Read the article and reply to the Questions below.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/south-carolina-moms-arrest-over-daughter-alone-in-park-sparks-debate/
Plenty of working parents can relate to the dilemma Debra Harrell faced when her 9-year-old daughter Regina 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 17 days in jail, temporarily lost custody of her girl, 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. “Her child is not the only one at that park without a parent. There are children all over this neighborhood. They hold the feed-a-child program. There’s that splash pad too,” said Angelina Scott, who lives one street over from Harrell and has a daughter in the same grade as Regina.
On June 30, a woman approached Regina after seeing her alone for five hours. 1Regina said her mother dropped her off while she worked at the nearby McDonald’s, and that she had spent plenty of time there by herself, according to the police report. The arrest warrant accuses Harrell of abandoning her child numerous times at the park between June 6 and June 30, without providing specifics. Regina wasn’t harmed the day police picked her up in the park, or apparently any day this summer.
Question 1: The mother was arrested due to a state policy that criminalizes leaving a child at “unreasonable risk of harm affecting the child’s life, physical or mental health, or safety.” Did the mothers actions put the child at unreasonable risk of harm? Yes or no, and why?
Question 2: In your view do policies that criminalize parental actions as described in the article make children safer? Yes or no, and why.
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