Arrested for letting her son walk

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It:

Parental rights and letting kids be kids.

A woman in North Georgia called police back in October after seeing a 10-year-old boy walking alone. Later that day, sheriff’s deputies went to his home and arrested his mother.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: The bodycam video went viral and left many people wondering the same thing the mother wanted to know: since when is it illegal for a kid to go on a walk?

WORLD’s Lindsay Mast talked to the mother about the arrest and its implications for parental rights.

LINDSAY MAST: Brittany Patterson and her husband and kids live a busy life in the mountains near Mineral Bluff, Georgia.

PATTERSON: The kids are active. We're involved in a lot of, you know, sports activities, community events, church, all kinds of stuff.”

Patterson’s a realtor. She homeschools two of her children; the other two go to public school. The children’s grandfather lives in the house, too. On a warm fall day this past October, they were living life as usual. Patterson left home to take her 16-year-old to a doctor’s appointment. She left her son Soren, who was almost 11 at the time, at the house.

PATTERSON: I knew I'd be back in an hour and a half or so I knew Soren was either in the house or on the property so I just … the way we live our normal daily lives, that was not even a second thought in my mind.

But at the doctor’s office, she got a call from a sheriff’s deputy. Patterson didn’t know it, but Soren had gone for a walk toward a dollar store less than a mile from their home. Part of the route is on a two-line highway with no sidewalk. A woman had called law enforcement when she had seen him walking alone. They found Soren, and called Brittany.

PATTERSON: She asked me if he knew he was there, and I said no, I obviously hadn't been looking for him. I didn't, you know, think he was missing.

The deputy took Soren home and left him. Patterson got home a few minutes later.

That evening, two deputies knocked on her door. Audio here from the bodycam worn by one of them:

[BODYCAM SOUND]

Female Deputy: is there somebody up here with the kids besides your grandpa?

Brittany: No, okay, huh? No, there's nobody here, but Pop.

Female Deputy: okay, turn around for me.

Brittany: Why?

Female Deputy: Cause you’re under arrest.

Brittany: For what?

Female Deputy: For the incident we talked about earlier today.

Brittany: What am I under arrest for?

Female Deputy: For reckless endangerment.

Brittany: And how was I recklessly endangering?

Male Cop: Turn around. We’re not talking about it.

Brittany: Soren, call Marmee and tell them they're taking you to jail because you

decided to walk down the street.

Female Deputy: That's not his fault. Yeah, you're the mother. That's your responsibility.

Brittany: I need you to not talk to me, please. Okay, give her a call. Okay. Last time I checked it wasn't illegal for a kid to walk to the store.

Female Deputy: It is when they're 10 years old.

Brittany: It is?

Female Deputy: Yes.

Brittany: Okay, I'd like to see that on the books.

Female Deputy: Okay, well, you'll see it on your warrant. I need somebody here to stay with the kids.

But the charge on the arrest warrant isn’t Reckless Endangerment like the deputy said. It’s Reckless Conduct. It alleges that Brittany Patterson endangered the bodily safety of her son. It’s a law the Georgia Supreme Court in 1997 said was unconstitutional as applied to a similar situation.

Brittany Patterson with her son Soren Photo courtesy of Brittany Patterson

Further, Georgia has no law about when children can be left alone. Guidance from the state’s Division of Family and Children Services suggests children eight through 11 can stay home for up to two hours unsupervised.

BODY CAM FOOTAGE: Can I tell my other two kids goodbye so they don't freak out?

The arrest video spread quickly, and left many–including Patterson– wondering about its implications on parental rights.

PATTERSON: But especially as parents, you know...with your property and with your kids. Those are your two sacred things, right? That you should be able to have, you know, pretty much ultimate control over. And so for them to be able to come to my home on my property, arrest me in front of my children and not even be able to tell me really why I'm being arrested. That's too much.

Patterson says the DA’s office offered to drop charges if she signed what they called a safety plan. It would require another adult to be home when she’s not… and the use of a GPS tracking device to know where Soren is. She says she refused to sign it, in part because knowing a child’s location doesn’t prevent bad things from happening. It also doesn’t prevent a child from deciding to walk to the store. And:

PATTERSON: My kids were not unsafe to begin with. Nothing in that plan was going to make them more safe. And even if it was, I might still not have signed it, because I don't need the government telling me how to keep my kids safe.

One organization helping states pass reasonable childhood independence laws is Let Grow. So far, it's helped eight states protect parental rights in this way. Lenore Skenazy is Let Grow president:

LENORE SKENAZY: You can always come up with a terrible worst case scenario, but we can't judge parents for allowing their kids to have a regular day in the regular world that is not filled with these worst case scenarios.

She says cases like Brittany Patterson’s are rare, but unnerving. The laws she promotes serve to help parents feel more comfortable letting their kids stretch their wings when they decide it's appropriate.

SKENAZY: It really just reassures parents that it is up to them to decide when their kid is ready for some independence, some unsupervised time, not up to some government caseworker or cop with a pair of handcuffs because they don't know you, they don't know your kid.

The Fannin County DA’s office didn’t return our call asking for comment on the case. Patterson’s lawyer says they have up to two years to decide whether to press charges. In the meantime, Patterson encourages parents to know what their rights are under the law.

PATTERSON: It's not right for law enforcement to be able to upend people's lives for really no reason at all. 

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Lindsay Mast.

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