Hearing to determine if mom keeps 3 kids after gun scare

The mother of a 6-year-old who took two unloaded antique guns in his book bag to Pike County Primary School could lose all three of her children to state custody. She also has a 2-year-old and 5-year-old who were taken into Department of Family and Children Services care after she was arrested at the school and charged with reckless conduct only four days after moving to Pike from Alabama.An emergency preliminary protection hearing was held Sept. 30 to determine if the kids should go back to their mother Jaime Hawsey temporarily. Since Hawsey requested a public defender another hearing will be held Tuesday, Oct. 7, to make the final determination. Hawsey said she checked her son’s book bag the night before taking him to enroll in school but not the morning she took him. Judge Ben J. Miller Jr. heard from DFCS workers why the children should not be returned to their mother. A DFCS investigator surnamed Worthy said she found out the Alabama Department of Human Resources determined the home where Hawsey, her three children and their father were living in Escambia County, Ala., was not acceptable. That entity asked that she find another residence more suitable for the children and provided Hawsey with bus tickets so she and her children could move to Pike to live with Hawsey’s stepsister Whitney Turner. ’It sounds like Alabama was trying to wash their hands and get rid of you when they should have been trying to take care of you,’ said judge Miller. Worthy said the home of Turner in Pike County was not suitable for children ages 2, 5 and 6 because of conditions including additional weapons in the home and in the yard; and chain saws, hand saws and gasoline cans in the yard. Turner said she has three teenagers and her husband works on vehicles so the yard has lots of equipment in it. She said all the weapons were removed from the home and the BB gun that was in the yard was rusty and inoperable. Turner said the guns taken to the school and confiscated by school resource officers were antique family heirlooms that were in a drawer in her bedroom when she left for work at 4 a.m. the day they were taken to school. Investigator Worthy said she asked the first grader if he put the guns in his book bag and he said somebody must have put them in his bag, going on to say he knew guns were for shooting animals but he didn’t want to shoot any animals today. It was revealed in court that Hawsey is pregnant and the father of her children is still in Alabama looking for a stable place for them to stay. ’I don’t want these children in foster care, I want these children to stay with relatives,’ said judge Miller, who told Turner and Hawsey to clean the house and make it suitable for younger children before the next court hearing. No report on the Tuesday, Oct. 7 hearing to make the final determination in the case was available due to a Monday press deadline.