A Blanchester, Ohio man has been arrested and charged with child endangering after his son decided to play hookie from church to go play around the neighborhood.
The situation started when the Woodville Baptist Church van arrived at the home of Jeffrey K. Williamson Jr. to pick the children up. According to Police Chief Scott Reinbolt, Williamson?had assumed his children had went outside and got on the bus to attend church.
However, Williamson’s son Justin did not get on the church van. Justin left his other siblings to go play around the neighborhood.
According to WCPO Cincinnati, Justin ended up at the neighborhood Family Dollar store which is about a half mile from his home on Route 28 and reported to be a busy road. It is assumed that Justin had to cross this street to get to the store.
A concerned employee called the Blanchester police who said ?the child could not tell the officer where he lived.?
However, Williamson denied this stating:
?That’s definitely totally, totally untrue. He knows his way around this whole neighborhood right here. I told the cop he goes out in the neighborhood and plays every day with all the other kids. There’s a million kids around here that play. I know the parents. The parents know me.?
When police returned Justin to his home, he had been missing for 2 ? hours. While police were still at the residence, the church van arrived to drop Justin’s siblings off, and this is when police arrested Williamson.
?The next thing you know, he comes up to me and he says, ?You’re under arrest.? My kids start crying their eyes out wondering why I’m getting arrested.?
WCPO Cincinnati reported that Williamson expected to appear in court on July 15. He could face six months in jail if convicted. He is planning to fight the charges as he feels the charge is ?ridiculous.? And yes, Justin has been grounded.
I’m torn on this one. On one hand, I remember being a child walking to the bus stop with no parent watching. At age eight, I was walking around my neighborhood dirt roads and riding my bicycle with no supervision. I was expected to let my parents know where I was, but that was the extent of it. On the other hand, these are not so simple of times. We no longer leave our doors unlocked. You hear more and more horror stories about child abductions and sex offenders hurting our children. To be honest, do we really know our neighbors anymore? Go check out the registries. You may be shocked to see how close they are to your home. So are the police justified in charging Mr. Williamson with child endangerment, or are they blowing this way out of proportion?
Let us know your thoughts at the Liberal America Facebook page!
h/t to Huffington Post.
Check out this video of the news broadcast about the case!
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Liz Lee considers herself a modern woman of the South and hails from the swamps of South Georgia. She votes along no party line and prefers to look at issues from all angles before taking a stance. She takes particular interest in healthcare issues, mental health issues, and the battle for equality. She is also an emphatic advocate for the end to dog breed discrimination legislation. She is a wife, mother of one human child, mother to one furry American Bully, a college student, and also your typical everyday Wonder Woman. When she hangs up her cape, you can find her curled up in her office sewing, writing, playing World of Warcraft, or practicing banjo. You can follow her on Facebook to see what issue she is tackling.
