The country is facing a child shortage for a myriad of reasons including the high cost of care, lack of funding for centers that had low attendance due to mandates and parents being out of work during the pandemic, and staffing shortages by workers who are exposed to COVID or refuse to work for poverty wages.
These conditions left Melissa Henderson with no choice but to leave her 4-year-old son in the care of her 14-year-old daughter while she went to work.
Inside Edition reports that her son’s daycare center was shut down because of the COVID shutdown.
“There were no options, literally,” she told Inside Edition.
While her 14, almost 15-year-old daughter, was taking her school classes online when her little brother snuck out of the house to go play with his neighbor friend.
He had only been gone for about 15 minutes before the sister realized he was gone, but the neighbor called 911.
Here’s where the story gets complicated.
About two weeks later, Henderson was arrested for reckless conduct, according to Fox News.
“They handcuffed me, drove me to jail, booked me, had me put in a cell. It was awful. It was embarrassing,” she said. “It was the most embarrassing and just humiliating day, honestly, of my life.”
Henderson could face up to a year in jail and a fine of $1,000.
David DeLugas, founder of ParentsUSA, took on Henderson’s case pro bono and is raising money for the case on GoFundMe.
“It has such a chilling effect where now Melissa is afraid she can never leave her children home alone, even for a short period of time, even with the now 15-year-old daughter in charge of the other kids, because she could get arrested again,” DeLugas told Fox News. “It has a chilling impact on everybody in the state who hears about this type of thing.”
But this isn’t the first time this has happened at the Henderson household.
It’s the second time the 4-year-old was found outside his home alone.
However, the law in Georgia allows children 13 or older to look after siblings for up to 12 hours.
“They claim that the same thing happened a year earlier,” DeLugas said. “So you’re saying a year earlier, she left her children in charge of her then 13-year-old, almost 14-year-old, and somehow two rights make a wrong. It wasn’t wrong then, and it’s not wrong now.”
DeLugas argues that older siblings should be able to care for younger siblings.
But the law already allows for that.
The problem is the teen who was in charge had her own schoolwork to attend to and wasn’t able to properly look after her brother.
It’s clearly not an adequate replacement for proper daycare or providing funding for parents to stay home with their children, however, DeLugas argues that the case still doesn’t rise to the level of reckless conduct.
DeLugas is hoping to have the case thrown out.
Henderson was arrested in May 2020 and her story is currently circulating on various conservative publications in the U.K. and U.S.
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