A Mississippi 10-year-old has been sentenced to three months’ probation for urinating behind his mother’s car. But the boy’s mother is refusing to sign his probation agreement, citing the stringency of the agreement’s terms.
“It’s just a regular probation. I thought it was something informed for a juvenile. But it’s the same terms an adult criminal would have,” Carlos Moore, the family’s attorney, told the Associated Press on Tuesday. “We cannot in good conscience accept a probation agreement that treats a 10-year-old child as a criminal.”
In August, third-grader Quantavious Eason was seen urinating behind his mother’s car while she went inside an attorney’s office. Senatobia, Mississippi, police saw Quantavious, arrested him, and took him to a local police station. According to the boy’s mother, Latonya Eason, her son was even placed inside a jail cell, despite posing no threat to the officers.
Quantavious was charged with “child in need of supervision,” and a youth court judge sentenced him last week to three months of probation, as well as a two-page report on late basketball player Kobe Bryant.
According to the A.P., the terms of Quantavious’ probation resembled those given to adults—including that he submit to drug tests at his probation officer’s discretion and a ban on the boy possessing any weapons. The probation agreement also placed a strict 8 p.m. curfew on the boy, one that would apply despite the upcoming Christmas holiday.
According to Moore, the prosecution threatened to upgrade the charge against Quantavious to disorderly conduct if his family attempted to take the case to a formal trial. As a result, Latonya Eason initially suggested that she would sign the agreement.
“We are not going to appeal. He will not have a criminal record, this is probation. And he is a fan of Kobe Bryant, so he doesn’t mind writing the two-page report,” Moore told NBC last week. “But, still, the principle of it—he should not have to do anything. He should be enjoying his Christmas holiday like the other kids.”
But on Tuesday, Moore announced that Latonya Eason wouldn’t sign the probation agreement after reading it in full and that he had filed a motion to dismiss the charge against Quantavious.
“The terms proposed are not in the best interest of our client, and we will take all necessary steps to challenge them,” Moore told the A.P.
While it is unclear whether the case against Quantavious will be dismissed, what’s certain is that police never should have arrested a 10-year-old for something as minor as public urination in the first place. The fact that police—and prosecutors—responded so aggressively to a completely nonviolent child has led Moore to suggest that racial bias has played a role in the boy’s case.
“He did what any reasonable person would do: He urinated next to the car behind the door—not exposing himself to anyone,” Moore told NBC last week. “He would not have been arrested, prosecuted or sentenced if he was any other color, race, besides Black.”
“I want to make sure this doesn’t happen again,” Latonya Eason added. “No matter the color or who you are, no child should have to go through that.”
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