Ga. Mom Makes Son Sleep Outside For Missing Curfew

Is this child abuse? A Georgia mom has been charged with “deprivation of a minor” after she punished her teenage son for missing his curfew. CBS Atlanta reports that Antonia Folsom’s son turned her into police for making him sleep outside, but that’s not the only detail which led to the Ga. mom’s arrest. Now she’s taking to the fundraising site GoFundMe in hopes of raising money for legal fees in a case that she calls unfair.

The Daily Mail reports that the mother of four was arrested at the end of May after her son revealed the details of what he says happened. When he reportedly failed to come home at the 9:00 p.m. curfew that his mother had set, she locked him out of the house — which is something that many parents have threatened since the dawn of time.

According to the 13-year-old boy, his mother refused to let him into the house after 9:00 p.m. when he broke his curfew, but she also refused to give him a pillow or blanket or any other comforts while leaving him to sleep, exposing his son to the elements on the family’s back porch. The teen also told police that his brother brought him a blanket and pillow in the middle of the night without his mother’s permission. Antonia told that same sibling to keep the boy locked out of the house during the day the following morning. The police clearly saw this as an extreme form of punishment for such a young teen.

The details are unclear, but it seems that Antonia attempted to mislead police during interrogation. She told them that her son did in fact come home past curfew, but she asked him to come inside and he ignored her. She claims that she had last seen him at 11:00 at night, and that he had kicked a trash can in the yard. She was still arrested and charged with deprivation of a minor, so it seems that police chose to believe the teen’s version of events over hers.

It’s being reported that Antonia Folsom has attracted a lot of support from people who believe that she was simply teaching her son a valuable lesson about ignoring curfew. She’s also using GoFundMe to solicit funds for her defense. So far her attempts have raised close to her $2,000 goal. Do you think this mom was within her rights to make her child sleep outside, or do you think she is being rightfully punished for abusive behavior?

[Photo: Augusta Police mugshot]