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Woman kidnaps first grader to prove it can be done
Filed under: Big Kids, Health & Safety: Babies, In The News, Weird But True, Day Care & Education
Laurinda Drake claims that all she wanted to do was prove to school officials that kidnapping a child from Jo Mackey Elementary would be a piece of cake. Apparently, it was a piece of cake, but authorities didn't appreciate the lesson.
It all started after Drake dropped her own son off at the Las Vegas elementary school and noticed a young boy walking away from the campus. Instead of taking the boy to the school office, she took the first-grader for a ride in her car. She says the boy didn't know where he lived and didn't want to go back to school, so she drove him straight to the Clark County School District office. But police claim that she actually made a few stops along the way, including a trip to Wal-Mart and then a friend's house. While at Elaine Clermont's house, she made some phone calls to the local media and arranged for them to be present when she finally did take the boy to the district office.
The media showed up, as did the Clark County School District Police who say Drake was uncooperative when questioned. After cuffing her and taking her to a 'private room', officials determined that she had kidnapped the child.
Drake claims she was only trying to shed some light on what she feels are lax security measures at the school. And while school officials claim this was an isolated incident and that no child would ever be allowed to leave school alone, Drake says it has happened before.
I understand Drake wanting to make a point, but she is paying a heavy price for the way she went about it. She and Clermont were charged with first degree kidnapping and booked into the North Las Vegas Jail.
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ReaderComments (Page 2 of 7)
9-12-2008 @ 1:59PM
martiowl1 said...There is no logic to your rant! Obviously you cannot process the FACTS in the article. There are others here as well who share your illogical and ignorant thinking! I agree with what Kara said: "I would say that her lawyer will have a fairly easy time getting the charges dropped....
We should really be angry with the school"
And I would add, angry with the SCHOOL BOARD and LAW ENFORCEMENT for OVER REACTING! It is very obvious that they are retaliating for having the lack of security shown up.
As for the parent of that little boy, the least he/she could have done was to watch until the child went inside! And then stay long enough to make sure he stayed inside (10 or so)
9-13-2008 @ 11:42AM
c_rousseau05 said...This is for you martiowl1...just because someone doesn't watch their kid go into the school doesn't mean they deserve to have their kid snatched up. I'm not about to call you names, i'm above that. However, seriously, what if that kid were your child? Would you really sit back and say "omg, it's my fault, I should have been watching him, you are forgiven, good point" NO, you wouldn't and if you say you would ...well, I don't know quite what to say to that.
If that were my kid i'd have wanted her put behind bars for kidnapping then gone to that stupid school myself and pressed charges on them too. To prove a point or not, she kidnapped a kid and that in itself is punishable by jail time. Yes, the parent who kidnapped and the school should be punished, I do agree with that, never said I didn't. I would hope that parents watch and make sure their kids get safely into the school but sadly some don't. No one deserves to have their kid taken though, no one and I feel really badly for the parent of that child. To find out after the fact that your child had been snatched up by another parent, taken on a joy ride and then to the school district office all in the name of proving a point. As a parent i'm anxious when my kid is in another car with someone else to begin with and its not me driving....imagine the horror that this parent had to face. I hope they feel guilty enough to make sure it doesn't happen for real next time but they shouldn't have had to go through that to begin with.
The wonderful thing about America is that when you commit a crime you pay for it, no matter how big or small. No matter if it's to "prove a point" or if you really meant it. Next time she wants to prove a point, hopefully she won't lengthen her criminal sheet. A letter and a little harassment (ie. lots of phone calls, petitions, etc) goes a long way in trying to get things done when it comes to schools and such. PTA meetings...thats what they are for. She should have taken that road and just kept trying instead of kidnapping. At least she was concerned enough to make sure her own kid got to school safe, she had it right, she didn't have to take the road she did.
I really don't mind being called names, you can think as you wish. I just wanted to stress to you why I feel the way I do. Thanks.
9-11-2008 @ 12:14PM
lisar4 said...If she was so concerned about a child leaving school she should have contacted the school officials right away, not driven him to the district offices. It's ridiculous! She made stops along the way, what kind of person does that when she's "just trying to prove a point"??? Who's to say she didn't do anything to him..........She's very sick obviously. And yes, anything could have happened along the way. I, as a parent, would have exacted my own revenge. Sorry, but any parent who loves their child would. What, you're just supposed to thank her for proving a point using your child. Please.
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9-14-2008 @ 6:53PM
Corrinne said...The school officials wouldn't have done anything about it. I don't completely agree with her choice, but she doesn't deserve to go to jail, it's ludicrous.
9-11-2008 @ 6:04PM
cr said...I have wanted to do this numerous times to prove that no one is paying attention at my girls' school. And my concerns always fall on deaf ears with them saying 'oh that wouldn't happen here'. It only takes once people! And if she was proving a point hopefully they will listen. And honestly if I had taken him to the office of my girls' school nothing would change and absolutely no awareness raised. I have seen a kid hanging out in the parking lot and why haven't the teachers seen this? People just don't watch their kids or kids they are entrusted with. I had to stop an 18 month old from walking out into a parking lot the other evening. I have taught my oldest what to do but you do worry it won't matter cause the situations can and could be different and who knows how she will react one time. I sooooooooooo understand why this mother did what she did.
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9-12-2008 @ 10:45AM
torflof said...it's very easy to complain about everything everybody does wrong but are we any better? to cr, if you think what that lady did was the correct way to go about it you are delusional!!! we are all involved in the safety of our community so if you see a child in trouble, please do someone a big favor and help that child, don't try to prove anybody wrong because at the end you are doing it for yourself not because you really want to help......
9-14-2008 @ 6:53PM
Corrinne said...I don't think cr is wrong. And he wouldn't be doing it for himself by alerting people so it would hopefully STOP happening. I'm so sick of people not being able to see the bigger picture.
As I've already said, I don't agree 100%, just because I know how screwed up law enforcement is. But, she doesn't deserve to be punished. Was the kid scared?? I want to know that.
9-14-2008 @ 8:04PM
cr said...I must reiterate that I would never take someone else's child. I would do this with my own to make a point. I also don't think I would only be doing it for 'myself'. I want my kids to be safe and when my daughters are away from me for a good portion of the day and I can't be there throughout it we have to trust our kids are safe. And for parents and schools to take a flippant approach of 'it will never happen here' is just beyond irrational. Yes, we don't know all the circumstances here. I am always watching to make sure kids are safe and ok cause I know that there are parents like me that don't know what is happening and I would think they would return the favor if they saw my child alone or somewhere they shouldn't be.
9-12-2008 @ 6:12AM
Lia said...So the school lets a little guy wander away from the school, but the woman who is trying to bring attention to the problem is the one who is blamed. True, she went about it in a bizarre way, but she probably did save that child's life, from being hit by a car if nothing else.
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9-12-2008 @ 6:18AM
suan said...hey someone should be glad that a real kidnapper who would have harmed the boy didnt get him....the child was unsupervised and not protected...... she made an error in judgement...and should have called the police to the scene where she found him.... but them being considered a kidnapper.... thats not fair.... thank goodness she was looking out for the boy....so he wanst harmed by someone who would have killed him
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9-12-2008 @ 6:34AM
Ann said...I used to be a crossing guard for North Las Vegas Police Department. After my afternoon shift, I was headed home when I spotted a first grader walking alone, crying. He was about atwo blocks from the school. I was done for the day, so I flipped a U-turn and went back to the school parking lot, put my NLVPD ID and vest back on and walked down the street towards the young boy. When I approached him, I identified myself (as a crossing guard) and asked him if he was lost. Sobbing, he said his mom was supposed to pick him up, he didn't know where he lived and that he was trying to get home. I explained to him that it would always be safer to go back to the school and ask for help. With his tear stained face, I walked back to the school with him. He had stopped crying as I asked him about school, what he had for lunch, etc. I told him the secretary would get him some water (it was about 110 degrees outside) and call his mom. We arrived back at the school within ten minutes and I escorted him into the office. I introduced him to the staff and explained to the secretaries why he was there. They immediately got him some water, washed his tears away and started to locate mom.
The woman that took that kid from the school was very foolish. To think that she was teaching CCSD a lesson. Instead, she scared the crap out of a kid and his parents.
The first thing I did was put my ID and vest on, so that anyone that saw this little boy alone, and then with me....would know that I was an official that was helping, not trying to steal the boy I escorted back to school.
In my case, the story ended exactly how it should have. I approached the boy, on foot. I identified myself to him and anyone else that might see me with him and I never, ever touched him.....I simply explained to him that it was safer to go back to school for help.
His mom arrived within 20 minutes. She thought he was on the bus and had no idea her son was wondering around near the school lost.
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9-12-2008 @ 6:41AM
JSub said...I agree with most of you that she was really in the wrong here. That was a very bad judgment choice, and she should be in serious trouble. I agree with c_rousseau05, that she should have had someone else do that to her child. And also, I don't know about most parents, but my children know to run and yell if a stranger comes up to them like that, especially at school. They are 6 and 4.
She needs to be punished for stupidity.
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9-12-2008 @ 6:52AM
Blanche said...What the parent did was wrong, but the school should be charged with negligence.
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9-12-2008 @ 8:17PM
Midge said...I don't get it. Everyone's harping on the school. If it was before school and that boy was on the way to school and turned around to go back home before he got in the school .... how in the world are they responsible and how where they even supposed to know he did that? Why is everyone so quick to blame the schools and the teachers?
9-14-2008 @ 6:53PM
Corrinne said...I don't know if this was the school's fault or the parents. But someone else is at fault here besides the woman who picked him up... And if the schools security is usually lax, it probably wasn't an isolated incident as they say. I used to just walk out of school all the time in elementary and middle school (and high school) no one ever noticed. It was usually to go down the street to the store to get candy when I was younger. So many kids in middle school are skipping now. They have just as much risk as younger kids for predators.
A lot of schools need to step up their game.
9-14-2008 @ 7:43PM
Blanche said...If he rode the bus, the driver needed to make sure all children entered the school. With children that young there should be monitors at the door on the outside of the building to assure all children enter the building and that none stray. If his parent "dropped" him off, they should share some blame and responsibility. Parents of young kids like that should assure their children are in the school and class. That is another issue I have...parents drop their kids, they can't park to walk them in, and many are on their way to work and don't stay to see if their child gets in the building.
Drivers unload their busses and they don't assure all the kids are inside. If the drivers are not going to be responsible for the kids then the school should be. That child was way to young to determine he didn't want to go to school. I see kids his age walking alone all of the time from school where I live. Some of them walk a couple of miles from the school on a very busy street where the speed is supposed to be 35, but drivers regularly go 55 or higher. Does it matter? If you hit ANYBODY going over 25 they will be seriously injured, (if not dead), and the only thing that separates the kids from the elementary school from the cars is a strip of bumper blocks. They are THISCLOSE to the oncoming traffic. It scares me to drive past them, and if I can do so, I straddle the lanes when I pass. You just can't predict if some dummy will push another child out in front of an oncoming car, and many times they are horsing around.
9-12-2008 @ 7:10AM
Cathy said...What the Hell gives her the right to do something that stupid? If she didn't like the security at the school she just dropped her own child off at, then maybe she should have found a different school. But instead of taking her own child home, she took someone elses to prove her point?!?! WTF--if it were my child she stole like that, let's just say we would both be in jail at this point. I hope her child is grown by the time she gets out of jail.--what an idiot!
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9-12-2008 @ 7:16AM
Patsy said...Look you idiots.Did she not tell the school officals that a child could be kidnap.They didn't believe her.So she made a few stops.Did anyone report this child missing at school.No they didn't.Anything could have happen tp this child.Thank god she had the courage to do what she did.The school is to blame here.She proved her point.Leave the woman alone.
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9-13-2008 @ 8:54PM
Aaron said...1st. degree kidnapping in Las Vegas! Apparently she doesn't know O. J. Simpson is facing life in prison if convicted. Now, we have to wait and see if lady justice is really blind and the judicial system is fair for all regardless of ethnicity. Lady justice has shown partiality for years, doubt if she's about to change, she has always peeked under her blindfold, ahem, for certain individuals. Evident with the "Keating Five" allowing Sen. John McCain and Sen. John Glenn get away with the Savings & Loan scandal. I'd forgotten, they are our heroes!! Only in America!
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9-12-2008 @ 8:15AM
Daniele V. said...If it was your kid, I'd want to know why you didn't walk him INTO the school!!! You know, I understand that it might be a little inconvenient for you to park the car and walk little Johnny into the school, but if you want to keep your kids from being kidnapped, DO IT!!!
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