KinderLARDen cop: why states must stop policing parents of obese children.

Jerri Gray may spend the next fifteen years of her life in a South Carolina prison. She is not a drug dealer or a serial rapist. She has not robbed anyone or committed grand theft auto—she simply has an obese son. Jerri’s fourteen-year-old son, Alexander Draper (“Alex”), is morbidly obese, tipping the scales at a staggering 555 pounds. After contacting Jerri about her son, the Department of Social Services issued her a treatment plan aimed at reducing Alex’s weight. Despite Jerri’s compliance with the Department’s guidelines, she received a court summons after Alex missed an agencyrecommended medical appointment. Fearing that the State would take her son away from her, and unable to afford a lawyer, she took Alex and fled the state. Officials arrested Jerri in Maryland, where