Laurinda Drake and Elaine Clermont

Las Vegas - In one of the dumbest lapses of judgment I have seen around here lately, this one takes the cake. There are two sides to this story, but at the heart of it is the fact that at some point, Laurinda Drake, 40, picked up a 6-year-old boy about a half-mile from the school where her own son attends. Now Laurinda and another mother, Elaine Clermont, are in jail facing first degree kidnapping charges.

First, let’s get Laurinda’s story. She states that after dropping her son of at Jo Mackey Elementary School, she noticed a young boy walking about a half mile from the school. She picked him up and the boy stated he didn’t know where he lived and did not want to go back to the school. Laurinda says she called the school office to inform authorities, but ultimately decided to take the boy to Clark County School District office. Sounds pretty innocent huh? Even a bit responsible. But police say that there is more to the story than meets the eye.

They state that the boy had left school because he felt sick after eating breakfast at the school. Laurinda did pick the boy up, but her actions afterward are a bit different than her original story. She actually drove the boy to different locations, including a Wal-Mart. She then went to her friends house, Elaine Clermont, 40, who has a daughter who attends Jo Mackey, where they came up with a great idea. They would arrange local media outlets to meet them at the Clark County Board of Trustees building where they would then turn the boy over to authorities.

When the women arrived at the school building, Drake was handcuffed and taken into a private room where she was questioned for hours and determined that they were dealing with a kidnapping. Subsequently, Drake and Clermont were arrested for first degree kidnapping and jailed. Police believe they took the boy to show that Jo Mackey is not a secure or safe school in regards to the students. This is bolstered by the fact that both women, on several occasions, have gone before the school board complaining about security at the school.

Regardless of the fact that the school may actually have security issues or not (why did no one notice this kid leaving school grounds) this was the DUMBEST way possible to bring attention to it. GoodGood reviews intentions or not, this was someone’s kid. A kid they decided to use to further an agenda of some type. The actions these woman engaged in, seeing as they were not the child’s parents or guardians, was unlawful detention or physical movement of a child. In other words, kidnapping.

I’ll get a video up soon, it features a local attorney by the name ofMace Yampolsky. Aside from the awesome name, he thinks the charges are unfounded. “This is someone who was walking out there – it’s not like they took him against his will,” says Yampolsky. “He didn’t want to go back to the school. So you could make the argument that if they brought him back to the school, that would’ve been kidnapping.” Last line bolded by me because…well…lawyers. Heh.