Sonya Hendren of
Sacramento, California, was arrested for letting her four-year-old son
play outside. The mother was charged with felony child endangerment and
child neglect when a neighbor saw the child outside alone and called
Child Protective Services (CPS).
YIPES, Has the CPS gone too far??
Felony Charges for a child playing outside in a GATED community
Felony Charges for a child playing outside in a GATED community
More thoughts from the Parental Rights Organization to Consider:
-- December 15, 2015
Tomahawk Hendren was
playing on a playground inside their gated apartment complex,
approximately 120 feet from his front door. But that was too far from
his mother, in the opinion of neighbor Sonja Horrell, who placed the
call. “How would she feel if he was on an AMBER Alert?” Horrell
reportedly asked. “Then what would she be feeling?”
Yet even Horrell did not expect such charges to be filed. “I thought she would just get a warning… and she wouldn’t let them be out alone again,” she told reporters later.
Instead, Hendren faces up to 6 months in jail and 3 years probation.
She was offered a plea deal of 30 days in jail and 1 year of probation,
but turned it down through her attorney, Sacramento-based Alin Cintean. (Note from Blogger: Most of the time a Plea and/or Consent is like saying you are Guilty in the eyes of the Agency. Think hard, before pleaing.)
The prosecution will have
to prove that Hendren willfully placed her son in danger if they want to
make the child endangerment and neglect charge stick, Cintean says.
This is not the first time
Tomahawk has played outside alone, but it is the first time it has
gotten his mother into trouble. “She said he would occasionally go
outside, within their gated apartment complex, only to return moments
later to tell his mom he was okay,” according to a Fox40 News report.
In some communities, letting a child play outside unattended could be a
very dangerous decision – but that doesn’t sound like the case in this
instance.
The Supreme Court in 1979
stated what was once (and still should be) obvious: “Simply because a
decision of a parent…involves risks, does not automatically transfer the
power to make that decision to some agency or officer of the state.” Parham v. J.R., 442 U.S. 584 (1979)
Whether or not it
is safe for a child to play alone outside depends on a wide range of
variables which generally parents are best able to gauge for their own
families.
In short, CPS’s
over-reaction violates Sonya Hendren’s fundamental right to direct the
upbringing and care of her son. And it probably will make Sonja Horrell
think twice before calling CPS again, too. Her effort to be a good
neighbor has led to more than she bargained for.
But this trend toward overreach is only ramping up, not cooling down.
Background Checks for All Parents?
According to a report from HSLDA,
Ohio state Senator Capri Cafaro has introduced a bill that would
require school officials to conduct a background check on every family
enrolling a child in a public or private school. The checks would be to determine whether there is an open or former CPS investigation involving that family. This removes the presumption of innocence while opening CPS records to school officials unnecessarily.
The bill is proposed in
response to the tragic death of Teddy Foltz, a child kept from school by
his abusive parents. In that case, local CPS workers were aware of the
abuse and failed to act in the child’s defense. But a background check
such as the proposed would have changed nothing in that instance, since
the abusive parents did not register him for school.
The response of CPS
workers and lawmakers to treat all parents as suspect is simply
unacceptable. As I have quoted many times, the Supreme Court in that Parham decision declared, “The
statist notion that governmental power should supersede parental
authority in all cases because some parents abuse and neglect children
is repugnant to American tradition.”
Children must be
protected. But we cannot protect the children whose parents are
negligent or abusive by treating all fit parents like criminals. To do
so is to sacrifice the principles, freedoms, and ideals on which our
nation was founded while distracting social services workers from areas
of real need.
The Best Solution to Fight Overreach
The proposed Parental
Rights Amendment is the best legal weapon parents can have today to turn
back the tide of government overreach. With its passage we can halt the
trend of lawmakers and agents to rob parents of the right to make
healthy decisions for their children.
You can support this effort by sharing this article with family and friends and urging them to sign up at parentalrights.org/petition. That way they, too, can lend their voices to this vital effort when it’s time to contact lawmakers for parental rights.
You can also support us with a generous gift to parentalrights.org/donate.
However you choose to give – whether it’s your money, your effort, or your time – we thank you for standing with us to restore reason and balance to the laws impacting families in our society.
Sincerely,
Michael Ramey
Director of Communications & Research
Director of Communications & Research
Share This Online
 |
  |
Join the Discussion
  |
| P.O. Box 1090 Purcellville, VA 20134 * (540)-751-1200 * info@parentalrights.org |
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
May you find Strength in Your Higher Power,GranPa Chuck
May you find Strength in Your Higher Power,GranPa Chuck
Researcher, Editor, Publisher, Collector
Click HERE to learn "How To Win In Court" ... without a lawyer
Click HERE to learn "How To Win In Court" ... without a lawyer
