An 11-Year-Old Girl Cited For Trespassing: Walking To And From Bus Stop

An 11-year-old girl was cited for trespassing for walking through a neighbors yard to get to and from her bus stop, Fox News reports.

A sixth grader, Autumn Blanchard, was handed a no-trespassing order from the police for walking through someone’s yard in order to get to and from her bus stop every day. Autumn’s mother, Krystal Blanchard, said that she was unaware that her neighbors were upset until the police arrived with the papers. The school, nor her neighbors never said anything to her.

The Massachusetts mom is very stressed out and upset over the situation.

“I am beyond distressed by this situation. I can’t imagine why it had to go to this level. Someone should have spoken to me.”

Now that they have the no-trespassing order, Krystal could be fined up to $100 and even arrested and sent to jail for 30 days if Autumn steps foot on their property again.

No-trespassing notice served to 11-year-old who cuts across neighbors yard on way to bus stop https://t.co/e6JOIMW42J #CapeCod pic.twitter.com/ifyuX7tApZ

— Cape Cod Times (@capecodtimes) March 25, 2017

Krystal and her family are new to the area, thus making her think that perhaps her neighbors may be discriminating them for the color of their hair. Autumn has bright, multi-colored hair, and Krystal has piercings and pink hair.

Krystal could not think that it could be for any other reason, but is upset because she says that Autumn is a very “nice, polite kid.”

Harwich Police Chief David Guillemette told reporters that he thinks the situation was not handled properly and that it should have been “handled with more tact.”

Autumn simply said that she walked through the neighbors’ yard in order to reduce her walk to and from the bus stop. With it being winter and cold, she claimed that she “just wanted to get home and be warm inside my house.”

According to Cape Cod Times, Krystal was trying to work with the school to make a bus stop closer to their home, and after the no-trespassing notices, she has finally succeeded.

School officials revealed that the neighbor did mention the girl’s shortcut to them, and they delayed their message to Autumn, but nobody ever involved her mother.

“I found out about it when the police showed up at my door with a no-trespass order. It’s making it a hostile environment for my child to go to school.”

Not only did she receive a no-trespassing order from one person, but a total of three neighbors. Two of the notices were from Jacqueline Leger, and the other was from Patricia Taylor.

Apparently, Autumn would regularly cut through Taylor’s property then up Leger’s driveway, where she would walk to the bus stop with Leger’s daughter.

Autumn told reporters that Leger’s daughter was her “bus friend” and she was always kind to her ever since she moved to the area. She also attended Autumn’s Harry Potter themed birthday party last year.

Taylor told reporters that she was a target in a lawsuit a few years back for some child getting hurt on her property, and simply didn’t want to take any chances for something like that to happen again.

The police report revealed that both Taylor and Leger have told Autumn not to walk through their property, but she ignored their orders. Krystal said that if she would have known any of this was going on, it would have never gotten to this level.

“I’m her mother. If I’d had a chance to speak to her it wouldn’t have got to this level. My daughter respects me and would listen to me.”

Krystal was very upset with the Vice-Principal of the school, who never once mentioned anything to her about the situation. Even Monomoy Regional School’s Superintendent Scott Carpenter felt as if the situation wasn’t handled properly.

“The mother ideally should have been contacted.”

Further, Carpenter felt that the school shouldn’t have been involved other than to bring the two parties together to discuss the problem.

Autumn is sad that she can’t hang out with her bus friend anymore because she isn’t allowed on their property.

“It makes me just kind of feel sad that I can’t hang out with one of my friends that’s nearby. There are barely any kids here.”

Krystal is upset for her daughter.

“She just cannot ever go on those properties again. She can’t even trick-or-treat there. Imagine that.”

[Featured Image by Charles Krupa/AP Images]