HARWICH, MASS. (WHDH) - An 11-year-old girl on the Cape is in trouble with the law for walking through her neighbor’s yard to meet a friend at the school bus.
Police issued Autumn Blanchard three pink slips, no trespass orders, in early March.
A fallen tree was part of the issue. Jackie Leger filed the complaints, along with her elderly mother, who has that tree in her yard and was sued decades ago when someone fell and hurt themselves on her property.
“During that major snowstorm that we had in February, a big tree went down in the backyard. She was climbing over it to get through the yards, and that’s when we finally said ‘you can’t be doing it,’” said Leger.
Leger said the Harwich fifth grader ignored repeated warnings, including one from a school resource officer.
“Frankly, I was surprised that nobody had contacted me at all to begin with,” said Krystal Blanchard, Autumn’s mother.
So why go to the police and not the girl’s mother?
“We have never, ever, seen the parents out and about,” said Leger.
The Harwich Police Chief said the mother should have been called.
Autumn’s mother said she’s more upset with her daughter’s school.
“I would hope that the school doesn’t abuse their power to take a kid out of their class to talk to them about something that doesn’t have anything to do with the school,” said Blanchard.
“I would be fired for doing that,” she added.
The Monomoy Regional School District superintendent agrees that the mother should have been called.
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