Child Endangerment
I am not a new member. I cancelled my old account and decided that today because my DH is an idiot (momentarily)that I needed to post.
So here's what's going on.
My SD (8) told me today that her mother let her sit on her lap yesterday and let drive to daycare with her 6 year old brother in the back seat. No seat belt, she doesn't weigh enough to be up front yet, and she shouldn't be driving because she's 8.
Now I'm assuming that this falls in the child endangerment area of child abuse. I know that my dad did this when I was a child out in the country on dirt roads but not in the city or through a subdivision.
The state that I live in has a mandatory reporting law when it comes to child abuse, child neglect, and child endangerment. If you do not report it and it's found out later that I knew I'm guilty of a misdormenor charge.
My husband doesn't see anything wrong with this and thinks that I am over reacting to the situation because he, and I quote, "did the same thing last summer with both of the kids in our sub division." Apparently he forgot to tell me about that one last year. So if SD tells anyone, say a teacher at school about driving to daycare, the teacher is obligated to report it. The ex will be investigated and she will most likely tell the CPS worker(s) that my DH has done the same thing just last year. And SD doesn't even have to say anything to anybody. What happens if a cop drives by while SD is crusing down the street in her mother's lap?
I just don't kow what to do. We can't email her about it to tell her to stop because then she'll have documentation that we broke the law and knew but didn't report her to hold over our heads. If she gets caught she will most likely nark my DH out and I will get in trouble if they ask me if I knew about all this and I say yes.
Reagrdless of how fast they are driving if anything were to happen, say maybe a inatintive driver hits them, and the air bag deploys it could kill SD. That's the only thing that the courts will look at. And to have SS in the car at the same time while the 8 year old is driving is just nuts. That's two counts of child endangerment.
Please give me some advise. I feel like I'm stuck inbetween a rock and a hard place.
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Comments
The BM in our situation is so
The BM in our situation is so dumb that she would admit up to it. We just got her to do this the other day in order to document her trying to sell food stamps via text to my DH a couple of years ago. She's an idiot and really doesn't understand the laws around here and the same thing with my DH. If she gets caught she's looking at the very least one year in county lockup. And technically, she's so dumb that she'll admit up to it if a neighbor or anybody else reports her. But I also know that she'll say that DH did the same thing which will make him guilty of the same charges.
I agree with you. I just
I agree with you. I just don't like being a part of this. I know about it and according to state law I am supposed to make a phone call and report it or else I'm breaking the law. If I do that my DH will freak and he'll probably get in trouble for the same thing and we're not talking about a slap on the wrist in this state. We're talking about at the very least 1 year of county lockup and up to 10 years in prision. They'll be no stern warning and a shaking of the finger at either of them. So because of both of their poor choices now I'm involved with having to break the law as well.
He already said that he won't
He already said that he won't do it again and I believe him and there is no way in h@ll that I will contact BM. We finally just got her back to email contact only and I would like it to stay that way plus it's not my place to tell her anything about her kids. I can only mention it to DH and tell him that I think it's something that needs to be addressed with her but the choice is his to make.
My Dh let ss8 drive on our
My Dh let ss8 drive on our property but we live out in the country and have 34 acres. Thats also how I learened to drive. But going down the road in the city is just to much. Driving on the streets with no set belt is to much. I don't think you'll get anywhere complaining to DH or DH to BM. There are some things we have to just let go. I would be darn sure DH knew how I felt about it though.
He's fully aware of how I
He's fully aware of how I feel about and I'm pretty sure that he had my BD in the car as well. I know that he meant no harm by it but I will not tolerate stupidity like that. He he wants to do it out in the country I would feel a lot more comfortable with it (even though it's still illegal).
I will drop it. There's nothing that I can do about it other than hope BM doesn't hurt the kids and doesn't get caught.
Honestly, I'm pretty sure the
Honestly, I'm pretty sure the mandatory reporting laws only apply if YOU have actual firsthand knowledge of the incident (like you saw it, not that you heard about it from a child). DH used to do this with SD when she was like 6 and 7. Not my kid, not my problem. I just made it clear he'd damn well better not do that with our own and left it at that.
The lawyer that I spoke with
The lawyer that I spoke with today said other wise. But that's neither here nor there. We'll just leave it alone. I guess if she gets busted and tries to drag DH into it he can always tell the CPS people that he has no clue what she's talking about. Technically she has no proof and we don't even know if she knows about it. DH never heard from her about it and the kids are pretty good about giving that info out freely.
We'll just see what happens I guess.