Tuesday, July 29, 2014
Associated Press
NORTH AUGUSTA, S.C.
Plenty of working parents can relate to the dilemma Debra Harrell faced when her 9-year-old daughter asked to play unsupervised in a park this summer. How do you find the time and money for child care when school is out?
Harrell’s answer to that question got her arrested. She spent the night in jail, temporarily lost custody of her girl for 17 days, thought she lost her job, and still faces 10 years in prison if convicted of felony child neglect.
The decision of this 46-year-old single mother and McDonald’s shift manager has been picked apart since police were called when Regina was spotted alone in the park.
But some of their neighbors tell The Associated Press that Harrell shouldn’t be vilified, because many nearby families also leave their kids at Summerfield Park. In the South Carolina summer, the park has obvious appeal to kids: There’s cool water on a splash pad, a playground and basketball courts, and a volunteer comes by with a free breakfast and lunch. Plenty of friends and some parents and caretakers also are around to keep an eye on things, they say.
South Carolina criminalizes leaving a child at “unreasonable risk of harm affecting the child’s life, physical or mental health, or safety.” But the law offers no specifics on when a child can be left alone without supervision, giving police and prosecutors wide discretion to decide whether a parent’s actions have been criminal, or just unwise, said Harrell’s lawyer, Robert Phillips.
Nationwide, about 5 percent of elementary school-aged children living just with their mothers are left alone at some point during a typical week, according to 2011 report from the U.S. Census Bureau, which notes that the percentage likely increases in the summer.