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 bully for bullying anyone- autistic is way over used. JMHO
More information needed.
Did the alleged victim have real autism, or did he have ‘free pass to act like an undisciplined jerk’ autism?
I grew up in a resort town in Northern California. Not a single black kid until high school when some judge thought it would be a great job to get the habitual criminal out of Los Angeles and stuck him up there with some naive church family who hosted him. Luckily I was big and bullying attempts were not successful. He tried to recruit a little gang of sociopaths but was unsuccessful. Graffiti was all over the bath rooms. Of course the staff wouldn’t lay a pinky on the darling because of his melanin content. Finally he got arrested and thrown out when he broke in to a couple of the sporting good stores. I pity poor kids who have to go to school in, as joe Biden says, “racial jungles.”
so where’s the picture of the mom?
she looks like fun ...
At the school where my wife teaches, every white kid infraction is documented. Very few of the black kid infractions are documented. Because statistics might become racist.
I tried other tactics with no result.
Finally, I told him, all right, I'm going to walk over to the courthouse and file a lawsuit against you for malfeasance.
I don't need a lawyer to do it.
I'll probably lose, but I don't care.
You will have to hire a lawyer to defend yourself.
I will attach every penny you have in savings, checking, 403B, you name it, everything for the length of the suit, which I will drag out for years.
Later that day, the bully who had been beating up my daughter apologized, and he and she even became friends.
Sometimes you have to threaten to make these peoples' lives a living hell to get through to them.
And I would have.
I hope she has a jury trial and that they totally let her off with only court costs.
My sixth grade class in Arizona (which was then in elementary school) was just fine, until they moved a 14-year-old reform school inmate into it.
I—who had previously been elected president of the class—was bulled by the 14-year-old, plus by a couple of others. I quickly went from class leader to low-status victim!
The entire class became disrupted, and the male teacher (even backed by the principal) could not handle it. My mother came in and saw the principal, but that had little immediate effect.
Eventually, a special female disciplinarian came in to attempt to help the situation. She threatened to follow all the students into junior high school, and to have any student who made trouble severely disciplined. Things simmered down only a little bit.
The next year, I went to a junior high school that was famous for having a strict disciplinarian as an assistant principal. I managed to skip seventh grade, and to enter into an honors eighth grade class program that included algebra. I had no more bullying problems.
The bully in this article deserved what he got, and the mother who disciplined him should NOT be punished for what she did. Young bullies need to learn their lessons—the sooner the better!!
Yes, most of us over 60 remember when all it would take was one phone call between mothers and the bully would get the belt. Better times.
Oh boy, is that ever true.
Mom’s got all her buttons!
On the topic of schools not meting out proper discipline and policing -
At our monthly county GOP breakfast last Saturday we heard from a candidate for Lt. Governor and a candidate for State School Superintendent. Both liked my idea that school systems not be allowed to run their own small police forces for school resource officers. Doing this allows the school systems to sweep problems under the rug.
Instead, the school systems should have resource officers from the county sheriff’s department, reporting ultimately to the elected county sheriff. This way there’s at least a chance of a check and balance on the school administrators, so that proper policing can occur.
The superintendent candidate knew exactly where I was coming from and was already totally in favor. With the Lt. Governor candidate, it took a little explaining, but I could see the light bulb come on and he really liked the idea.
Just something I try to push when appropriate folks are nearby.
So true. Every adult in the community kept eyes on things. I got ratted out for things I had no idea someone had seen. A burnout at the red light, my dad knew before I walked in the door.
Riding bikes on the local airport runway... thought we got away clean. But no...
No secrets in a small town.
> Both liked my idea that school systems not be allowed to run their own small police forces for school resource officers. <
Excellent idea. The large school district where I taught had its own police force. It was actually a firing offense for any of us to call the city police.
It was for the reason you stated. Administrators could bury school police reports. They couldn’t bury city police reports.
Good Luck finding a Jury to
convict her in Provo Utah .
Its Mormon family headquarters .
Home of BYU .
Its a nice place .
“Its Mormon family headquarters .”
I don’t think Mormons take to well adults kidnapping an eleven year old and threatening to beat him up.
Really low to threat running over his bike ...
Thanks for further confirming I am on the right track here.
If the picture they have is recent the kid is not only autistic but has physical problems as well.
And if an 11 year old is bullying a kid of that size it is reprehensible.
This was probably not the way to handle it though.
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