Georgia mom arrested after 10-year-old son found walking alone
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A Georgia mom is speaking out after she was arrested for reckless conduct when her nearly 11-year-old son was found walking alone near their home.
In an essay published in Business Insider, Brittany Patterson, a 41-year-old real estate broker and mother of four, said she was at a doctor’s appointment with her 14-year-old son when she got a phone call from the sheriff’s office.
A Fannin County deputy said her other son, Soren, who’s nearly 11, was found walking alone. Patterson said he was a little less than a mile away from their home in the woods, where he’s homeschooled.
Patterson wasn’t aware that her son was out walking alone, but it didn’t really concern her. She said she knows the roads in the area and believes her son is mature enough to walk on his own.
The deputy, however, disagreed, and ended up driving her son home.
"The deputy said it wasn't safe because it was a dangerous road. She said all kinds of things could have happened, including being kidnapped," Patterson recalled to Business Insider’s Jane Ridley.
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Patterson described their home as a 16-acre compound in the woods with an in-law suite for her father, "who’s always home." She said her mom and sisters live in a separate house that’s a three-minute walk, and the children often go back and forth.
When she got home from the doctor’s office, she fussed at Soren for leaving without saying where he was going. He apologized, and the family carried on, Patterson said.
"My husband Josh and I were both raised with a lot of freedom and independence," Patterson said. "We're free-range parents who want the same kind of life for our children."
That evening, deputies returned to her home, this time to arrest Patterson for reckless conduct.
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Patterson was handcuffed in front of Soren, booked into jail, fingerprinted and placed in an orange jumpsuit. Her family paid the $500 bail to get her out quickly.
Deputies also contacted the Division of Child and Family Services, which sent a case manager to visit the home and interview the children.
Authorities now say they'll drop the charges if Patterson agrees to sign a safety plan for her children requiring her to designate a "safety person" to watch over them when Patterson isn’t home. It also requires her to download a tracking app on Soren's phone. She has retained a lawyer and so far hasn’t signed the document.
"Are all parents going to have to put GPS on their child?" Patterson's lawyer, David DeLugas, told NBC News. "The parents get to decide for their children unless it is unreasonably dangerous."
A GoFundMe set up to help with legal expenses has raised more than $40,000.
"Clearly, no one on the force holds a M.O.M. degree," one GoFundMe donor commented. "Perhaps they should initiate a sting operation, call all of the Dads in the County and see how many can account for the whereabouts of their children at any moment in time. See where that leads."
If convicted, she faces up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine.
Read the full story here.