Mom gets probation after keeping kids out of school for years

GASTON COUNTY, N.C. — Since Jennifer Elam was arrested in March 2016, her children have only missed one day of school.

And that one absence was because Elam had a hearing in a Gaston County courtroom, pleading for the return of her kids.

"I'm going to do what I have to do to get those kids back," said Elam, admitted to keeping her 10- , 13- and 15-year-old children out of school for three years.

She said her husband, who home-schooled the children, and her mother died within a week of each other, which triggered a bout with depression and addiction to heroin.

Gaston County school officials thought the children were still being home-schooled until last month.

A social worker found them at their home a couple of blocks from Stuart Crammer High School.

Police said the children stayed home while Elam went out to get drugs.

"She is taking full responsibility for this," said Elam's defense attorney, James Richardson.

Elam wanted probation and the chance to be a mother again.

"I need you to make a decision right now, today," Judge Angela Hoyle said. “I want you to understand how serious this is."

The judge reviewed the oldest child's grades after one month of school living in a stable home.

“93, a 79, a 73, an 86, a 96 and 100,” Hoyle said. “That's for a child that has not gone to school. That means she is smart and she cares. Don't waste that."

Elam told the judge she is clean and ready to enter a drug-treatment program.

"I want my kids back,” Elam said. “Those are the most important things to me right now is to get those kids back. They have lost everything and I don't want to let them down any more."

The judge gave her 36 months of probation.

She will be monitored by social workers and probation officers; she's been ordered to stay away from drugs, provide a stable home and keep the children in school.

Cox Media Group