Photo by 1000 Words/Shutterstock 
 
 
 
 Debra Harrell, 46, let her 9-year-old daughter play outside alone at the park. The South Carolina child had a cellphone she could use to call her mother in case of emergency. On the girl’s third day alone at the park, someone asked her where her mother was. The girl said her mom was at work. (Harrell works at McDonald’s and didn’t want her daughter to have to sit inside the restaurant for hours on a beautiful summer day.) The result? Harrell was arrested for “unlawful conduct towards a child” and put in jail; her daughter is now in the custody of the department of social services. 
 
 Most commentators—save for a few busybodies interviewed by the local news who nattered on about the possibility of the child being abducted by a strange man, something that’s extremely rare—think that authorities went way too far in arresting Harrell. It angers me, as a citizen, to see the police overreach this way. How is it benefiting this child to be put in the custody of social services? And since I'm a parent, Harrell’s arrest scares me: How can I appropriately parent my child when doing something that seems relatively safe, if out of fashion, can get you arrested? 
 
 Advertisement 
 
 
 
 I asked Dorothy Roberts, a professor of law, sociology, and civil rights at the University of Pennsylvania and the author of Shattered Bonds: The Color of Child Welfare, if state laws give any specifics about how parents should behave. As in, if you leave a child of X years alone for Y amount of time, it’s a crime. Roberts responded via email: 
 
 The short answer is that every state has its own child maltreatment laws and definitions of neglect—and they are all very vague with no specifics. Most include within neglect failure to provide adequate supervision. South Carolina's child welfare law is actually more specific than most, but still doesn't specify the age—"supervision appropriate to the child's age and development." But how does the judge/jury determine what's appropriate? I don't know of any law that specifies the age or the precise nature of failure to supervise. 
 
 Roberts further explained that states determine whether to treat neglect as a crime or as a child welfare matter. She says it is “recent and rare” for the parent to be charged with a crime and adds that the vagueness of the statutes leave “a lot of room for discretion by social workers, police, judges, and prosecutors, to determine which/whose failures to supervise to pursue. This allows race, class, and gender biases to influence decisions in both the child welfare and criminal justice systems.” 
 
 Certainly those biases could be at play here: Harrell is black, and class is definitely behind how her situation came to be in the first place. As Jonathan Chait points out in New York magazine, when welfare reform was passed in the '90s, single mothers were pushed into low-paying, full-time work that did not provide enough income to afford child care. ||||| Story highlights Mother arrested for allegedly leaving her 9-year-old at the park while she was at work 
 
 The arrest led to an online debate about how young is too young to leave kids alone 
 
 State laws don't set a minimum age at which a child can be left on his or her own 
 
 Helicopter parenting can get in the way of a child's growth, many parents say 
 
 The case of a South Carolina mother arrested for allegedly leaving her 9-year-old daughter at a park for hours while she worked at a nearby McDonald's has sparked a robust debate online, first about whether this mother should ever have been arrested, and second about how young is too young to leave a child on his or her own. 
 
 Let's start with the arrest, shall we. 
 
 Place me solidly in the outraged camp about the arrest of the North Augusta mother, Debra Harrell, who was charged with unlawful conduct toward a child, a felony punishable by up to 10 years in jail. 
 
 Harrell's attorney, Robert Verner Phillips, said he took the case pro bono because it "struck a nerve" with him. 
 
 He said when Harrell worked, she would sometimes leave her daughter at a friend's house, let her go with a group of friends to the park or take her to McDonald's and let her play on a laptop inside the restaurant. 
 
 But, after the laptop was stolen from their home and Harrell's daughter was "bored to death" being at McDonald's with nothing to do, Harrell ended up taking her to the park on a few occasions -- a park that was about a six-minute walk from their home and about a seven-minute drive from where Harrell worked, said Phillips. 
 
 "She could have gone home at any time. She has a key," he said, adding that she also had a cell phone. 
 
 "It just was absurd to make this insinuation that she's abandoned at the park." Phillips noted the park was the site of a government-sponsored program where an adult would be on hand giving out free breakfasts and lunches from 9-10 a.m. ET and 12-1 p.m. ET every weekday. 
 
 "This is a very independent little child," said the attorney, who believes there is a "very big public policy at stake" in this case. 
 
 "Because if this woman gets convicted, guess what? ... From now on, do officers now have an obligation every time they see a 9½-year-old not in the presence of their parents, do the parents get arrested?" 
 
 "It truly is the classic slippery slope," he added. 
 
 Many people across the country raised the question (which I wonder about, too) whether the same thing would have happened if a 9-year-old was left in a park for hours by a more privileged mom in an affluent neighborhood. Harrell is an African-American working mom living on minimum wage. 
 
 "The clear bias against a .... mother of color is so glaringly apparent," said the children's television host Miss Lori. 
 
 "The child in question had a responsible working mother, a cell phone, a plan and an obvious history of trustworthy and responsible behavior that made her mother comfortable enough to allow her to play on her own," said the mom of three, who's also a Babble.com blogger. 
 
 Taigi Smith, a full-time working mom of a toddler, said the time has come "to stop criminalizing poor women -- black and white -- for doing whatever it takes to provide for their children." 
 
 JUST WATCHED Top 5 parenting mistakes Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Top 5 parenting mistakes 02:00 
 
 JUST WATCHED Why doing it 'like a girl' is great Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Why doing it 'like a girl' is great 01:46 
 
 JUST WATCHED Can I get drunk in front of my kids? Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Can I get drunk in front of my kids? 01:26 
 
 "Wouldn't it have been better to help this mom find reliable child care or a day camp instead of placing her daughter with social services?" Smith asked. (Harrell's daughter, who was in the custody of South Carolina's Department of Social Services, is back with her mom, who has been fired from McDonald's, according to Phillips. Meanwhile, an online petition to raise money to help Harrell afford child care has been started on youcaring.com. 
 
 Debate over how young is too young 
 
 Similar anger was directed by many women and men I chatted with via e-mail toward the bystander who felt the child should not be alone in the park and decided to call the police. 
 
 "We, as parents, need to be more supportive and less accusatory," said Buzz Bishop, a father of two boys in Calgary, Alberta, who founded the blog Dad Camp . "A mom trying to do her best in tough circumstances was knocked a few pegs lower by a busybody." 
 
 On the other side are people like Terry Greenwald, a divorced father of three, who believes "no 9-year-old should be left alone in a park while (their) mom works." 
 
 "Today's world is a dangerous place for children, especially those who are unattended." 
 
 Lesa Lamback, who uses the park Debra Harrell's daughter was playing in, agrees, telling CNN affiliate WJBF , "You cannot just leave your child alone at a public place, especially. This day and time, you never know who's around. Good, bad, it's just not safe." 
 
 How old does a child need to be before he or she can be left alone? That's a question many of us were asking ourselves after news of this story first broke. 
 
 JUST WATCHED Talking to teens about social media Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Talking to teens about social media 03:18 
 
 JUST WATCHED Kids are winning by losing Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Kids are winning by losing 05:27 
 
 JUST WATCHED Generation stressed: teens boiling over Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Generation stressed: teens boiling over 02:53 
 
 If we look at the laws on the books, we won't come up with anything clear-cut. According to the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children , there is no legal minimum age at which a child can be left alone. However, if leaving a child alone puts him or her at risk, it is considered a crime. 
 
 Phillips, Debra Harrell's attorney, confirmed there is no age at which a child can be left on his or her own specified in South Carolina law. The challenge for the prosecutor will be to prove that this child's needs and care were not adequately arranged before she was left at the park, he said. 
 
 We left a message seeking comment from the prosecuting attorney in the case, but have not yet heard back. 
 
 "The longest seven minutes ever" 
 
 So what's a parent to do? 
 
 I remember growing up in a small tight-knit neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York, and walking to the store myself in the first grade. I'm sure by the age of 9 I was going to the park with my friends. (Thankfully, my mom was never arrested!) 
 
 I'll admit I'm not sure I'll let my girls, ages 6 and 8, start doing things on their own as early as 9, but I'm hoping I'll have the courage to let go soon after, especially when they desire to do more and more by themselves. 
 
 Bishop let his 7-year-old son ride his bicycle around the block for the first time a couple of weeks ago and wrote a blog post about it, calling it "the longest seven minutes ever." 
 
 CNN's Kelly Wallace, a mom of two, remembers going to the store by herself as young as the first grade. 
 
 "He rode a half-mile out of my sight. I was terrified, but guess what? He did it. And he loved it," said Bishop. "We, as parents, need to get over ourselves." 
 
 Gina Rau, a mom of two in Portland, Oregon, said her son, who is now 10, will always remember the first time he walked the dog or rode his bicycle around the neighborhood "because he was filled with so much pride." 
 
 That said, she believes every child is unique and thinks parents need to determine what each child can do and at what age. 
 
 "My daughter may do things before or later than her older brother, simply because she's unique and may not be following the same readiness track as her brother," said Rau, who runs her own marketing and brand consulting business 
 
 Dangers of helicopter parenting 
 
 Whenever I think about this topic -- how young is too young to let our kids fly free -- I think back to Lenore Skenazy, a New York City mom, speaker, author and television host who never expected the firestorm of outrage she encountered after she wrote a story in 2008 on why she let her 9-year-old son take the subway by himself. 
 
 After being called the worst mother on the planet and countless other things that couldn't be printed here, she wrote a book, "Free Range Kids," which has since become a top parenting blog , about how helicopter parenting is holding our children back. 
 
 "If you think back to your own childhood and some event that made you feel like king of the world -- maybe you made a tree house, or started a neighborhood game of kickball, or even got lost and then found your way home again after some very scary moments -- chances are, you were not holding your mother's hand at that moment," said Skenazy, who is also host of the international show "World's Worst Mom" on Discovery/TLC. 
 
 "Time on our own as kids allows us to screw up but also to triumph. This lays the foundation for our own definition of ourselves. (I'm the kid who took the train downtown by myself at 11!)" she said. "To get those memories, parents have to trust their kids enough to let go." 
 
 "Of course we need to protect our children, but part of that protection is making sure they have the knowledge and skills to handle things on their own," said Norman Nathman, editor of the motherhood anthology "The Good Mother Myth: Redefining Motherhood to Fit Reality." 
 
 "We should be there to guide them and help them figure out how to navigate situations properly with the end goal being one of independence." 
 
 So watch this space in the next year or two. I'm sure I'll be freaking out when my daughter makes her first trip to the store by herself or her first ride sans parents on the subway or bus. 
 
 Knowing that flying solo will make her feel proud and better able to handle the challenges she'll ultimately have to face -- alone -- will hopefully get me through it. That and some advice Skenazy offered when I asked her what she tells parents who are afraid to let go. 
 
 "This saying helps a lot of people: 'All the worry in the world doesn't prevent death. It prevents life.' " ||||| A Florida mom was arrested this week after letting her 7-year-old son walk to the park alone. 
 
 When Nicole Gainey's son Dominic asked for permission to make the 10-15 minute walk from their house to the nearby Sportsman's Park, she said yes, making sure that he had a cellphone so that she could check on him. "I honestly didn't think I was doing anything wrong. I was letting him go play," she told WPTV. Now she's facing a felony child neglect charge. 
 
 While making the half-mile journey to the park, Dominic was stopped near a public pool and asked several questions, including where his mother was. Frightened by all of the questions, he ran off to the park, and the strangers from the pool called the cops, Fox 4 News reports. The police picked up the boy while he was playing at the park and asked "Where does your mom live?" 
 
 The officers drove Dominic home, where they proceeded to arrest his mother for child neglect. They later stated in the police report that "numerous sex offenders reside in the vicinity." Still, the mom told WPTV that she felt her son was mature enough to walk to the park alone. "I'm totally dumbfounded by this whole situation," she added. 
 
 If this story sounds familiar, it's because it's not the first time a parent has been arrested for allowing a child to go somewhere alone. Earlier this summer, mom Debra Harrell was arrested for "unlawful conduct toward a child" after letting her 9-year-old daughter play at the park while she worked her shift at McDonald's, and last year, an Ohio father became the subject of a Child Protective Services investigation after allowing his 6-year-old daughter to walk a few blocks to the post office by herself. 
 
 Lenore Skenazy, who wrote "Free Range Kids" and gives lectures around the world about "how we got so afraid for our children," spoke to The Huffington Post about this latest incident. "Are we supposed to lock all our children inside for their safety at all times, and then we're negligent child abusers if we don't?" she said. "The idea that there are predators everywhere is a false one," she added, noting that violent crime rates have dropped down to low levels not seen since the days before color TV and the time when gas only cost 29 cents per gallon. Skenazy also pointed out a study cited in an Economist article on sex offender laws in Georgia, which found that only 5 percent of the people on the registry posed an actual threat to children. 
 
 As for Nicole Gainey, she told WPTV that she plans to fight the felony charge, but that might not be necessary. The news network recently posted an update to the story online, noting that an official from the Florida Department of Children and Families told the mom she could "expect the case to be dropped." 
 
 Like Us On Facebook | 
 
 Follow Us On Twitter | 
 
 Contact HuffPost Parents
– Should sending your kid to play alone at a local park land you in jail? Because that's what happened to Debra Harrell. The 46-year-old South Carolina mom repeatedly sent her 9-year-old daughter to a well-trafficked park while she went to work at McDonald's. When the parents of other children at the park found out, they called police, who arrested Harrell and charged her with unlawful conduct toward a child. The daughter has been placed in state custody. Local news outlets first reported the story on July 1, but it's been getting wider attention lately thanks to an indignant post on Reason from "Free Range Kids" advocate Lenore Skenazy. And so far, pretty much everyone agrees that the arrest is senseless and wrong. Some reactions: Skenazy notes that the original news reports make it sound like Harrell "committed a serious, unconscionable crime," as locals speculate that the girl could have been kidnapped. "To which I must ask: In broad daylight? In a crowded park? Just because something happened on Law & Order doesn't mean it's happening all the time in real life." "Since I'm a parent, Harrell’s arrest scares me: How can I appropriately parent my child when doing something that seems relatively safe, if out of fashion, can get you arrested?" asks Jessica Grose at Slate. One law professor tells Grose that the statutes for child welfare laws are often broadly written, giving police lots of latitude—and allowing "race, class, and gender biases to influence decisions." That could be the case here, because Harrell is black, and her poverty helped cause the situation. "The story is a convergence of helicopter parenting with America’s primitive family policy," writes Jonathan Chait at New York. "Our welfare policy is designed to make everybody, even single mothers, work full-time jobs. The social safety net makes it difficult for low-wage single mothers to obtain adequate child care. And society is seized by bizarre fears that children are routinely snatched up by strangers in public places," which is actually an exceedingly rare phenomenon. "The state has caused the child far more trauma than she was ever likely to suffer in the park," writes Conor Friedersdorf at the Atlantic, and they're taking the child at a time when the state has a shortage of foster families. And there's no empirical evidence saying the child would be safer, say, sitting at McDonald's. "The actual safety of a given kid is not being rigorously determined. State employees are drawing on their prejudices to make somewhat arbitrary judgment calls."