Alabama Mom Made 7-Year-Old Walk Home From School As Punishment, Ran Over Him With Her Car

A mother went overboard when it came to punishing her 7-year-old son for getting in trouble on the school bus.

Alabama authorities say the 27-year-old mother picked her son up from school on February 8 after he got in trouble on the school bus and couldn’t take the bus home, Boaz Police Chief Michael Abercrombie told McClatchy News over the phone.

As a result, the mother had to pick him up from school, and that’s when she made him get out of the car to walk home at around 3:30 that afternoon, the police chief said.

He walked and jogged with his mom trailing him or driving beside him with her flashers on, Abercrombie added. After about two or three blocks, she slowed down, and the child reached for the door handle presumably to try to get back in the car.

“She may not have realized he was doing that,” Abercrombie said, and she drove off, causing him to be pulled under the vehicle.

Investigators believe the mother accidentally ran over the boy, but it wouldn’t have happened if he wasn’t being punished to begin with, Abercrombie said.

The mother, whose identity has been withheld to protect the privacy of her son, has since been charged with aggravated child abuse, according to Marshall County jail records.

The child was taken to a Birmingham hospital with abrasions on his back and the side of his head, the police chief said.

Abercrombie said it was a miracle the child wasn’t more severely injured.

“God watched over him,” he said.

The child didn’t have any internal injuries or broken bones.

The mother was booked in jail and released three days later on a $50,000 bond, records show.

McClatchy News did not identify the woman to protect the identity of her son.