Mom Indicted for Hiring Stripper for Teen
A Nashville woman has been indicted for hiring a stripper for her 16-year-old son and his friends.
Mom Indicted for Hiring Stripper for Teen (AP)
A mother faces criminal charges after she hired a stripper to dance at her 16-year-old son’s birthday party. Anette Pharris, 34, has been indicted by a grand jury on charges of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and involving a minor in obscene acts. The boy’s father, the stripper and two others also face charges. “I tried to do something special for my son,” Pharris said. “It didn’t harm him.”
About 10 people under the age of 18 were at the birthday party in September, including minors who were not related to the family, authorities said.
Police spokesman Don Aaron said minors are not permitted in adult establishments. “A person shouldn’t be allowed to circumvent that law by hiring a stripper, a lady who took all her clothes off and spent a good amount of time dancing around minors,” he said.
Anette Pharris took photos at the party and tried to have them developed at a nearby drug store. Drug store employees notified authorities, police said.
“Who are they to tell me what I can and can’t show to my own children?” the mother said.
While this is not a parental decision I would make, I’m inclined to agree with Pharris. A minor can’t buy a beer at a bar but one wouldn’t expect the parents to be indicted if they gave their 16-year-old a beer. Similarly, a 16-year-old may not be able to go to a strip club but there would be no crime committed if his girlfriend–even an adult girlfriend–danced around naked in front of him. Even if he stuffed a dollar in her G-string during the performance.
The only problematic aspect of this, really, is the fact that minor children not her son were at the party. Even there, though, it’s questionable as to what harm was caused. I’m guessing all of the attendees have seen naked women before, at least in the movies or a magazine. Or the Internet, for that matter. Further, it would not appear that their parents were particularly upset about the situation, as it took a photo lab attendant to bring this to the attention of the authorities.
Now, if being stupid were a crime, she could be charged with a felony for taking the film to a photo lab.
Update (1357): Ed Morrissey and the First Mate agree that this is bad parenting. Joe Gandleman thinks it’s just plain “wrong.”
Sadly, in Maryland, parents CAN be indicted if they give their kids a beer.
A I read thru the news article you posted I kept waiting for this politically correct writing to finish without ever revealing the gender of the stripper. We knew we had a son here, but we had to wait for the third paragraph to find out this was a female stripper! WHEW!
So the mom & the stripper face charge? While I agree with you the real crime was “parental stupidity” how can you expect the home of Al Gore and Bill Frist to really behave any differently? Remember this is the area where all my moonshine buddies got rich while lining the pockets of the local ministers and politicians to insure counties remained dry and liquor illegal.
I am certainly not a prude when it comes to nudity and strippers but your argument seems pretty weak. I am all for parents having most of the say when it comes to their children but, as you partly pointed out, she made decisions for other people’s children in hiring the stripper for them so parental rights for those parents should be included in the discussion. Also, it is common sense that society has adopted certain laws regarding minors (which can be changed by majorities if they wish) which are generally considered best for society (and no, I do not agree with all of them). So, justifying the stripper by saying the kids had probably already seen a naked women is a very difficult position to defend. Would it be OK for parents to arrange sex parties with minors who had already had sex and adults? Could I give beer to another parent’s child because I thought he had had a drink before – certainly not without fairly explicit approval?
Except that the argument being made by the authorities isn’t “this is illegal.” It’s “something we consider to be close to this (taking teenagers to a strip club) is illegal.”
If one 16-year old goes over to another’s house, and the parents serve wine with dinner, is it that illegal? If the first child comes from a teetolling household, it might be poor judgement on the part of the parents in the second household. But it shouldn’t be a legal matter.
If the entertainment wasn’t cleared with the other parents ahead of time, then this is a case of poor judgment. But it shouldn’t be a matter for the state to settle.
Reverse this – A father hires a man to dance naked for his daughter’s sweet-16 birthday party. Still no problem?
I actually lean towards it being illegal, especially given the fact that there were other minors present.
What surprised me is that the stripper was willing to take on the job. You would think that a legitimate agency/stripper would have set up some kind of guidelines as to the age of the people they are stripping for just as a matter of good business and to steer clear of any type of sexual misconduct charges (depending on the age of the minor, appearing naked can result in a misdemeanor sex charge).
And the rest of the story – Drug store employee was actually the stripper.
This is in response to the comment about a man hiring a guy for his daughters 16th b-day. Guys and girls react differently to the same situations. This isn’t justification for poor judgement making but the way a 16 year old girl would perceive this and the way a 16 year old guy would perceive this are different. I don’t see how this needs to become a legal matter. This is an issue between the parents of the other minors and the parents of the birthday boy.
I would like to know more about the stripper, she looks familiar to me. Any help?
My biggest issue with this case isn’t whether or not the kids had seen a naked woman or whether or not it was illegal. My issue is the fact that a mother procured the services of a professional to bring her child a sexual experience. This is just plain disgusting.
At least she hired a professional rather than an amateur.