One minute, Susan Mortensen is watching her 4-year-old daughter make lovely chalk drawings on rocks in a park. The next, she is in court getting sentenced to 50 hours of community service for vandalism. Oh the joys of parenting.
She had no idea her pint-size Picasso was committing a crime when Officer Stacy Rogers came over to confront them. Now the Richmond, Virginia mom must paint about 200 outdoor posts as her debt to society.
Now generally, I think parents are partly responsible for their children's bad behavior. Constant hitting, fighting, cursing, stealing, and things of that nature are often signs something is going on at home. But this situation is ridiculous. Chalk drawings SHOULD NOT be a crime. I would have let my child do it too. It's not spray paint. It's not even crayon. It will easily wash away.
However, according to Officer Rogers the little girl was "destroying" property. Apparently any drawing is considered graffiti, whether it's a gang sign or sunflowers. "It is all the same thing," said Ralph White, a park manager. "A couple of weeks ago, I was covering over pornographic drawings done in chalk. It doesn't matter what the medium is. It's offensive." Is it really? That logic sounds completely asinine to me.
I should mention that the cop complained that during the reprimand, Mortensen responded with "attitude and curse words." I can't blame this mom for her reaction, though. I would have been pissed off too. Don't they have real crimes to fight? I am sure there are plenty of other parents out there who need to be punished -- like the child batterers or those who use their kids to shoplift. Now those are crimes. These cops must be incredibly bored to go after a mom for her toddler’s chalk drawings. Talk about a waste of the court’s time and the taxpayers' dime.
Do you think this mom deserved to be punished?
Images via Horia Varlan/Flickr
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Comments 126
I actually was under the impression that sidewalk chalk was okay in most public parks. In fact, I almost always see kids drawing on the concrete with chalk. And the fact that the officer considered chalk, which is in no way permanent a type of vandalism, is absolutely ridiculous. Also, unless the mom physically touched the officer, her attitude towards the officer is not against any law. So, the community service sentence is ridiculous too. I've never before heard of anything that sounded more like it was missing a punch line than this. Also, no one HAS to clean this up. As many people said, the chalk will wash away with the first bit of rain, if it isn't rubbed away before then. Whatever happened to letting kids be kids and playing? She wasn't hurting anyone or anything for crying out loud... she was drawing, WITH CHALK.... not spray paint.
If he had to cover over it i would say it wasnt done with chalk..thats in reference to the park managers comment about covering the offensive lanugage..get a water hose ..or let it rain (we hope)....as far as the little girl coloring in chalk...at least mom was watching her and she was being creative and AGAIN its easily rinsed off....my grandbabies draw in chalk all the time.. at my house on my driveway ..at the ballpark where they go play ball..no one complains..thats just crazy!
we have days where we paint the town.. all the day care centers and other children get together and color the sidewalks all the way up and down mainstreet... It is called ART.. I could see maybe if it is foul language and such.. It is a child bringing out their talents...
we have days where we paint the town.. all the day care centers and other children get together and color the sidewalks all the way up and down mainstreet... It is called ART.. I could see maybe if it is foul language and such.. It is a child bringing out their talents...
I am the Mother of 6 my kids play with sidewalk caulk all the time this is ridiculous and didn't this officer have any thing else pressing to do??? Washing it off would have been enough.
Well I think it's a big difference that this happened at a park as opposed to the sidewalk in front of her house. They have rules and I do think it's perfectly reasonable for that to include chalk. As far as the community service I'm with everyone who thinks that had the mother responded differently, "oh I didnt' know, I'm so sorry. Honey we need to get some water and clean it all up" well then she probably would have gotten a warning and known better for next time. Sounds like she pretty much told the officer to eff off so of course she got the harshest punishment.
Drawing with chalk which can be washed off with water, should not be a crime. However, mom gave the cop a hard time. Should have apologized & offered to wash off the chalk drawing. Then perhaps, she wouldn't have gotten in trouble. The punishment is deserved for mom's behavior, not the child's. BTW, she also set a bad example to her child on how to behave when getting caught doing something wrong...