The mother should be arrested!
Boy who opened present arrestedMother calls Rock Hill police after 12-year-old unwraps Christmas gift
By MONICA CHEN
mchen@heraldonline.com
ROCK HILL — A 12-year-old Rock Hill boy wouldn’t wait to unwrap his Christmas present.
But his defiance landed him in trouble with the law after his mother and great-grandmother called police.
The boy’s great-grandmother had told him not to open his Nintendo Game Boy Advance, which she had wrapped and placed beneath the Christmas tree, according to a police report.
But Sunday morning, she found the box of the popular hand-held game console unwrapped and opened.
Both the great-grandmother and the mother said they asked the boy where the present was.
He said he didn’t know.
When the mother threatened to call the police, the boy got the Game Boy from his room, the report said.
The 27-year-old mother called the police anyway, she said Monday, because she didn’t feel she had any other option in dealing with the child she says “can’t stand authority.”
“He took it without permission. He wanted it. He just took it,” the 63-year-old great-grandmother said.
The boy was arrested on petty larceny charges, taken to the Rock Hill police station in handcuffs and held until his mother picked him up after church.
The boy was never put in jail, police spokesman Lt. Jerry Waldrop said. “We wouldn’t hold a 12-year-old.”
The boy, his mother and great-grandmother are not being identified because of his age.
The mother said she gave birth to the child when she was 15 and is a single mother struggling to earn a business degree. She plans to graduate from York Technical College next year.
“I need help,” said the mother, who also has a 7-year-old daughter. “I’ve been putting overtime in trying to figure out what’s going on.”
She said her son was diagnosed in the last year with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, but his medicine does not seem to help. Repeated trips to doctors and calls to various agencies have not produced results, she said.
“He can’t stand authority. He has a really bad attitude,” said the mother.
“He always blames somebody else for something. I don’t want to see him be another statistic. I want to see him be somebody.”
The woman said she has lost jobs because she has to constantly tend to her son, whose school troubles began with him taking things from his kindergarten teacher’s desk. Trips to the grocery store often end with her returning items he pocketed, she said.
The boy, on suspension from his alternative school, faces an expulsion hearing today, his mother said.
He was arrested last month for disturbing the school after he swung at, but missed, a police officer, Rock Hill Police Capt. Mark Bollinger said.
His mother said neither arrest seemed to scare him as she had hoped. She is distressed because her son is relishing the attention brought by his latest arrest.
The boy’s case will be presented to Department of Juvenile Justice officials in York County, who will decide what happens, Bollinger said. His mother hopes he can attend a program that will finally scare him straight.
“It’s not even about the Christmas present,” she said. “I only want positive things out of it. ... There’s no need for him to act this way. I’d rather call myself than someone else call for him doing something worse than this.”
Monica Chen is a reporter for the (Rock Hill) Herald, a McClatchy newspaper. The Associated Press contributed.
By MONICA CHEN
mchen@heraldonline.com
ROCK HILL — A 12-year-old Rock Hill boy wouldn’t wait to unwrap his Christmas present.
But his defiance landed him in trouble with the law after his mother and great-grandmother called police.
The boy’s great-grandmother had told him not to open his Nintendo Game Boy Advance, which she had wrapped and placed beneath the Christmas tree, according to a police report.
But Sunday morning, she found the box of the popular hand-held game console unwrapped and opened.
Both the great-grandmother and the mother said they asked the boy where the present was.
He said he didn’t know.
When the mother threatened to call the police, the boy got the Game Boy from his room, the report said.
The 27-year-old mother called the police anyway, she said Monday, because she didn’t feel she had any other option in dealing with the child she says “can’t stand authority.”
“He took it without permission. He wanted it. He just took it,” the 63-year-old great-grandmother said.
The boy was arrested on petty larceny charges, taken to the Rock Hill police station in handcuffs and held until his mother picked him up after church.
The boy was never put in jail, police spokesman Lt. Jerry Waldrop said. “We wouldn’t hold a 12-year-old.”
The boy, his mother and great-grandmother are not being identified because of his age.
The mother said she gave birth to the child when she was 15 and is a single mother struggling to earn a business degree. She plans to graduate from York Technical College next year.
“I need help,” said the mother, who also has a 7-year-old daughter. “I’ve been putting overtime in trying to figure out what’s going on.”
She said her son was diagnosed in the last year with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, but his medicine does not seem to help. Repeated trips to doctors and calls to various agencies have not produced results, she said.
“He can’t stand authority. He has a really bad attitude,” said the mother.
“He always blames somebody else for something. I don’t want to see him be another statistic. I want to see him be somebody.”
The woman said she has lost jobs because she has to constantly tend to her son, whose school troubles began with him taking things from his kindergarten teacher’s desk. Trips to the grocery store often end with her returning items he pocketed, she said.
The boy, on suspension from his alternative school, faces an expulsion hearing today, his mother said.
He was arrested last month for disturbing the school after he swung at, but missed, a police officer, Rock Hill Police Capt. Mark Bollinger said.
His mother said neither arrest seemed to scare him as she had hoped. She is distressed because her son is relishing the attention brought by his latest arrest.
The boy’s case will be presented to Department of Juvenile Justice officials in York County, who will decide what happens, Bollinger said. His mother hopes he can attend a program that will finally scare him straight.
“It’s not even about the Christmas present,” she said. “I only want positive things out of it. ... There’s no need for him to act this way. I’d rather call myself than someone else call for him doing something worse than this.”
Monica Chen is a reporter for the (Rock Hill) Herald, a McClatchy newspaper. The Associated Press contributed.
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