We are fighting to enact 'Queen’s Law' to require that local law enforcement and community leaders implement strict, balanced, and thorough protocols before arresting minors—especially during everyday neighborhood conflicts. We are talking about children here, not adults, and the system needs to start treating them like children.

Far too often, juvenile arrests are made based on a rigid, one-sided "check-the-box" system. The moment any object is involved, law enforcement automatically upgrades a neighborhood dispute to a 245 weapon charge and makes an automatic arrest. The system completely bypasses common sense. It ignores whether a child innocently possessed the item beforehand, whether they were physically provoked, or what the actual physical reality of the situation is.

In our case, a 13-year-old honor roll student stepped in to protect his 11-year-old sister after she was targeted and called names. He already had a thin, brittle 15-inch yard twig in his hand because he was using it innocently as a walking stick. After my son had told him to stop the other boy turned the verbal dispute physical by pushing him, grabbing him, and pulling his clothing so hard you could clearly tell the shirt was stretched, ultimately ripping the necklace completely off my son's neck. Following the physical struggle, the other youth aggressively stood his ground and taunted him, saying, 'What are you going to do about it?' My son used the twig to get him to stop, resulting in five minor, bloodless marks exactly like cat scratches. The twig was so fragile that it broke apart in his hand with each contact, yet the police labeled it a severe 'beating' just to check a weapon box. While an ambulance responded to the scene, the other child did not go to the hospital and required zero medical transport, stitches, or X-rays.

While my son had to take the full force of the law, the other youth—a 10-year-old child—faced absolutely zero consequences, zero accountability, and nothing on his record. My son—a child who is deeply loved, has a massive heart, and loves Legos—was taken away in handcuffs crying in the back of a cop car. He was subjected to the trauma of juvenile hall (being in 16-19 year old unit) from Friday night until Wednesday morning, followed by one month of house arrest and unpredictable probation visits. This heavy legal system completely upended our entire family—deeply traumatizing his younger sisters, his grandmother, and his cousin, while leaving his mother and a strong, devoted father broken down in tears watching the painful aftermath of a one-sided system.

Unless a severe crime involving serious physical harm or a real weapon has occurred, our youth deserve a justice system that looks at the whole truth. 'Queen’s Law' will mandate a full, multi-perspective review of physical evidence (like stretched shirts, broken necklaces, and fragile yard twigs), independent eyewitness context, and the true medical reality before a child can be arrested. We demand a system that stops rushing to lock up our youth and instead investigates with fairness and human common sense.