Maryland Mother Facing Charges After Ordering Son To Fight
HALETHORPE, Md. (CBS) -- Some viral cell phone video is causing outrage among child psychology experts. It shows a mother challenging a middle school boy to fight with her son in their Halethorpe, Maryland neighborhood.
"Put your hands on him, because I'm going to (expletive) cut him loose on you, buddy," we hear her yell out.
She later told reporters that the boy had been bullying her son. "As a parent, I felt I was protecting my child, teaching him to stand up to this child," said Kelly White. "I was scared for my boy's life. That's why I did it."
In the video, the boy is seen resisting at first. After the mother continues urging him, he eventually tackles her son to the ground, putting him in a choke-hold.
WBZ-TV's Christina Hager reports.
"Help me Mom," we hear her son cry out.
"No! Get up and fight now," his mother yells back. Finally, the other children watching tear the boy off her choking son. Still she urges the two to continue to fight. Her son ends up in a choke-hold a second time.
"Get up," she yells. Her beaten son answers "I'm done!"
WBZ-TV showed the video to local child psychologist Elizabeth Englander.
"There are a lot of people who still feel like getting into…the physical fight is the best way to resolve it," she says. "Whereas a generation ago, the police might have winked, or the school might have said, 'let them settle it themselves,' now what happens is that people are brought up on charges."
In fact, Montgomery County, Maryland Police are charging Kelly White with second degree child abuse and assault.
