Nor me. Unless two wrongs have started making a right.
It was a whoosh going along with the 'wood-chipper motif.
It didn’t work.
That explanation makes as little sense as the original.
Congratulations. 
I agree that that’s bad, but it’s not the worst part. That makes it sound like foster care is worse than torture (and what they did to this kid definitely was torture).
Basically a parent asks a friend to pick up their child from school and bring them home. That’s not kidnapping. Even considering the badly thought out scare tactics . Everything was done at the request of the parent. A parent who wanted to provide a critical life lesson to their child.
What they did to that kid was scary and wrong. I’m not sure what charges can be successfully prosecuted. Especially since the child’s mother and grandmother were involved.
Reminds me of hazing rituals where people are blindfold and driven somewhere. Maybe left in the woods to find their own way home. Its not kidnapping.
I can’t imagine people agreeing to do something like this to a kid. Way too cruel and unnecessary.
Can’t it be argued it’s kidnapping because the kid believed he was being kidnapped? Sort of like how if, say, someone is grabbed by a couple of friends, blindfolded, etc. as a joke, it doesn’t stop being kidnapping because it’s a prank.
I’d rather see family counseling. Get Family Services to check the home periodically.
I think that would be better for the child than throwing mom and grandmom into prison for a few years. Nothing that’s been reported indicates foster care is better for the child. The family made a mistake and if the home is otherwise a good environment then shouldn’t the child be left in their care?
The family needs to be told in strong terms that what they did is unacceptable. Counseling and parenting classes could help a lot.
No family should need to be told that.
They pointed a gun at the kid. They threatened him with sexual assault.
They berated him for being the victim of an attack.
Four adults banded together to torment a child.
Do you really think that home could be “otherwise a good environment”?
This is a bit more than “a mistake”; it’s damned twisted.
To clarify: the worst part is that the event’s repercussions to the child have no foreseeable end.
Foster care is generally a mixed bag, but even if we assume that he is in a perfectly lovely arrangement, most six-year-olds will still be very homesick. This is the age when you shouldn’t be surprised if they cannot handle a slumber party and must be picked up early–that’s not because the party is torture. Here we have a child who is now surrounded by strangers, immediately after a violent lesson about the dangers of strangers. Ironically, he may see THIS situation as being kidnapped. Not only is he away from his family, but he may well be blaming himself for them being in jail. Had he kept his mouth shut, he could easily reason, he’d be safely at home with them.
Of course he would not actually BE safe, because his family members are dangerous fools, but the kid was probably not unhappy in their care until this incident. He was “too friendly,” after all, which is not generally a descriptor of a habitually abused child. This situation was abuse and he must be protected from future abuse, but I don’t see how it’s even slightly controversial to assume he is probably a very sad and confused little boy at the moment and that his family problems are far from over.
Bless you. Bless this post. My Monday has been immeasurably improved.
That is exactly what kidnapping is.