ABC News' Katti Gray reports:

A Woods Cross, Utah, woman was arrested for allegedly forcing her 9-year-old son to walk alongside her car as she pulled him along by his belt and steered him toward school after he'd missed the school bus.

Police said the boy could have been hit by traffic driving in the opposite direction on the two-lane road and have turned the case over to the Davis County District Attorney's office, which will decide whether to charge the mother with child endangerment.

"She was going at a slow enough speed that the child was able to keep pace with the vehicle," Woods Cross Police Chief Greg Butler said. A neighbor phoned his department about what the mother was doing.

Her name is not being released because she has not been charged, and the child - who is not deemed to be in imminent danger - remains in his mother's care, Butler said.

"I know my mom was upset when we'd miss the school bus, but she never drug us there," said Danny Rhodes, a parent.

"I can't imagine any circumstance that would permit a parent to punish by dragging [with] a belt," said Cassandra Jedd, a mother of three.

"School's hard enough. Granted you have so many stresses. We do too. It's a matter of pulling together," Jedd said.