Minor Caught Shoplifting and Release of Minor to a Nonparent

Maybe it's a wake up call for parents to review their kids :)

No duh Dogmatique!!!!
Hope your never faced with this situation, in your perfect world!
In any event, remember why you are a senior member on this board.

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Quoting onehappyday99

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This has never happen with my son, bad choice (showing off in front of "so called friends") and he knew he'd be in huge trouble at home for this.

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Which is why, after being caught stealing, he lied, lied, and lied some more. I understand you have imposed some consequences on junior for lying, but at 14 if you're concerned that he called somebody who might have been dangerous to him you need to take him to task for that as well.

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Quoting onehappyday99

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Here is my problem. He gave a number to the LP dept of a person who was at park and this person went and picked my son up from the LP dept. (This person was not the adult I sent him with)....

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Who was the person who picked up your son? Where was "the adult [you] sent him with" and why wasn't "the adult [you] sent him with" supervising any of the kids?

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Quoting onehappyday99

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I called Six Flags to question how in the world my son was apprehended and I was not informed as the parent. He said he talked to me, I said, No you didnt.

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Odds are, had the park called you that day and the option were made available, you would have said "release him to the adult I sent him with", or if that person was not available, possibly even "release him to the friend he called in. Given a choice, few people will drop everything, head out to an amusement park, and spent several hours dealing with finding and collecting their teenaged child rather than telling the chaperone to bring him home.

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Quoting onehappyday99

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How do you have any proof the person with whom you spoke to or released my child to was a legal guardian or parent? According to policy of Great Adventure, the minor is to be released to a parent or legal guardian.

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If that is their policy, that is not necessarily to your advantage. If that is there policy, odds are it continues "unless the minor is turned over to law enforcement", which is usually the easiest approach when parents haven't accompanied the minor to the park.

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Quoting onehappyday99

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This could have went horribly wrong with my child being realeased to someone "other" than who he went to the park with.

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How immature and irresponsible do you believe your son to be, such that he would lie his way into that kind of trouble rather than risk facing the music for his offense? Whatever the corporate policy, if a fourteen year old has the common sense one would expect from kid of his age he's not going to call somebody who is going to harm him. He's going to call somebody who will help him cover up his offense. And it sounds like that's exactly what your kid did.

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Quoting onehappyday99

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We see these situations go horribly wrong all the time.

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We do? Please, then, post a link to one or two stories of this type of situation gone horribly wrong. Thanks.

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Quoting onehappyday99

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and nobody is answering my question.
How can a minor be released to someone other than parent/legal guardian without proof of who you are?

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That has been answered. Because it's not illegal. Just as it was not illegal for you to send your kid to the amusement park for the day without the supervision of a parent or legal guardian.

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Quoting onehappyday99

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Releasing him to an unkown person is unacceptable. Not to mention the person my minor was released to was a minor.

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Which brings us back to the question of why the chaperone you approved for this trip was not providing adequate supervision, and why you believe your son would lie his way into danger. And please, this was not an "unknown person" - it was the person your son called, a person you appear know, and a person you probably knew would be going on the trip to the amusement park.

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Quoting onehappyday99

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Hope your never faced with this situation, in your perfect world!

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Commenting on what appears to be a lot of misdirected anger does not mean that you believe your own world is perfect.

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Quoting onehappyday99

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In any event, remember why you are a senior member on this board.

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Same as every other senior member - 100 or more posts.

"In any event, remember why you are a senior member on this board.
Same as every other senior member - 100 or more posts. "

And knowledge.

Yeah... knowing how to click "reply", type at least ten characters, then "post" 100 or more times. We've seen spammers become "senior members" within an hour of joining.

I'm not criticizing dogmatique here or detracting from her knowledge - I'm just pointing out what "Senior Member" actually means given the odd statement, "remember why you are a senior member on this board".

I know that.

Those of us who have been around a while tend to give answers based on knowledge, not number of posts :)

You still don't understand. Their policy of not releasing the kid except to the parent isn't for the child's benefit or because of any DUTY nor does it establish any duty on their part.
The policy is entirely for their benefit to make the parent come and identify themselves and realize what their criminal spawn has done. It's entirely for their benefit for going forward with the civil demand and potential civil law suit.

As pointed out, you don't want to toy with Great Adventure's lawyers. If you do this, you'll need big lawyers of your own. Six Flags is absolutely aggressive in their litigation defenses. They have killed kids there on a number of occasions. The haunted house fire was CLEARLY 100% insane gross negligence on their part, but they managed to buy enough expert witnesses to get off without paying. Fortunately, the State of NJ stepped up and enacted codes on amusement park attractions as a direct result of this fire.