Posted on 03/24/2026 9:04:14 AM PDT by algore
A Utah mother has been hit with felony charges months after she allegedly kidnapped an 11-year-old boy who she claimed was bullying her autistic son.
Shannon Marie Tufuga, 40, has been charged with child kidnapping and aggravated child abuse, according to court records.
On September 17, 2025, Tufuga was driving around Provo looking for her son's alleged bully, identified only by his initials in the charging document filed Monday.
When Tufuga found the boy, she stopped in front of him while he was riding his bike and made him 'get into her vehicle', according to the charging document.
Per the document, Tufuga then drove the child to her home in Provo without his parents' consent and forced the boy to apologize to her son.
In Facebook posts that have now been deleted, Tufuga explained that her son is on the autism spectrum.
Even after the boy apologized under Tufuga's alleged pressure, she still threatened to have her husband beat him up, according to the charging document.
She also told the boy he 'was lucky she did not run over [his] bike,' according to the charges.
Tufuga then drove the boy back to his parents' home in Provo, authorities said.
'The incident has caused [the boy] serious emotional distress. [He] now has high anxiety and has had to alter his daily routines significantly,' according to the charges.
For the kidnapping charge, a second-degree felony, Tufuga faces a maximum sentence of 15 years to life in prison if convicted.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
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Screw the little shit for bullying an autistic kid.
Yep. According to the article about the ‘alleged’ bully:
“’The incident has caused [the boy] serious emotional distress. [He] now has high anxiety and has had to alter his daily routines significantly,’ according to the charges.”
But, no word on how this bully affected an already greatly challenged autistic child.
Tonga? Somoa? SLC has some real issues, this is the least of them.
That’s not kidnapping. The hell with the little turd. This is how it worked in older, better, America. Kidnapping isn’t taking the miscreant back home after reading him the riot act. Didn’t hurt him, didn’t ask for ransom.
This is what jury nullification is for.
I’d love to vote not guilty.
Glad the little twerp has anxiety.
As the only Jew at Fargo North High School, my daughter was bullied all three years by the only Black boy at the school.
Because he was black, the administration refused to do anything about it.
For three years.
Back when I was growing up, she wouldn't have to take me back home. All she had to do was call my parents and they would have come and got me then dragged me home by the ear. Then the belt when we got home.
So many levels of disturbing here.
“Tufuga explained that her son is on the autism spectrum.”
Maybe the kid is “on the spectrum”, and maybe he isn’t. My friend’s daughter says her son is “on the spectrum” to rationalize his bad behavior due to lack of discipline.
If the son truly IS autistic, and was bullied and nobody in authority stepped in to stop it, I kinda don’t blame the mom.
Her son has autism. (?) The bully has PTSD. (?) Maybe we have dueling disabilities, fake or otherwise.
Ill bet that kid has stopped bullying.
“This is what jury nullification is for.”
You don’t mess with Mama bear. No you don’t. She exercised considerable restraint. She didn’t lay a finger on the bully did she? If not, definitely not guilty.
For some reason the parents aren’t embarrassed to out their own son as a bully. Pretty sure that will cause more harm to the kid than the mom who set him straight.
> Because he was black, the administration refused to do anything about it. <
Retired urban high school teacher here. I suspect that race had little to do with it. And that’s because I never saw school administrators take any meaningful action against any bully. Never, as in not even once.
It was always worthless “counseling sessions”. That way, administrators can pretend to have done something while keeping suspension rates down.
We teachers were all disgusted with this. I’d try to keep an eye on bullied kids. Other teachers did too. But we couldn’t be everywhere.
Oh, and one more thing. Some folks thing the solution is for the bullied kid to fight back. Well, it’s not 1960 anymore. Bullies today often run in packs, just like jackals.
My standard advice to the parents of a bullied kid: Get your kid out of this school. And sue the district. Lawsuits are the only thing that works.
(sorry for the rant)
I long for the days when a parent/teacher would tell yours and you got your butt lit up.
Good for her!
1- News stories are always wrong.
2- see #1.
Without doubt key facts have been withheld from the story. They might exonerate the mom or condemn her. It depends on the narrative the news source is invested in forwarding.
It seems as though the mother was at her wit’s end because no one would do anything.
My brother and I would go after the boys who teased my younger sister.
I fought the bullying thing for my daughter her freshman year in high school (about 800 kids). The school did nothing to the kids because it was an up and coming area that didn’t want the school labeled. The principal and vice-principal did nothing. One football coach caught some of his boys bullying her and he ran them until they puked (the only person who did squat). He then had me come to a practice and just stand there while he and I stood on the side-lines and he very openly pointed them out to me (I am a pretty big/fit fellow). The boys left her alone.
Finally, one day she fought back and the school wanted to expel her and file charges. The bullies had their story straight and lured her to an area with no cameras on the pretense of making-up. One boy, one of the former players I mentioned, saw the whole thing and voluntarily went to the principal and told them the truth of what happened. They dropped things against my daughter and the girls got nothing and they just brushed it under the rug.
After a tense unannounced meeting with me and the principal (where he called the police on me) the chief of our semi-rural hamlet showed up and told me to go home and told the principal to get his stuff together and stop ignoring the problem. Chief said the school was notorious about not reporting bullying issues nor ever calling them. He said it has gotten worse as more urbanites flee the big city to the south of us and bring their snot-nosed kids up here.
Next day she was in a private school and I took my younger son (2 grades back), who had no problems out as well. Sent several editorial to the local paper but none every got published. F__k them all. We moved out of that area a couple years later (for that and other reasons the town sucked) and I burn them in effigy everytime their name comes up.
Exactly, she should have bitch slapped him senseless as well.
Normal actions by The Mom Network in my youth. Followed by an ass-whipping when my dad got home.
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