Posted on 02/18/2024 7:58:04 AM PST by Morgana
An Alabama mom has been accused of punishing her seven-year-old son by making him walk home from school before accidentally running him over with her car.
Sarai Rachel James, 27, was charged with aggravated child abuse on February 8 over the cruel punishment, according to Marshall County Jail records.
She picked her son up from school in Boaz, northern Alabama, around 3.30pm, when she learned he had got into trouble with the principal earlier that day.
There were two women in the car along with the boy - James and an unnamed 53-year-old woman who has also been arrested, police told McClatchy News.
James allegedly stopped the car and ordered her son to get out and run or walk the rest of the way home - around eight blocks.
She drove beside him for a few blocks, but the boy tried to grab the car door handle.
James accelerated and her son was pulled under the vehicle, which ran him over with the rear tire. Investigators believe that part of the incident was an accident.
Boaz Chief of Police Michael Abercrombie told McClatchy News the child would never have been in that situation if James had not decided to punish him.
The boy was taken to the University of Alabama hospital with scrapes on his back and the side of his head from the incident.
James was arrested and charged with aggravated child abuse. She was released on a $50,000 bond on February 11, according to Marshall County Jail records.
She is reportedly barred from having any contact with her son.
The 53-year-old passenger in James' car at the time of the incident has also been charged with endangering the welfare of a child, and she has been released on a $500 bond.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
It’s 2 miles up hill from the bus stop to my house. Walked it many times. At least it was down hill in the morning. 11 miles home from school and I walked that a few times. When there’s no snow in VT there’s mud so there’s that.
In the 60’s my folks moved 7 times, and it tookme more than. Week each time to find them. J/k. Yrp we kids used to live outdoors back in the day-cant do that today in most areas sadly.
I don’t understand why the passenger was charged.
My dad was a carpenter, and told a story about doing a job there and getting into a very pleasant conversation with a guy he assumed was staff, but found out later was one of the inmates.
Reminds me of a friend of mine in the 4th grade who’s parents were divorced and in the morning he’d be at his dad’s house, walk to school which WAS in fact slightly uphill, and after school, walk in the same direction to his mom’s house, also uphill.
He pretty much did walk uphill both ways
Lucky bastard also got 2 Christmases and two birthdays
My mom was a nurse there. She had all kinds of stories about that place. I think I remember they closed it or let all the inmates go or something.
8 Blocks would be about 1 mile-—
5280 feet.
ANY kid should be able to walk that unless very bad weather.
Nobody loves me but my mama.
And I think she might be jiving me too.
BB King (I think)
punishes seven year old kid making him walk home from school...
Sounds very reasonable to me.
Runs him over with the car...
Well, okay that’s not reasonable.
Plastic bread bags in your boots. What a wonderful memory that brought back. I did the same as a kid. For us, it was to keep our socks dry if your boots leaked in the slush.
What’s the big deal about walking 8 blocks?
As far as her carelessness, that is another issue. She shouldn’t even have been close enough that the boy could grab the car. Yes, she shouldn’t have accelerated. Maybe get out and tell the kid he is walking, stay away from the car.
Stupid, careless, basically an accident. Apparently she was trying to supervise it. Perhaps too close. As far as the crux of it, walking, that is not a problem.
Accident, minor injuries- these are BS charges..
“Harsh but fair”
That’s gonna keep me chuckling all day.
“I even ran home and back to school for a hot lunch with Mom when I was in high school...”
I heard of kids doing this but never knew of any.
Kids at my school either got school lunch or brought their own lunch in those old fashion metal lunch boxes that had a thermos in it. I notice the lunch boxes kids have today don’t come with a thermos.
Plus I wonder if kids could even go home for lunch the way they have schools locked down like a prison.
Yes, I don’t understand how it’s considered cruel to make your kid walk to school. Rain or shine in west michigan, snow or no, a mile there and a mile back me and my brothers every school day.
Appears that mom needs to put in a few laps herself.
Speaking of which in our warped world making a kid walk to school is considered punishment but having tits cut off and puberty blockers administered is considered good parenting.
I delivered a morning paper route, getting up at 4:30. Had to get done, home and clean up, and to school by 8. Never thought a thing about it. My brother did, too.
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