4-year-old’s chalk art gets mom 50 hours of community service
A 4-year-old’s drawing of a “door to a magic land” earned a Richmond, Virginia mom a $325 fine, a ban from all city parks and a whopping 50 hours of community service. Susan Mortensen was ticketed in March for allowing her daughter to draw with chalk on the rocks at Belle Isle, a granite-studded park in the James River. According to Officer Stacy Rogers, the girl was “destroying” property and Mortensen was at fault for allowing her to do it. Yesterday, a judge agreed with the officer, charging Mortensen with vandalism and ordering her to spend 50 hours of her free time painting boundary posts for the park service. It’s a good thing her daughter didn’t have any spray-paint.
