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STATE SEIZES 11-YEAR-OLD ALONE IN BACKYARD FOR 90 MINUTES

Parents jailed, other son taken, face felony charges

An 11-year-old boy in Florida arrived home in April to find that his parents were not there yet.

He didn’t have a key, and his parents apparently were delayed by traffic and rain. So, the boy decided to go to his backyard and play basketball by himself.

A neighbor saw him in the backyard – he was alone for 90 minutes – and called police, who were at the house to arrest the parents when they arrived.

The parents were put in handcuffs, strip searched, fingerprinted and held overnight in jail. It took a month before their sons, the 11-year-old and his 4-year-old brother, were allowed home again.

The story is told by author and TV host Lenore Skenazy, writing at the libertarian website Reason.com, who interviewed the parents and later obtained legal documentation that verified their story.

Skenazy, who said the parents wished to remain anonymous, called them “Cindy” and “Fred.”

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Cindy explained that while the 11-year-old was labeled by authorities as the “victim,” the younger boy also had to be removed from the home because she and her husband were charged with felony neglect.

The law states: “A person who willfully or by culpable negligence neglects a child without causing great bodily harm, permanent disability, or permanent disfigurement to the child commits a felony of the third degree.”

Cindy told Skenazy in an email:

The authorities claim he had no access to water or shelter. We have an open shed in the back yard and 2 working sinks and 2 hoses. They said he had no food. He ate his snacks already. He had no bathroom, but the responding officer found our yard good enough to relieve himself in while our son sat in a police car alone. In his own yard, in a state, Florida, that has no minimum age for children to be alone.

Cindy said the children were placed in foster care for two days while the state ran a background check on a “slightly problematic” relative who was willing to take them in.

During their time in foster care, they discovered, the boys had been given only cereal to eat.

While the boys were with the relative, Cindy and Fred couldn’t cross the county line to see them, and the relative refused to bring them to visit.

After a few weeks, the relative got tired of taking care of the kids.

“Unbeknownst to us,” said Cindy, “she was putting them back in state custody.”

Child Protective Services then asked the court to place the boys in foster care.

Not over

In children’s court last week, however, the 11-year-old spoke up and told the judge he wanted to be returned to his parents.

Cindy and Fred were told that if they admitted that they didn’t know that it was wrong to let their son stay in the backyard and promised to never let it happen again, he would let the children return home.

Cindy and Fred promised, and the judge released the children and closed the case.

But, as Skenazy explains, that was only the civil case.

They will next head to criminal court to plead “not guilty” to the neglect charge.

They also are required by CPS to attend parenting classes and therapy. The kids are attending “play” therapy.

The 11-year-old must also attend day camp this summer, and the 4-year-old must attend day care.

Cindy thinks the reason is that if children attend day camp or day care, their whereabouts will always be accounted for.

Cindy and Fred said they don’t know who called the police and turned their lives upside down, although they have their suspicions.

In a follow-up Friday, Skenazy said David DeLugas, an attorney with the National Association of Parents, spoke with Cindy’s attorney and confirmed the story.

Skenazy is host of the reality show “World’s Worst Mom” on the Discovery Life Channel and founder of the book and blog Free-Range Kids.

Last month, WND reported a homeschooling couple in Kentucky was arrested and had all 10 of their children taken by the state after a sheriff acted on a tip about the living conditions at their 26-acre homestead where they live “off the grid.”

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2015/06/state-seizes-11-year-old-alonein-backyard-for-90-minutes/#JsDuiKSRkg4J3JX8.99