I was never one to wake up early. Frankly, I'm still not. I'm sure it frustrated my parents beyond all reason that I would be constantly be racing the clock to get to school, but those extra 20 minutes in the morning were well worth it to me.
Fourteen-year-old Zachary Towns learned the hard way, though, that sometimes mom can only handle so much laziness before she's got to resort to extreme measures. Crystal Towns was tired of her son...well, being tired. Zachary was always sleeping in and missing school, but Crystal had finally had enough.
"I woke him up. He thought he was just going to not go and I said 'nope you're learning today boy,'" said Crystal. "He blamed his sister for not waking him up, and I had it."
So she did what any other mom would do: called in reinforcements. Only for Crystal, that meant calling the school's police officer.
"So I called the school resource officer to come pick him up. He wasn't bad, he just thought he was gonna not go to school again, said Towns. "I called [the officer's] cell phone and he answered and he came and got him, came to the door, knocked then told him 'I'm here to take you to school and you are riding in the backseat' and they left."
Crystal doesn't regret calling the school officer, because her son needs to go to school.
"I don't have time in the morning to have him missing the bus and not waking up on time because his sister didn't wake him up or his alarm clock didn't go up so I had it this morning," she said. "I told him that if this kept occurring I would have to call the school cop and so that's what I did. I did what I needed to do I would do it all over again and feel good about it."
As for Zachary, he fully admits that he's got a sleeping issue.
"I'm pretty lazy can't lie I like to sleep in," he confessed.
That being he also realizes that he needs to respect his mom a little bit more.
"I wasn't very shocked at all I was just like oh ok off to Dan. She does a lot of things like this. She's one of those moms that will get on you but my mom could care less," Zachary said. "I don't think I should have pushed my mom's limits because that's the 100th time I've done it this year."
The police also backed Crystal's decision, saying it's reasons like this one that they even have school resource officers.
"It's our belief that kids who regularly attend school will have a better chance of staying out of trouble and staying on a path for future success," police chief Ron Wiles said. "Our School Resource Officers truly care about the safety, growth, and development of the students in our community and I'm glad we were able to help this family when they needed it."
Some people thought it was a bit of a waste of resources, though.
"So we're now calling cops because parenting a teenager is hard?" Laura Elizabeth asked.
"So all the other kids that morning get to shove it, because this one kid is more important to get to school?" Rachel Leah Ropp pointed out.
"This is ridiculous, such a waste of a resource for people who are deeply in need," Nicole Hall echoed.
What's important to remember, though, is that it's not like Crystal called 911. This officer is specifically slated to help the students at this school. Either way, Crystal is fine with her choice.
"No regrets," she said. "Not at all. I would do it again. I was being a parent. It takes a village, and I was trying to utilize the resources that we have."
[H/T: NBC News, Buzzfeed News]