Depending on who you ask, the McKinney, Texas pool party fiasco with the viral video was started either by a gang of rowdy teens or a police officer who used excessive force on a girl. But what if I told you it was instigated by a couple of moms?
As details about this incident trickle out, that's the one detail stands out for me as the most WTF detail of all, the detail that shocked me even more than police officer Eric Casebolt's Tackle of Shame. But first, a little background.
According to some reports, members of the local home owner's association are allowed to throw a party of up to 20 people at a time. Otherwise, members may only invite two guests to visit the pool with them. It's a small community pool and it makes sense to keep the numbers down for safety's sake.
Confusion arose when a party to be held at the adjacent park, on the same day, was promoted via social media.
And then some members of the homeowners association had invited guests to swim with them, as was their right.
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So when kids show up to party, it's unclear where it's taking place. Some kids walk the pool area in as explicitly-invited guests. Other kids scale the fence because they assume they're being barred out of ordinary racism. (Whatever, grow up black in America and you might find yourself making the same assumptions. Doesn't make it right, but does make it understandable.)
According to resident Tatyana Rhodes some parents began harassing some of the teenagers there, particularly a 14-year-old girl. At least one parent used racial slurs and suggested that the girl return to public housing where they came from (many of the teens were actually residents of the same neighborhood). When the Rhodes defended her friend and told the parents they were treating the girl inappropriately one mom, named Kate, slapped her. And then she and another mom attacked her.
14-year-old Grace Stone, the only white person handcuffed at the incident, told a similar story to WFAA. She was restrained by police when she tried to tell them what happened. She was surprised the parents who started the fight were not similarly treated.
In addition to that, video shows a girl fighting off an adult woman who, according to witnesses, attacked her when she objected to the racial insults.
Now what kind of example is that for your kids?
Look, we've all gone mamma bear at times when we thought our children might be in danger. Maybe these women were worried about their own kids getting trampled by the crowd. But that's no justification for verbally abusing kids, and it's certainly no reason to actually slap a minor.
As a mother it's your duty to model civilized behavior for your children. That's something society depends on us to do. We can do better than this!
Tatyana Rhodes' mother says she wishes these parents had approached her instead. They could have had a conversation and reached a compromise -- like reasonable adults.
But instead we got this controversy. And honestly, as much as I feel for the teens who were attacked and handcuffed, the people I pity most are these parents' kids. They have to live with the memories of seeing their moms behave shamefully. They will now live with the internal conflict between loyalty and embarrassment, confusion and love and disapproval. These parents owe their first apology to their children.
Have you ever verbally attacked another person in front of your kids? How did they react to your behavior?
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