Issues surrounding child custody are understandably very emotional for parents. In some cases, one parent may not agree with the child custody arrangement being enforced by the courts and wish to take matters into their own hands. However, while this may be tempting it is important to remember the arrangements have been set forth for very specific reasons and going outside of these arrangements could end up resulting in criminal charges.
An example of this recently happened when a 26-year-old mother was arrested after removing her 4-year-old daughter from the primary school she attends. The mother — who also had a friend with her at the time — does not have custody of her daughter. Rather, the girl’s paternal grandmother has custody. The family is reportedly in a custody dispute with the girl’s father and her grandmother.
Everything seemed to come to a head on Friday morning when the girl’s mother showed up at the school with another 25-year-old and tried to leave with the 4-year-old. A school employee did attempt to stop the car the three were in, but ended up getting injured in the process.
The car ended up being pulled over by a state trooper and the mother was arrested. The mother was charged with conspiracy to commit custodial interference, trespassing and disturbing the school. She was also charged with possession of narcotics as she reportedly had prescription pills on her that she had obtained illegally.
The 25-year-old that was in the car is also facing charges, including conspiracy to commit custodial inference, trespassing, disturbing the school and first-degree assault and battery as she was the one supposedly responsible for the injuries to the school employee.
In looking at this case, while it is surely an emotional time for the mother, it must also be a hard time for the grandmother who has custody of the 4-year-old girl.
In general, while the reasons behind why the grandmother has custody were not discussed in the news article, there are many grandparents in Missouri who have found themselves in similar situations seeking custody of a grandchild. Often this is done when there are reasons to believe the biological parents cannot care for the child.
Source: The Post and Courier, “Mother charged with removing child from school, Westview Primary employee injured,” Natalie Caula, May 3, 2013
