MASON CITY – A Mason City parent is furious after she said her son and another boy were arrested and charged with felonies after they allegedly pulled bark off a tree on school property.
Mason City police told NIT that a mature tree on the south side of Roosevelt Elementary School in Mason City, located at 313 15th Street SE, has a large amount of bark removed from it. Police said that the school reported on Aug 5, 2014, that “some juveniles are alleged to have stripped / removed the bark from the trunk of a tree. The bark removal was pretty severe; in some areas approx. 4’ of bark was removed. With so much bark missing, the tree is not expected to survive. The estimate to remove the old tree and plant a similar type tree was estimated to be slightly over $1000.”
Police said that two juveniles have been charged with 2nd degree criminal mischief on Aug 8, 2014. Criminal mischief in the second degree is a class “D” felony. Charged are: Parker Niles (13 years old); and Devon Barkema (14 years old). Any tree care expert Wichita would work well.
Juveniles court services is now handling the incident, police said. So far, the Mason City School District has not commented on the incident.
Naomi Wells, parent to Parker Niles, described the incident to NIT this way:
“My biggest complaint is no one from the school ever contacted the parents to see if we were willing to have the boys pay to have the tree replaced and maybe some community service at the school. Nothing, they just jumped the gun with out thinking how this could impact a 13 year old boy who was just being a 13 year old boy. Him and his friends hang out there all the time. And I don’t really have a problem with charges being filed just wish they would of got more than one estimate. Felony is a scary word for a mother to hear, when it involves her 13 yr old sin. I should not have to go through what I have for the last 4 weeks all because certain people don’t want to do any work or care about how their not taking the time to stop and think could impact a child’s life.
A 13 year old’s mind does not realize that by pulling bark off a tree, you are killing it and does not see a tree as someone else’s property. I’m not saying my son is perfect, but this is a child who has never had a detention and has gotten numerous positive referrals from his teachers.
On a Friday night at 9:45pm we got a call from officer Anderson telling us to bring the two boys in, to get them finger printed and mug shots taken because they were being charged with a felony, because the ONE estimate that Hal Miner got from Cutting Edge tree service (who school has all jobs done by) was $900, making total cost over $1000. I called Blanchard tree service and got an estimate of $475, that is a $425 difference in price, which would have made it not a felony charge.
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