YGBFKM

Heather Wallace’s oldest son, eight-year-old Aiden, was driving his two brothers crazy in the car as they all returned from karate one afternoon in October 2021. Wallace asked Aiden to walk the rest of the way home—half a mile in quiet, suburban Waco, Texas—so that he could calm down.

For this she was arrested, handcuffed, and thrown in jail.

She was charged with endangering a child, a felony carrying a mandatory minimum of two years in prison.

“It really brought us into deep trauma,” says Wallace.

She is finally able to speak out after completing a six month pretrial diversion program to get the charges dropped. But her arrest remains on the books—easily searchable by employers—which is disastrous for someone with a Bachelor’s degree in education.

[I used to walk and bicycle three miles to school every day — middle and high school. At Aiden’s age, I’d walk over a mile to go to the grocery store and local Thrifty’s to run errands. And that was in Los Angeles County, not the sleepy side of Waco. Good Lord. — Ed]