Texas mom arrested for letting kids play outside

[Bahamutt99]

Saw this on Facebook. How ridiculous has our country become? When I was 12 -- admittedly older than these kids, but not by much -- I went wherever I wanted. I carried a watch and money for the pay phone. I told my parents when I was coming home, or the rule was to be home by the time the street lights came on. (Y'all know you know that rule.) I used to walk to school which was at least a mile away because I hated my bus after the routes got changed. I used to ride my bike a few miles into the next town to spend the night at my cousins' house. I would play in the creek and regularly walked dogs to the park and everywhere else.

Ridiculous, infantilizing nonsense. That's my opinion. I don't have kids, but I remember being one and it was nothing like this.

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http://www.click2houston.com/news/M...rest/-/1735978/16528610/-/tsvmg6/-/index.html

A stay-at-home mom from La Porte has filed a lawsuit against the city's police department, an unknown officer and one of her neighbors.

Tammy Cooper said she was wrongly accused of endangering her children and was even forced to spend the night in jail, all because she let her kids play outside.

She said her children, ages 9 and 6, were riding their motorized scooters in the cul-de-sac where they live while she watched from a lawn chair in her front yard just a few feet away.

"I was out there the entire time," Cooper said. "I never left that lawn chair the entire time."

Cooper said a little while later, a La Porte police car pulled up in front of her home.

"I went out there to see what he was here for and he said, 'Ma'am, we're here for you.' I said, 'Oh really? Why?' He proceeded to tell me he had received a call from one of my neighbors that my kids were riding their scooters unsupervised.

Cooper said she was handcuffed, put in the back of a police car and forced to spend the night in jail.

"Orange jumpsuit, in a cell, slammed the door, for 18 hours," Cooper said.

The charges against her were eventually dropped but she still describes the ordeal as humiliating and said her children were even questioned by police and terrified.

"My daughter had him (the police officer) around the leg saying, "Please, please don't take my mom to jail. Please, she didn't do anything wrong,'" said Cooper.

The La Porte Police department issued a statement saying;

"...we are confident in the known actions of the responding officers. In addition, officers did contact the Harris County District Attorney's Office while on the scene that evening, upon which their Office accepted charges of Abandoning a Child on Ms. Cooper."

Cooper said the ordeal has been stressful, time consuming and costly. She said her family has already shelled out $7,000 in legal fees.

"I hope that what I went through doesn't go unpunished - that there are consequences for a bad decision," Cooper said.

 

[Xandra]

By 9 we had run of the neighborhood.

 

[FG167]

Absolutely ridiculous. I hope when I have children, I live somewhere this does not happen. I plan to raise them as I was raised, with common sense.

 

[Laurelin]

I lived outside pretty much all the time. All the neighborhood moms would check on us periodically but we'd be out in the ditch catching crawdads, racing our bikes/rollerblades on the street, playing hockey, or going on the trail by our house and out into the woods. I never see kids out playing like we did.

I also walked to school in middle school with some friends. We were around 11 then and it was over a mile.

 

[skittledoo]

Wow that is ridiculous. When I was that age I was riding my bike to the park down the street, climbing trees in the neighbors yard, playing dodgeball in the street, etc...

 

[yoko]

When I was nine I didn't have parental supervision. We hung out with a small herd of neighbor kids. Even kids way younger than us were fine. There were never any parents.

The problem *imo* is that people have put kids up on pedestals like little gods instead of realizing these are young people who NEED to have life experiences. I feel bad for these little bubble kids I see all the time now.

 

[sassafras]

Yea... whenever I see a story where things magically cut directly from police responding to a phone call to someone being handcuffed and arrested, I always wonder about the events in between. In other words, I suspect although she was charged with child endangerment, that's not really why she ended up in the pokey for 18 hours in an orange jumpsuit.

Anyway. We roamed the neighborhood freely as children as long as we were back by a certain time, but nobody gave a crap about stuff like that back then.

 

[BostonBanker]

It sounds like something huge is missing from this story.

If it actually happened as the mother said - ridiculous. We played countless games of kickball, capture the flag, and four-square in the dead end by my friend's house, and even in the street in my neighborhood. No yellow "Kids Playing" signs - you got out of the road when a car was coming. We walked or biked to school regularly (we were supposed to go on the sidewalks, but of course cut through the woods if we were pretty sure our parents wouldn't see us) starting in sixth grade. Even earlier than that, we were biking to the park and pool pretty much every day all summer. Home at 5 for dinner, then back out in the neighborhood until 8:30. I know the world is different...but I'm sad for the kids who don't have that kind of freedom these days.

 

[release the hounds]

as always, I'm sure there's much more to the story that we'll never get from the agenda driven media reports that are produced to generate emotional responses rather than give information.

 

[sparks19]

Yeah i agree with a few others. I would like to hear the REAL story. Do they put people in a cell overnight in prison jumpsuits? Never heard of that lol. But really sounds like there is a lot missing here. They picked her up for child endangerment but then just cuffed her and hauled her away with her kids still unsupervised? No... I don't think so. There is more to this

 

[crazedACD]

I see both sides, actually. As a kid yes I ran around until it was dark, and even when it was dark we used to play hide and seek in our yards. I think times have changed though...I don't know..it seems more dangerous nowadays. Maybe common sense has shriveled up, and pedophiles have multiplied. Maybe they haven't and we are just more aware.

BUT, when I lived in FL, our neighborhood had a hoard of kids of ALL different ages...some really, really young. Like 3 or 4 years old wandering around. It's just not right, at that age...and you can't expect the other kids to be responsible for them. And then some of the kids were getting into trouble (at 7-10 years old), breaking into people's yards and porches. I don't know.

 

[Snark]

Ridiculous... Makes me wonder if the neighbor had a grudge against the woman (or her kids).

I know it's a different world today, but geez louise! By age 6 or 7, kids in our Queens, NY neighborhood walked to school, including crossing a 4 lane road without adults in tow. We rode the city buses by ourselves or walked the mile to the closest shopping center, and played all over the neighborhood (a couple of city blocks) without adults watching. (Probably a good thing, since the gang of kids from our section of the block sometimes got in fights with kids from other sections, and baby carriages left on stoops were fair game to have the wheels and axles stolen, to be used in making go-carts.)

Parents expected kids to play outside after school and on weekends, and only be within calling distance at mealtimes. Unless it was something serious, kids were also expected to settle their own disputes - how in the world are kids today going to learn to negotiate or compromise on issues with other kids if adults are constantly sticking their noses in?

 

[MinPinOwner]

I'm not sure what to answer on the poll. I think it would really depend on the age of the child, how much I trust the child, the maturity level of the child and the child in general. In the case in the OP, it really depends on how busy the cul-de-sac is. I do see the opposite extreme as well. I've seen people allowing their 2 or 3-year-olds to play in somewhat busy parking lots and it makes me nervous.

 

[Greenmagick]

I too think there is much more to the story. There were some people who seemed to "know" the person or who lived in the area who said she was drunk - who knows.

 

[MinPinOwner]

I agree. There is definitely more to the story.

 

[Paige]

I don't leave my 12 year old sister unsupervised outside of the house. I was allowed to run around like a hooligan everywhere in our ghetto neighborhood at 9. I dunno. Paris doesnt want to and I dont want to encourage her. I'd rather her stay close for safety reasons. I dont breathe down her neck either but yeah.

 

[Dogs6]

Wow that seems so extreme. I was allowed to run pretty much wild when I was younger. Our neighbourhood had a pretty good mix of kids and every morning I walked to school with some of the older ones starting from about 6 (my mum always seemed to drive last us when we were nearly there though lol). Once I was back from school we were never supervised. We were allowed to do what we wanted as long as we stayed fairly close and even then I was allowed to bike to the nearest shop as long as I told someone and I was with a friend. By age 9 I had my own pony and we roamed the countryside (again usually with a friend but not always).

There has to have been something else going on here becauseif not then that is just ridiculous.

 

[cliffdog]

I think times have changed though...I don't know..it seems more dangerous nowadays.

In reality, that's not true. People do seem to think that, and there's a logical reason: more media. Everyone has three or more local news stations and several national news stations and if you turn on the TV, what gets funneled into your ears? Rape. Murder. (Quick feel-good story.) Robbery.

It seems more dangerous because, well, turn on the TV and the majority of what you hear is crime. That's what makes news. But here's the scoop on crime rates since 1960: From the lowest point in 1960, theft sharply rose and peaked around 1980. It has been in a steady downward fall since the early 1990s. As for violent crime, it was on a slight increase from 1960 to the early '90s, but has been on a mild but consistent decline ever since. I can't post the link right now (I'm on a tablet I don't know how to use) but I'm sure if you look up "Crime rates in American 1960 to Today" you'll find the stats.

 

[StephyMei1112]

Huh, me and my brother and most of my cousins even were allowed to run amok when we were little - our parents would even hope we got lost or stolen lol - just kidding.

 

[Gempress]

It sounds like something huge is missing from this story.

THIS. Just because she the mother watching her children ride scooters when the police showed up doesn't mean that was the particular incident they were called about. They could have been called about something that happened days ago.

I agree, there's a lot more to this story that's being left out.