their parents' greenhouses - calculating tax and change, by hand, and properly charging the customers. I just bought a basket made by an Amish kid - 8 years old, and it's as nice of a hand made basket as I've ever seen. Meanwhile, we have nanny parents and nanny legislators who think all kids that age should be incompetent at anything but sitting in front of the television playing an xbox. Sadly, had that mother done that, rather than let her kid get exercise, she probably wouldn't have been caught/gotten in trouble.

She worked at the McD and gave her daughter a phone. Sounds like she dropped her daughter at a park near work.

Debra Harrell works at McDonald's...

For most of the summer, her daughter had stayed there with her, playing on a laptop that Harrell had scrounged up the money to purchase. (McDonald's has free WiFi.) Sadly, the Harrell home was robbed and the laptop stolen, so the girl asked her mother if she could be dropped off at the park to play instead.

Harrell said yes. She gave her daughter a cell phone. The girl went to the park—a place so popular that at any given time there are about 40 kids frolicking—two days in a row. There were swings, a "splash pad," and shade. On her third day at the park, an adult asked the girl where her mother was. At work, the daughter replied. The shocked adult called the cops. Authorities declared the girl "abandoned" and proceeded to arrest the mother.

 

[Doc Savage Fan]

More evidence that being a single Mom really sucks.

 

[Paratus]

McDonald's fires mom who let 9-year-old play alone
http://living.msn.com/family-parenting/mcdonalds-fires-mom-who-let-9-year-old-play-alone



Way to solve a manufactured problem. Bravo.

Again....

The park was a 38 minute 1.8 mile walk from the mom's *former* job.
https://www.google.com/maps/dir/33....6479db09e21d!2m2!1d-81.955615!2d33.519807!3e2

The park is in a very nice area, sandwiched inbetween North Augusta HS and Paul Knox Middle School.
https://www.google.com/maps/@33.532...ata=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1s6OaFLxMcvojcEnSQ9iR7eQ!2e0

In Texas our school district decided after budget cuts, that kindergarteners could now walk up to 2 miles to get to school. So I don't see the distance as a problem. Nor letting her daughter play at the park.

 

[SheHateMe]

Dafuq!?

My mom used to give my sister and I 5 dollars on a Saturday morning and told us to go and play.

We were with all the other kids on the block, we'd play and run around everywhere. We also walked about 2 miles to get to the public pool at Rouge Park in Detroit. Nobody ever bothered us and our moms never worried.

 

[ch33zw1z]

Pretty outrageous topic. My mom used to kick us out of the house for the day, only come home for lunch and dinner....her words.

 

[dmcowen674]

Working Mom Arrested for Letting Her 9-Year-Old Play Alone at Park

Man, we played by ourselves all the time when I was a kid.

This is just yet another insane thing pushing this Country every day towards a full out revolt.

 

[highland145]

And the grand jury indicted her this AM. Harrell was working at the Augusta McD's (not around the corner). Officer couldn't reach her with the contact # the kid had nor did anyone answer the phone at the store. Richmond county was contacted to go to the store. She had dropped the kid off every day since the 1st of June.

Hopefully she'll be allowed to plead to a lesser charge. Wasn't like the Mom was laid up smoking crack.

 

[BoberFett]

That's messed up.

This country is insane.

 

[dmcowen674]

That's messed up.

This country is insane.

Just figuring that out now?

 

[z1ggy]

My mom didn't leave me alone at home until I was about 13 years old, so I think 9 is still a little bit too young to be left COMPLETELY alone anywhere.

 

[highland145]

My mom didn't leave me alone at home until I was about 13 years old, so I think 9 is still a little bit too young to be left COMPLETELY alone anywhere.

Agree but SC, like many states, doesn't have a set age. The issue was that the mom was "unreachable."

 

[Spungo]

Are 9 year olds allowed to walk to school alone?

Let me see here. I was walking to school when I was 5. I'm less than 30 years old right now. Expand the factorial, carry the two, and the answer is no: kids are not allowed to walk alone until they are 35 years old in modern America.

America's war on parenting continues. There was a time when being a parent was a lovely thing. People respected you, they called you Mrs, they respected your authoritah. Now all you get is the government taking your kids away and your employer firing you.