Parents Charged with 'Neglect' After 11-Year-Old Plays in Yard for 90 Minutes

Then he/she would be in jail and labeled a sex offender. That's how we operate now apparently.

 

There's a little more detail here, though not much:

https://www.yahoo.com/parenting/parents-under-investigation-after-11-year-old-121600960882.html

CPS does a lot of "CYA" type stuff - which makes sense to some extent when it comes to potential child abuse in that it's better to be safe than sorry. But like all the police shooting issues we have, a lot of them aren't well prepared to de-escalate a situation, and instead contribute to making it worse. Here's a good summary from the above article:

But as far as the case sounding shocking to many, it shouldn’t, according to David DeLugas, an attorney with the National Association of Parents (who has also confirmed the Florida story through court documents and communications with the family’s lawyer). “This happens more often than people imagine,” he tells Yahoo Parenting. “Those who are in disbelief I think just don’t want to believe it. I think it’s because people can’t fathom that, in our society, CPS wouldn’t do this without good reason.”

But as we’ve seen time and time again, DeLugas notes, that isn’t always the case. “But we should be asking: Is [being put into foster care] more damaging to the kid than what would’ve occurred with him playing in the yard? He wasn’t hurt, he wasn’t in distress, he was not in imminent harm. So why are they police doing anything? Why?” When police are called in this type of situation, he notes, they may want to just swing by and see if the kid in question is okay — and if he or she is, then go on their merry way. But what tends to happen in many cases, he says, is that the call from a neighbor “unleashes this crazy scenario that has no benefit to society.”

When there is a clear lack of intent or danger of immediate harm, foster care seems like a damaging situation. CPS can and should certainly investigate further, but it seems an overreaction to take the kids for a month during it unless there is some reason to believe they are in harm's way.

 

Sometimes it seems like this country is going off the deep end towards communism.

 

[rQUOTEr]June 10:

I wrote about this case yesterday, and today had a chance to interview the mom by phone. She prefers to remain anonymous until the case is closed, and perhaps forever. As for why her son was not given a key: she worried that if he was in the house alone and a burglar barged in, he’d be in more danger than if he was free outside. This may not be your train of thought, but it is certainly not neglect. – L.

One afternoon this past April, a Florida mom and dad I’ll call Cindy and Fred could not get home in time to let their son, 11, into the house. The boy didn’t have a key so he played basketball in the yard. He was alone for 90 minutes. A neighbor called the cops, and when the parents arrived — having been delayed by traffic and rain — they were arrested for negligence. They were put in handcuffs, strip searched, fingerprinted and held overnight in jail.

It would be a month before their sons — the 11 year old and his 4-year-old brother — were allowed home again.

“My older one was the so-called ‘victim,'” said Cindy in a phone call to me today. But since she and her husband were charged with felony neglect, the younger boy had to be removed from the home, too.

Here is the law: “A person who willfully or by culpable negligence neglects a child without causing great bodily harm, permanent disability, or permanent disfigurement to the child commits a felony of the third degree.”

I first heard of Cindy’s case last week when she wrote to me at Free-Range Kids. Her email explained:

So the children were placed in foster care for two days while the state background-checked a relative who was willing to take them in. “Our first choice was my mother,” says Cindy. “But she lives in another state and so the kids would have been in foster care even longer till [the authorities] cleared her.” The parents decided to have their sons placed with a slightly problematic in-state relative instead.

WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN EATING?

On the day they all appeared in children’s court to move the kids from foster care into the relative’s custody, Cindy thought her older son smelled a little strange. “What have you been eating?” she asked.

“Cereal,” he replied.

Only cereal, for the past few days. That’s not going to kill anyone, obviously. But if you’re arresting parents for not providing snack food for 90 minutes, it’s odd to place kids where they won’t have a proper meal in 48 hours.

The boys went off with the relative. As Cindy and Fred were charged with a felony, they couldn’t cross the county line to go see them and the relative refused to bring them to visit. But after a few weeks, she got tired of taking care of the kids. “Unbeknownst to us,” says Cindy, “she was putting them back in state custody.” That’s when child protective services asked the court to place the boys in foster care.

WHO GETS TO TAKE TAKE THE CHILDREN HOME?

Last Tuesday, Cindy, Fred, their two kids, their lawyer and a lawyer for CPS appeared again in children’s court. The opposing lawyers went into the judge’s chambers and came out every so often. The family’s lawyer would explain what was going on. Says Cindy, “They were arguing on whether or not the kids should go to foster care or with us.” This went on for hours.

But then, says Cindy, “My son spoke up.” He said he wanted to talk to the judge.

Surprised, their lawyer asked the boy: Did he have the courage to go through with this? And would he tell the truth?

The boy said yes.

“He went back there and spoke to the judge for about ten minutes,” says Cindy. “And then the judge came out and called the two lawyers to the bench and talked to them for about 10 or 15 minutes. And with that, our lawyer came to us and said that if we admitted that we didn’t know that it was wrong to [our son] stay in the backyard, but that we know now that it’s wrong and we will never let it happen again, and that we will explain this to our son, he would let the children come with us.”

Cindy and Fred promised. The judge released the kids and closed the case.

But that is not the end.

AND NOW, ANOTHER NEW BATTLE

That was civil court. Tomorrow morning Cindy and Fred go to criminal court to plead “not guilty” to the criminal charges of neglect. Naturally, they hope the whole case will be dropped.

I will let you know what happens.

But in the meantime, to comply with all of the CPS suggestions, Cindy and Fred are attending parenting classes. They are also going to therapy. The kids are getting “play” therapy.

This summer, as part of the deal, the older boy must attend day camp. The younger must attend day care. The reason, Cindy thinks, is that years ago there was a girl who disappeared while in foster care and it turned out that no one had been keeping track of her whereabouts. If kids attend day camp or daycare, their whereabouts will always be accounted for. So off these kids go.

I asked Cindy how she and the kids spent last summer.

THE SUMMER WIND

“We did little projects, we would go to the beach, ” she says. Or they’d visit dad at work. She had been planning to enjoy another low key summer with them.

Instead, she’ll be at home while her kids are in a program mandated by the state, which, as far as I know, has never loved these kids or taken them to the beach.

Meantime, Cindy and Fred cannot be sure who called the cops and turned their lives upside down. (They have their suspicions.) But they do know who told them they needed to take parenting classes, get therapy, and promise never again to let their kids play in their own backyard without a guardian. They know who took their children away.[/rQUOTEr]

[rQUOTEr]June 12:

Right now, the kids are back with their parents, but the family remains in limbo. At yesterday’s court appearance the judge instructed the family’s lawyer and the prosecutor to try come to a mutual arrangement and return to court at the end of the month.[/rQUOTEr]

 

They need to hide a key for the kiddo - but this is 100% ridiculous, taking up the courts time, and having good parents arrested.

WTF is going on there.

DD

 

This can't be it. There just has to be more to it that they aren't allowed to divulge due to pending something or other, right?

Whatever it is, the neighbor that called (I guess we have to assume that part of the story is true even though no one is named or implicated in that) is way beyond needing their ass kicked.

 

Seriously, my parents would've been arrested so many times because their dumbass kid forgot his key.

 

Amen.

DD

 

what a great experience for a kid that just wants to shoot some hoops in his back yard and waited for his parents to come home in an hour

 

Times have changed. My family lived in Florida when I was 9 and we had annual passes to Disney World. My parents would often drop me off at the front gate and I would spend a weekend day in the park either by myself or with my sister.

 

No kidding at 11 and 12, my parents dropped us off at Astroworld for a day and picked us up at 7.....

I mean wtf is going on here.

DD

 

there have always been nosey, crabby neighbors who'll call the police at any provocation.....but the police who took the kid from his home, and the CPS folks who held them for a month away from his family because of this have no common sense unless there's a lot more to this story. Even then...a month is too long to resolve this. Should have taken...at most...a couple of hours. Terrible.

If leaving an eleven year old outside for an afternoon is a felony, my parents were habitual criminals....and I'm an outlaw too.

 

exactly, the problem is the law which somehow states that a kid with a snack for an hour without his parents is neglect, but these are just words written on a piece of paper, it's just words.

what pisses me off if that people who are suppose to have a brain and the ability to think like the the police, the CPS and the prosecution would just stubbornly enforce these laws without any consideration of context and common sense. It's really sad, we aren't robots, the law isn't up to zero interpretations.

 

People just trying to prove their job is necessary have no business in that job.

DD

 

One of the quotes/comments above was very true.

Organizations have protocols/processes to escalate situations (to handle things before they get out of control) but these same organizations don't have any protocols to de-escalate. Once you are "in the system" then it's nearly impossible to get out.

...that and nosey neighbors suck. Rather than offering to help, they call the police. Thanks for that.

 

I don't think the whole neglect thing makes sense, but why the heck doesn't the 11 year old have a key? That is really stupid on the parent's part.

In the event that they DO have an emergency situation where neither parent can get to their child they have no way to reach him, no way for him to get in the house, etc. That is dumb.

 

Most probably on the first part and definitely on the second part. If you're worried about a neighbor's kid, take them a glass of water and let them know they can use your bathroom if they need to. Problem solved.

Once the citizen CHOSE to call the local government, the government had to go through a CYA checklist to avoid getting sued. Local municipal governments can be paralyzed by litigation (which will probably still happen here, sadly).

 

Sounds like someone needs to be sent out to the collective farm for some re-education.

 

As a proud owner of a 12 year old without a key, I can say that my son will get a key when he proves to us that he will not lose it.

 

You have a 12 year old without a key that goes to your house without you there?

It just seems like really bad planning to me if you have a kid who takes a bus home when parents work and you have no plan for if both parents can't get home to let the kid into the house.

Not CRIMINAL, but irresponsible.