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Culture March 27, 2017
An 11-year-old was served with multiple no-trespassing notices from the Harwich Police Department for her controversial route to the bus stop.
Autumn Blanchard had been taking a shortcut to a friend’s house on the way to the bus stop – which is far from her family’s home – so they could walk there together.
The sixth-grader would reportedly cut through Patricia Taylor’s property to get to Jacqueline Leger’s driveway, where she would then walk to the bus stop with Leger’s daughter.
Turns out Leger was not a fan of that friendship, since she was one of the three people who filed pink slips against the child. “I just wanted to get home and be warm inside my house,” Autumn told the Cape Cod Times.
The ridiculous case of an eleven-year-old child cited for trespassing after cutting through lawns to get to a far bus stop. Image via Giphy
Her mother was furious since no complaints were ever brought to her attention. Seemingly the first step was police showing up at her door with three pink slips for her young daughter.
“I am beyond distressed by this situation. I can’t imagine why it had to go to this level. Someone should have spoken to me,” Krystal Blanchard said.
She believes that her neighbors’ rude handling of the situation stems from her and Autumn being new to the community, and both having brightly colored hair. Krystal also has an array of piercings, which she thinks contributed to the unfair treatment.
“We don’t have parties. We’re not loud. We’re not rude. Autumn is a nice, polite kid. It should have been a note in the mailbox,” she said.
Taylor claims the complaint stems from worry that she could be sued should Autumn slip and fall while cutting through her yard. Years earlier Taylor had been sued by a girl who had broken her leg after slipping while walking her dog in her yard.
And while that worry sounds pretty valid, it still seems a bit absurd to slap such fines against an 11-year-old child. As it stands, if Autumn so much as steps on any of those properties again, she could be arrested and fined up to $100, imprisoned for up to 30 days, or both – per the notices.
It seems that those filing the complaints lost sight of the fact that Autumn really is still just a child. To put it into perspective her mother shared, “She can’t even trick-or-treat there. Imagine that.”
Luckily, Autumn will no longer have to worry about cutting down her long trek to the bus stop, as following the no-trespassing orders the school instituted one closer to her home.
However, the child will still have to deal with the fact that her friend’s mother basically threatened her with jail time, so… there’s still that.
