A Kentucky couple says they were visited by Child Protective Services after they allowed their 6-year-old son o run in the Flying Pig Marathon in Cincinnati. Ben and Kami Crawford, from Bellevue, shared a photo on Instagram of their son Rainier being interviewed by an official about the fact that he “adamantly decided that he wanted to run a marathon.”
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- People in the community had complained. According to the Instagram post, Child Protective Services showed up at the family’s home unannounced on Friday “and interviewed our children because leaders in the community are calling running with children wrong.”
- Understandably, the kids are upset. Rainier was simply excited to run in the marathon and was proud of his accomplishment. Having someone come and call that into question while scaring him and his siblings is not okay. “This needs to stop,” the Instagram post continued. “Our children are having emotional breakdowns, NOT from running, but from a mob that has been weaponized by runnings most accomplished and celebrated individuals.”
- Those who complained believe that running is “abusive.” Despite there being zero proof to this belief, it didn’t stop CPS from following up on the complaints. “They are stating that children running is abusive and not providing any data or facts. The reports and stance are false. Hundreds of witnesses including police officers and hours of video footage corroborate,” the couple said. “When will you apologize and retract?”
- No charges have been filed. District Attorney Steve Franzen of Campbell County, Kentucky told Good Morning America that officials had visited the family’s home but that they hadn’t decided yet how or if they would proceed.
- Ben insists his son was just fine throughout the marathon. “The real stuff that we got accused of was dragging Rainier, like physically dragging him on the marathon course after mile 13 and across the finish line,” he insisted in response to the backlash he and Kami had received. “If you guys have seen our finish line picture, we all held hands for like the last probably, like, .2, .3 miles. We talked about it ahead of time, like that’s what we’re going to do.”
- The family ran the race together and stand behind their decision to let Rainier participate. “Our 5 older kids waited for over an hour at mile 25 and after 8 hours and 35 minutes we all crossed the finish line together,” they wrote on Instagram on May 3. “We have never forced any of our children to run a marathon and we cannot even imagine that as feasible practically or emotionally. We have given all of our kids the option for every race.” They added that as parents, they were always “ready to pull the plug at any moment if he requested it or if we viewed his safety at risk.”
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