A single mother is facing up to a year in prison after letting her 14-year-old daughter babysit her siblings while she went to work during the height of the Covid pandemic.
When COVID-19 shut down her children’s daycare in May of 2020, and Melissa Henderson had to go to work, she asked her 14-year-old daughter, Linley, to babysit the four younger siblings. Linley was engaged in remote learning when her youngest brother, four-year-old Thaddeus, spied his friend outside and went over to play with him. It was about 10 or 15 minutes before Linley realized he was missing. She guessed that he must be at his friend’s house, and went to fetch him.
However, the friend’s mom called the police in the meantime. About two weeks later, Henderson was arrested in front of her children. She faces a maximum penalty of one year in prison and a fine of $1,000 if convicted.
The arresting officer, Deputy Sheriff Marc Pilote, wrote in his report that anything terrible could have happened to Thaddeus, including being kidnapped, run over, or “bitten by a venomous snake.” When Henderson protested that the kid was only gone a few minutes, Pilote responded that a few minutes was all the time a venomous snake needed.
Here is a photo of the busy street and jungle-like conditions Thaddeus faced. That’s his buddy’s home on the right, photographed by Henderson from her porch.
Then Pilote handcuffed Henderson in front of her five children and hauled her down to the station in the back of his squad car.
“I almost don’t have words for how low it made me feel,” Henderson told Reason. “To truly feel in the bottom of my heart that if I’m anything, it’s a good mother, and everything you do is for your kids. To be stripped of that to the point where you are handcuffed in front of them.”
Now, Henderson is working with a legal team that plans to argue that according to Georgia state law, children over the age of thirteen can babysit their siblings with parental permission.
A GoFundMe has been set up to benefit the National Association of Parents, Inc.
“Melissa is later arrested under Georgia’s Reckless Conduct statute, a statute found unconstitutional by the Georgia Supreme Court in 1997 when applied to nearly identical facts. The arresting Deputy Sheriff, the Magistrate Judge that issued the warrant, and the District Attorney’s office all were informed of the 1997 Georgia Supreme Court decision by ParentsUSA’s Executive Director BEFORE Melissa was arrested,” the page reads.
Watch the emotional interview here: InsideEdition/Youtube
Source: AWM
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