Mom Arrested for Letting 9 Year Old Play in Park While She Worked

SeaBreeze

SeaBreeze

Endlessly Groovin'
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This mother had a job at McDonalds (fired after this incident), and instead of keeping her daughter at work with her all day, she let her play in the park, and the girl had a cellphone to call her in an emergency. The girl was 9 years old.

An adult asked her where her mother was, and when the girl said work, the person called the authorities. The mother was arrested, and the girl put in a foster home, the mother also lost her job over this.

My mother was always home with me when I was a child, and my father was the only one working. Back in those days though, I do remember seeing my friends who had keys to their homes and let themselves in after school, etc. while their parents were at work.

If it were me, I'd be uncomfortable leaving my daughter unattended at a park all day, but it seems like this woman didn't have many alternatives, and the girl wanted to play there.

I think throwing the mother in jail, and putting the girl in a foster care situation was extreme and unnecessary. What do you think??

http://www.theatlantic.com/national...g-a-9-year-old-play-at-the-park-alone/374436/
 

I think your right Sea, It would have made more sense to help her find summer daycare for her child. Then to fire the mother only makes the situation worse. A foster home will just further make it harder for mother hold her family together.
The park was a bad idea, but criminal, I don't think so. If the mother couldn't afford daycare, how will she come up with the money for court costs, and bail?
I think some family counselling, and maybe even some job training, so she could get a better job would have made more sense.
 
Maybe I am over-protective, or even paranoid, but I wouldn't leave a child 9 years old on her own in a park. Just too many creeps around, or maybe I've seen too many crime shows too.

PS Oh, I guess I should add to fit the topic, sorry. I think it was stupid for her to take that chance, imo, but I think some help (if it was a first offense) would be better, like someone mentioned. I think that, depending on the whole picture, which we don't have, should make the decision. It sounds extreme, just wondering if she has a history of neglect. If not, yes, I think the penalty was too steep.
 
Over the top. A nine year old is old enough to be left alone for a while, either at home or at a playground.
As a child we spent hours at the park (our mothers were at home but we had no phones). The important difference was that we were there in a group, not by ourselves. We also spent whole days at the municipal swimming pool and went to the cinema unescorted as well.
Aged nine years I travelled to my grandfather's house with my little sister, aged 6, in tow. The trip involved walking to the train station, a train trip then a tram ride to Pop's house.

Perhaps there are other factors involved here but rather than remove the child from the home, how about facilitating some affordable vacation or after school care for her?
 
Arresting the mother and putting the child in a foster home seems cruel to me.
Surely authorities could have found a place where the girl could stay during the day while
her Mom worked.
What purpose was served, the mother lost her job and mother and child are separated.
There should have been a better solution.
 
The child was far too young to be left unattended whilst her mother was at work. She certainly would have been in trouble if that had happened in the UK.
 
An update. I still can't see how this mother and child have been helped by arresting the mother.
McDonald’s Fires Mom Who Was Arrested For Letting 9-Year-Old Play In Park Alone

By Bryce Covert July 22, 2014


2ea0844f-15f5-40a6-adaa-e1d92ea27903.jpg

Debra Harrell
CREDIT: YouCaring/Debra Harrell



Debra Harrell, the mother who let her nine-year-old daughter play in a park while she worked her shifts at McDonald’s and was arrested after adults at the park called the police, has been terminated from that job, her lawyer confirmed for ThinkProgress.
While Robert Phillips, the attorney representing her pro bono at McGowan, Hood & Felder, said that she was released from jail the day after she was arrested on bond, he confirmed that she had been let go from her job. He didn’t have any information as to why.

A spokesperson for McDonald’s declined to comment, saying it is inappropriate to discuss a human resources issue. She also said the company is cooperating with local police in their investigation of the situation.

The good news is that Harrell has been reunited with her daughter, as Phillips confirmed. But the case from the Department of Social Services is still ongoing. “Whenever there’s an allegation of a crime, and in this case the child is considered the victim even though she wasn’t harmed…allegedly perpetrated by a family member, DSS has a mandate to come in and remove the child from immediate harm,” he noted. “They were just doing what the law requires them to do.”

According to Reason, during her daughter’s summer vacation Harrell had her spend her days playing on a laptop at the McDonald’s where she worked. But their home was robbed and the laptop stolen, so her daughter asked to go to the park instead. She was allowed to do so twice, with a cell phone for emergencies.

As a mother working at McDonald’s, where employees report the average wage is under $8 an hour, Harrell may have had few childcare options. The cost of day camp is about $300 a week and childcare for a four-year-old can be as much as $12,000 a year. And help for people struggling to afford that cost has been declining, dropping by more than 30 percent in South Carolina in 2012.

Harrell now faces a tougher situation without employment. But a crowd funding site had raised nearly $24,000 to help her as of July 22.

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2014/07/22/3462704/debra-harrell-fired/
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