Makes me sad…
Although I’m not sure I would let two 12-year olds take a 3 year old to the mall, I don’t think it’s criminal neglect:
On Saturday, June 16, 2007, I was charged with endangering the welfare of my children, a criminal charge that, in the city where I live, Bozeman, Montana, can lead to imprisonment in the county jail. The Montana Code 46-16-130(3) states that a parent can be charged with this offense if she “knowingly endangers the child’s welfare by violating a duty of care, protection, or support.”
Typically, prosecution is pursued when an adult supplies a child younger than eighteen with drugs, prostitutes the child, abandons the child’s home, or engages in sexual conduct with the child. A violation of duty of care is described as cruel treatment, abuse, infliction of unnecessary and cruel punishment, abandonment, neglect, lack of proper medical care, clothing, shelter, and food, and evidence of bodily injury.
I was charged with this crime because I dropped my three children and their two friends off at the Bozeman Gallatin Valley Mall.
Now call me conservative, but I think parents have a right to raise their children how they see fit. Only in absolutely egregious cases of neglect or abuse does the state have any business stepping in. The above clearly does not qualify.
Even the most poorly educated and impoverished person has more love for their children than the cold, cold, state… which generally sees them as future little taxpayers and workers, or emotional bargaining chips with which to pass ever restrictive laws to increase its power (for a recent example, see this).
Wake up people! There was a time when 12 year olds led countries. “Kids” are capable of as much or as little as we let them…
Outrage of the Week: Mom Arrested for Letting Kids Go to the Mall « FreeRangeKids.
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I like the article up until the last sentence. Let’s be reasonable here – twelve year olds did not run countries. Twelve year olds were kings or queens in name, while their countries were run by advisors. They *might* have given their opinion on matters here and there. In order to keep the discussion on target – the fact that some twelve year olds can babysit, and that this is not criminal negligence – how about not exaggerating the other way either.
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