Brittany Patterson’s youngest son had walked less than a mile from their North Georgia home toward the small town of Mineral Bluff, where many children walk to neighbors’ houses and spend lots of time playing outside.
Soren, whom his mother describes as very independent, was just days from turning 11 when he set off alone on that late October day. As he walked along the two-lane road, a woman driving by spotted him and, out of concern, called the Fannin County Sheriff’s Office. A deputy arrived and called Patterson, who said she didn’t know that her son had been walking into town.
The mother of four said she wasn’t concerned at all that she did not know where Soren was. But clearly, she said, the deputy felt otherwise.
Patterson was arrested hours later.
She was handcuffed in front of her children and charged with reckless conduct, a misdemeanor. She was taken to jail, where she was forced to change from her street clothing into jail clothes. A couple of hours later, she posted a $500 bond and went home.
“I never thought my children would witness me being taken from our home in handcuffs,” Patterson said.
The arrest warrant says Patterson “willingly and knowingly did endanger the bodily safety of her juvenile son” because she left home not knowing where he was and did not report him missing to law enforcement — “a gross deviation from the standard of care a reasonable person would exercise in the same situation.”
Now, the Division of Family and Children Services wants her to install a GPS tracking app on Soren’s phone, according to a safety plan issued by the state agency and reviewed by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
A DFCS spokeswoman said she cannot comment on the particulars of this case. Safety plans, in general, are “a less-intrusive and often successful alternative to removing the child from their caregiver’s home,” and can be requested by other agencies, including law enforcement or district attorneys, she said in a statement.
But Patterson doesn’t want to agree to the safety plan’s terms, and her attorney, David DeLugas, said the government is overstepping.
“Should every parent in Fannin County, every parent in the state of Georgia, be required to download a GPS app to their child’s phone, witnessed by somebody in government to make sure it’s there, and then use that GPS app to keep track of their child every second of every day?” DeLugas said. “Is every other parent in a state going to be subject to that? Of course not, because that’s absurd.”
Patterson said Soren can usually be found playing in the woods, working on home-school lessons, tinkering on an old motorbike, or walking to his grandmother’s house across their 16-acre property. Children in the area often walk to their friends’ houses and play outside, she said.
“I’ve walked to that Dollar General myself before, so I know the road and everything there,” she said. “Did he have my permission to go to the Dollar General? No. But was I terrified or concerned for his well-being that he decided to do that? No.”
Patterson’s story, first reported by Reason Magazine, is more common than one might think, DeLugas said. He runs ParentsUSA, a nonprofit that provides pro bono legal aid to parents across the U.S. The organization, based in metro Atlanta, launched a GoFundMe fundraiser to help cover Patterson’s legal bills.
DeLugas contends the reckless conduct charge doesn’t apply in this situation, citing a 1997 Georgia Supreme Court ruling in a separate case. An assistant district attorney involved in the case did not respond to the AJC’s requests for comment.
Though Soren was less than a mile from home in a town of 223 people, DeLugas said those factors shouldn’t matter. What really matters, he said, is what the child is capable of, and the parents are the ones who know that best.
“Kids are not unsafe just because the mom doesn’t know where the kid is at that second,” he said.
He wants state lawmakers to enact legislation next year that would create parameters for law enforcement to follow when they come across an unattended child. He said they should evaluate if the child is hurt or in distress and whether the child is in immediate danger. If everything is fine, then they should leave the child alone.
“If you don’t want to let your kid ride a bike or go into town or walk home from school, that’s your right,” DeLugas said. “On the other hand, quit telling other parents what they can and can’t do either, unless it’s actually necessary to protect a child from actual harm, not something you have in imagination.”
Patterson is in limbo as she waits to see if the district attorney continues the case against her, DeLugas said. If convicted, she could be sentenced to pay a fine up to $1,000, spend up to 12 months in jail, or both.
Now, Patterson takes Soren with her every time she leaves the house because she’s afraid of getting into more trouble, she said. Soren feels like it’s his fault, she said.
She told him he should let her know next time he wants to go somewhere, and while she’d prefer that he not walk into town without telling her, she doesn’t think she or her son did anything wrong.
“What one parent might let their children do, I might disagree with. And, I’m sure there’s things that I do that other parents would disagree with, but we don’t all have to be the same in order to raise happy, healthy children,” Patterson said. “It is my right as their parent, and my husband’s right as well, to decide what we think is best for our kids.”
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