A Mom Was Arrested After Her 11-Year-Old Walked Into Town Alone. She Says They Did Nothing Wrong.
HuffPost
Brittany Patterson was booked on a misdemeanor reckless conduct charge after she admitted her son went off without telling her. She said he was never in danger.
A Georgia mother was arrested last month after her 11-year-old walked about a mile from their home to a town while she was at an appointment for her other child.
Brittany Patterson, a 41-year-old mother of four, was handcuffed by a Fannin County sheriff’s deputy in front of her children on the night of Oct. 30, just hours after her son Soren was seen walking into the town of Mineral Bluff in northern Georgia. Patterson didn’t know where he was at the time, which she told the sheriff’s deputy who stopped the boy after someone called to report the child walking alone. But Patterson told HuffPost in an interview that she wasn’t concerned for his safety and that she believes her free-range parenting style — encouraging her kids to develop independence — was met with government overreach.
“What it means for us is that our kids can go play outside,” she said. “Our kids can walk into town without being stalked and harassed by people. And if you don’t want to let your kid do that, then that’s OK, too. That’s your choice, but there shouldn’t be any punishment, to parents or to the children, if they’re not doing anything wrong.”
She was booked on a misdemeanor count of reckless conduct and later said she was presented with a safety plan by the Georgia Division of Family and Children Services, which she refused to sign. She’s now working with Parents USA, a group that has provided legal services on issues it terms “parents’ rights,” such as custody disputes, whether schools must notify parents of a child’s gender issues and cases of children walking alone.
The Fannin County Sheriff’s Office did not comment to HuffPost, but in an incident report, a deputy wrote that her primary interest was the safety of the child. Patterson knew her son was missing for an hour and did not report it, the deputy said.
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