florida teenage boy arrested for helping 3 year old find mom

I winced when I heard that a 14-year-old Florida boy was arrested for kidnapping after he attempted to help a lost 3-year-old girl find her mom.

He easily could be one of us.

By "us," I mean one of the males in my family. We're not exactly native to your world. We all came here from Planet Dork.

My son is no exception. He is the kindest, sweetest, most gentle child you could ever meet. However, like all males of his peculiar genome, he sometimes shows limited understanding of human ways and customs: The bus driver only wants your fare; he doesn't want your life story when he politely asks, "How are you?" The waitress who gives you extra whipped cream on your pie prefers a generous tip over an enthusiastic hug.

So I felt a certain kinship with Edwin McFarlane, the would-be good Samaritan. I tend to believe his story. There but for the grace of God goes my own lovable but clueless spawn.

ABC News reports that Edwin says he saw a little girl at Burlington Coat Factory who had apparently been separated from her mother. Thinking the mother was among a group of women who'd just left the store, the teen led the girl outside to try and reunite them.

The mother was actually in the store. She saw the girl with Edwin, retrieved her and resumed shopping. Edwin resumed shopping with his own mother.

Nonetheless, a clerk who saw Edwin leave with the little girl called 911. The soft-spoken teenager was handcuffed and arrested on suspicion of what's called false imprisonment, a form of kidnapping.

Most of the evidence -- including the store's surveillance camera -- backs up Edwin's story. His mom says the girl's mother even thanked Edwin for his concern and effort.

Now, clearly, there are better ways to help a child who appears to be separated from her or his parents.

The best thing to do is alert a store manager or security guard or a police officer. If the child needs immediate help, take him or her to that responsible grownup. The proper personnel can handle the matter.

Don't take the child and go looking for her parents yourself.

Rest assured, given the incident in Florida, I will tell this tale to my son. I can easily envision him getting caught up in a similar situation armed only with his good intentions.

I never warned him of an instance such as this before because, frankly, I never thought of it. It's hard to envision every possible knot and tangle a sweet but naive kid might land in.

Some smell the faint whiff of racism in the Florida case. Edwin is dark-skinned. The insinuation is that Edwin came under such immediate and severe suspicion because of his skin color. It's possible -- it has been known to happen in the past.

More likely, though, the arrest was due to society's increased concern -- almost paranoia -- over the safety of children. In my own neck of the woods, the recent disappearance of 7-year-old ***********3887c0]Kyron Horman[/COLOR] after being dropped off at school in Portland, is causing a media frenzy and has re-ignited parents' fears for their kids.

The fear is not so much about raceas it is anything that threatens our children. My own mother, after all, lives in fear of my own teenage son having a bus pass because he's apparently just too beautiful for any random pedophile to resist.

We can easily go overboard in our emotional reactions and zeal for safety, and it's sad that a young man has found his kindness repaid with suspicion and public humiliation as a result.

We teach our kids a lot about stranger danger. It might be good to remind them, from time to time, that human beings are not all bad. In reality, most are really good, and are happy to help a little girl find her mommy.

Telling the good from the bad requires thinking rather than reacting.

 

lol at dark skin, when did us blacks start kidnapping underage white girls?:smt021

 

I am pretty sure the charges will be dropped but they have to make up for arresting that kid. It is sending a bad message that you shouldn't help someone in need.