Georgia mother released after arrest for letting 14-year-old babysit

Melissa Henderson, the Georgia mother who was handcuffed, arrested and jailed in the early days of COVID-19 for letting her 14-year-old babysit her younger siblings, has prevailed in her legal ordeal.

“I didn’t know if that was ever going to end,” says Henderson. “I’m very relieved. A heaviness has subsided.”

That heaviness began on May 5, 2020, when Henderson was called to work. Unfortunately, her younger children’s daycare was closed, as was her older children’s school. She asked her 14-year-old daughter Linley to babysit the four little ones and set to work.

While Linley was attending distance learning, her youngest brother, 4-year-old Thaddeus, spied on a friend outside and went out to play with him. That was in quiet, rural Blairsville, Georgia: 616 residents. The friend’s mother called the police, and that began Henderson’s ordeal. After all, the arresting officer wrote in his report: Anything terrible could have happened to the boy. He could have been kidnapped, run over or even “bitten by a venomous snake” – the exact words of the police officer.

David DeLugas, founder of Parents USA, a nonprofit organization that advocates for parental rights, took on the case on a volunteer basis.

“One of the things we pointed out is that the Department of Family and Children’s Services in Georgia says that 13-year-olds and older can care for siblings for up to 12 hours,” he says.

DeLugas argued that Georgia’s “reckless conduct” law was unconstitutionally applied. In layman’s terms, he said that meant their case “shouldn’t even go to court because it’s so ridiculously not a crime.”

When Henderson was arrested, five police cars came to her home. Henderson was handcuffed in front of her children, placed in the squad car, and taken to a holding cell. Her ex-husband saved her.

The case dragged on for three years.

“It took me a long time to even be able to talk about it without crying,” says Henderson.

She faced a possible $1,000 fine and a year in prison. She was offered a plea, but refused to take it.

In his letter, DeLugas cited University of Idaho Professor David Pimentel’s article “Protecting the Free-Range Kid: Parents Rights and the Best Interests of the Child,” which said that government interference in the family “should be viewed with skepticism become”.

My nonprofit organization, Let Grow, works to curtail states’ often ambiguous and perpetual neglect laws. Our “Appropriate Independence of Childhood” bills state that neglect occurs only when you expose your children to serious, obvious danger—not always when you take your eyes off them or the state adopts a theatrical (cissstrionic?) thinking you think of the snakes) menace.

In the end, the judge agreed, stating, “This court must rule in favor of the defendant because the State failed to present sufficient evidence that the defendant knowingly disregarded a significant and unjustified risk.”

Henderson is now a free woman with two issues still hanging over her head. The first is the time and money it takes to seal and erase the arrest record, jail record, and court records so she never has to mention it during employment or background checks. The second is that her ex-husband just filed for custody of their two young children, in part due to her arrest. Your GoFundMe remains open to defray the costs of both of these fights.