Mom Who Forced Son to Walk Alongside Car: ‘I Was Already Late for Work’
EmailABC News’ Ali Ehrlich and Lauren Sher report:
A Utah mother, who allegedly forced her son to walk alongside a moving car she was driving after he had missed his school bus, has been charged with child abuse and reckless driving, ABC News has learned.
Stacie Johnson, 37, reportedly was angry that her 9-year-old son had missed the bus to school one too many times, and was again refusing to walk. But what Johnson may have thought was teaching her son a lesson, turned into criminal charges Monday, 11 days after she was arrested in the incident.
“He had missed the bus repeatedly … he refused to go to school,” Johnson, who said she is a graduate student with an internship, wrote in an email to ABC News. “The reason I did not walk with him is that I was already late for work.”
Police responded to a call on Jan. 26 reporting that a boy was being pulled alongside a moving car by his belt, which was being held by the female driver, as it headed down a Woods Cross neighborhood street.
Woods Cross Police Chief Greg Butler told ABC News that Johnson was driving at a slow enough speed that the boy could keep pace with the vehicle, but that he could have been hit by traffic driving in the opposite direction.
Police turned the case over to the Davis County District Attorney’s office and Johnson was charged Monday with child abuse, a class A misdemeanor, and a class B misdemeanor of reckless driving.
While the story has been making its way around the internet, Johnson’s identity was not known until after she was charged Monday.
Johnson told ABC News that contrary to other media reports, she did not “drag her son through the car window in the middle of the road,” but rather that the door was “ajar” as she drove slowly to the side of the two-lane road.
She retains custody of her 9-year-old son and another son, age 12. Johnson said that her younger son has struggled emotionally ever since she and his father divorced about four years ago.
ABC News’ Katti Gray contributed to this report.
RSS
Twitter
Facebook
This mom should not have been charged with child abuse. If anything, it’s a more caring action than sending him off to school by himself. Clearly she wants to make sure he arrives at school safely and was also afraid that he would have ditched altogether.
I’ve seen plenty of parents drive slowly next to their children whether it was to school or on the way home from school. Also she should not have been charged for reckless driving, a class B misdemeanor.
‘Reckless driving’ is something given for weaving in and out of traffic, texting while driving, or tailgating. The most this mom should have gotten was a warning. Parents should be allowed to discipline their children without law enforcement stepping in because discipline is NOT the same thing as child abuse. Since when was making a child walk to school, child abuse?
My parents used to tell me that they ‘walked to school uphill both ways’, ‘ got yelled at for coming home after it was dark’, and ‘got the belt every time they did stupid things’ but never once did my parents think they were being abused. This mom should fight against these charges because as a parent, it is her right to discipline her child as she sees fit.
Posted by: Steph | February 8, 2012, 12:14 pm 12:14 pm
She is so stupid!!! A job is not worth your sons life, freaking idiot.
Posted by: kay | February 13, 2012, 8:58 pm 8:58 pm
Kids are incredibly lazy these days. When I was a kid we did walk 2 miles to school. Was no big deal! We did get jobs at 15. We WANTED jobs at 15. Now kids can barely be bothered to GO to school let alone walk to school. And getting a starting job? pshh, not at least until 20 when other people have finally decided to stop giving them what they need to survive and play games.
Posted by: Scott | February 18, 2012, 9:44 am 9:44 am