The condition of being poor is one of the many causes that most relieves when it comes to removing children from their parents, this mother did not have the financial resources to place her daughter in a daycare while she worked and decides to let her play in a park , this woman (Debra Harrell), a McDonald's worker, had to take her 9-year-old daughter to work. To get distracted, I had bought a laptop, knowing that McDonald's had free WiFi for their customers, it was the way this girl spent her time while her mother finished work, but unfortunately one day she was robbed at home and taken away. the lapton where this girl was distracted, was when the girl asked her mother if she could go to play in a park in the vicinity of her work and the mother gave her permission, the mother gave her phone in a way to be in contact with her, the girl was playing several days, but on the 3rd day, a man asked the girl where her mother was and she told him she was working, the man called the police and the mother. I was arrested for leaving. the woman.

It seems to me that these cases are extremely inhuman, since that park was very popular and quiet and there were always children playing, since the police can say that the girl was abandoned, if she only played for a while and shared with the children who were playing in the park.

As a result of this arrest, the mother remains if she is employed and faces a case of illegal behavior against a child.

I think a 9-year-old girl should be playing in the park and not sit in her parents' work, waiting for the work to end, it's ridiculous and abusive for the police to arrest the parents for this cause and put children for adoption in other families.

Here we have a single mom struggling to make ends meet who made what she felt was the best decision for her situation. Every decision we make as parents contains a certain amount of risk. You could argue that Harrell is putting her daughter at more risk for injury by driving her around town in a car as it’s far more likely the two would be injured in a crash than her child be snatched from a crowded park. Why is one choice any better than the other?

REPORT OF THE EVENT:

A South Carolina woman is in jail for letting her daughter play at a park during the day while she was at work. Debra Harrell has been booked for unlawful conduct towards a child. I’m trying to figure out what is unlawful about this.

The state of South Carolina has guidelines for leaving children home alone; no child should be left home alone before they are eight years old. I guess Harrell should have made her daughter stay in the house all day. If she did that, she probably wouldn’t be in jail right now.

Lenore Skenazy offers some details about the case on Reason.com:

Here are the facts: Debra Harrell works at McDonald’s in North Augusta, South Carolina. For most of the summer, her daughter had stayed there with her, playing on a laptop that Harrell had scrounged up the money to purchase. (McDonald’s has free WiFi.) Sadly, the Harrell home was robbed and the laptop stolen, so the girl asked her mother if she could be dropped off at the park to play instead.

Harrell agreed and gave her daughter a cell phone to take with her. According to Skenazy’s article, the daughter played there all day for two days, and on the third day a woman who had noticed her playing by herself all day decided to question her. The woman had seen the girl in the morning before she went to work – and noticed that she was still there when she came home. She asked the girl where her mother was, and the girl told her that she dropped her off at the park before she went to work. She then asked what she had to eat, and the girl explained that she either walked to the McDonald’s where her mom works or to Walmart to get something to eat.

The woman called the police. Harrell was questioned and arrested and the state has taken custody of her child.

One witness said to the local news station, “What if a man would have came and just snatched her because you have all kinds of trucks that come up in here so you really don’t know.” Another said, “You cannot just leave your child alone at a public place, especially. This day and time, you never know who’s around. Good, bad, it’s just not safe.”

Well the first witness was right – she did get snatched. By the police.

So because a mother decides her daughter is capable enough to not be trapped in a McDonald’s all day and actually enjoy herself at the park in the summer – she’s in jail. Never mind that the child seemed happy to play at the park, wanted to be there, and was capable enough to walk to her mother’s job for lunch.

I guess like one of the witnesses said, in this day and time, you never know who’s around. And it may be someone who thinks letting a nine-year-old play outside instead of sitting in the house all day or in a McDonald’s is criminal.