A Georgian mother was arrested by the police and will be charged to court for allowing her son to walk to a store in a closeby town by himself.
The woman identified as Brittany Patterson had allowed his son, Soren, to go into the town in downtown Mineral Bluff, about a mile away on October 30.
While the boy was on his way, he was stopped by a woman who inquired about his well-being. The boy replied that he was fine, but the woman called the cops.
The Fannin County Sheriff’s Deputies picked up the young boy and took him back home. However, they returned hours later to arrest his mom on charges of reckless endangerment. She was released after posting a $500 bond.
The following day, a supervisor from the Division of Family and Children’s Services came to her home for a welfare check on its state and her children. Despite the welfare worker telling her that everything was okay, they would come days later with a safety plan for her to sign.
The mother of four was offered a chance to get her charges dropped if she would sign the undertaking containing a safety plan that contains tracking and monitoring her children’s movement using GPS on her mobile phone.
Patterson refused the offer and is now facing the charge which is punishable with a $1,000 fine and one year in jail.
Her case drew concern amongst many who deemed the matter very unnecessary to warrant an arrest. It is believed that allowing it will only pose more problems in the future. It was also feared that she might lose custody of her own children if she agreed to their terms but defaulted in the future. A GoFundMe was set up for her and it has received almost $54,000.
Patterson herself fears that signing the bond means that she agrees that she made wrong parental decisions or that there was something wrong with herself or her home. “I am going to fight that”, she said. She also argued that if it was a crime to allow your child to go to the store alone, then why are they allowed to visit their friends alone?
Aside from monitoring her children’s movement via GPS, the safety plan also stated that the mother will delegate a “safety person” as a guardian who will watch over her children when she is not at home.
Going by her case, every parent will have to put GPS on their children, the head of ParentsUSA – Attorney David DeLugas defending Patterson said. He argued that it could only be enforced if it was unreasonably dangerous.