Strict parents or looney tunes ?

SWAGA · Jul 7, 2015

A couple of wannabe bodybuilders in South Carolina forced their teen daughter to live in the woods as punishment for eating a Pop-Tart, authorities say.

Crystal and James Driggers were arrested Friday and charged with neglect after police say they found the couple’s 14-year-old in a tent about a quarter-mile from their rural Dalzell home. The girl’s grandmother had called police, according to the arrest report.

The Driggers, who were released after a bond hearing on Monday, did not respond to requests for comment.

“They were upset because the child ate a Pop-Tart,” Braden Bunch of the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office told The Daily Beast.

On Thursday morning, according to the sheriff’s office, the iron-pumping parents banished the girl to the nearby woods, which are stomping grounds for wild hogs. They allegedly provided her only with a roll of toilet paper, a flashlight, a whistle and a watch for her outdoor sentence, which was supposed to last a week.

“She was out there for two days and was expected by her parents to stay out there for another five,” Bunch told The Daily Beast. “The parents have confirmed to us exactly what they were planning.”

The girl was told if she wanted food, she’d have to come to a fence on the family’s property at certain times, police said. At one point, a member of the Drigger household delivered a cold can of SpaghettiOs to the girl, police said.

Handout
The tough punishment was intended to “make her feel how it would be to be homeless,” the concerned grandma told cops, according to the police report.

But when the weather turned stormy Thursday night, the grandmother brought the girl to her house. She then texted her son, 33-year-old James Driggers, who became upset with her for interfering, the report says.

When sheriff’s deputies arrived, they say James assured them that the girl would return home that night. The dad reportedly described the teen as a “problem child” who was causing trouble at home and at school.

The next day, officers say they discovered the teenager was back in the tent, which had been moved closer to the Drigger residence. Crystal Driggers, 36, allegedly told one deputy, “Now maybe we can get some help for her. Y’all wouldn’t help before.”

Crystal also claimed the police told her it was OK for her daughter to be in the woods as long as there was no lightning, according to the report.

It’s unclear what the Driggers’ motives may have been for the teen’s alleged discipline. Bunch told The Daily Beast that Crystal Driggers may actually be the girl’s stepmother.

The raven-haired and tattooed Crystal Driggers is a “coach” with the Beachbody home fitness program. On her Facebook page, she hawks the company’s workout DVDs and color-coded meal portion containers.

“I am a busy mother of six and I know how hard it can be to squeeze in fitness and nutrition,” she wrote on her company profile. “Let me help you find the time to be happy and healthy!”
The girl punished for the Pop-Tart was also disciplined for eating a protein bar.
The muscle-building mother has also published videos of herself lifting weights and of her children joining her dance workouts.

On June 3, Crystal posted a photo of her younger children and wrote, “Sometimes with all the teen drama that comes with the three older girls I lose sight of how much fun they can be. I working on changing that. [sic]”
After Friday’s arrest, the teen girl is in custody with the South Carolina Department of Social Services, while her siblings are with relatives, police said.

Sumter County officials said an investigation into the incident is ongoing. Police are investigating a pattern of “excessive punishment for small household offenses,” Bunch said.

The girl punished for the Pop-Tart was also disciplined for eating a protein bar, authorities said. She told investigators that Crystal Driggers took her to the salon to get her hair cut short as punishment, according to a police report.

Meanwhile, deputies say they have also learned the 14-year-old was recently ordered to do yard work from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. during a heat wave.

“She would have to use the restroom outside and retrieve water from a water hose,” one investigator wrote in a report. “[She] stated that if she got really hungry, she would climb into the garage window and get food from the other refrigerator.”

The Driggers are also facing unrelated charges for discharging a firearm into a dwelling in December 2013, the sheriff's department said. The couple was outside on their property and “started shooting guns off,” Bunch told The Daily Beast.

Still, the Driggers’ fellow fitness buffs are standing up for them on social media.

“Crystal Driggers and James Driggers. If we had more parents like these 2 the world would be a much better place,” Melissa Korstange, who appears to be a family friend, wrote on a Facebook post.

Beachbody coach Stella McCauley, wrote that the Driggers “are both great people” and that they’re likely the targets of “jealousy.”

“I don’t understand why people have to start drama and BS for them,” McCauley posted on Facebook. “They have a successful business and have worked very hard to get where they are.”
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Personally I'd think they should have send the daughter to live with grandma as she's a little more compassionate.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articl...p-tart.html?via=newsletter&source=DDAfternoon

Bull · Jul 7, 2015

Idiots..........

lcback · Jul 7, 2015

i dont think the punishment fits the crime, also the woods with wild boars sounds too dangerous

I am all for the right to discipline your child how you see fit. But it sounds like abuse to me. or maybe abandonment?

SWAGA · Jul 7, 2015

Nothing wrong with giving your kids the proverbial kick in the teeth once in a while and it does sound like a difficult teenager in the height of puberty but what they did was criminal.
Like I said....gramma

bscar · Jul 7, 2015

If the teen goes back with her parents, I see her moving out at 18 and turning into a fat hooker out of spite

thundercroozer · Jul 7, 2015

Yea, looney toons get my vote. I don't see a problem with a punisment fitting the crime, but if that punishment was for eating a pop tart, what would it be for something serious.

MaryB · Jul 7, 2015

Way overboard and criminal! Parents are nut cases from the sounds of it. Steroid rage?

Think1st · Jul 8, 2015

The parents sound like thugs who are revelling in their sense of superiority over their daughter. They aren't trying to teach her anything. Instead, they are scourging her out of contempt, and their behavior reflects not one iota of love for her.

ajole · Jul 8, 2015

It's stupid as can be, and utterly contemptible, ...but I really don't see any laws being broken.

Honestly...a week in a tent in the summer? Meals at home...a few hundred yards away? People pay money to have their kids do this, I don't see any physical abuse.

Mentally though? These two idiots are well on the way to screwing that kid up as badly as they already seem to be. They seem to be threatening the girl with banishment.

I also love the idiotic news media attempt to make it seem like abuse to force the other kid to use a hose for water. Not to mention...if she got "really hungry"...seriously? Like she might starve? In one day?

People on both sides of this story are pretty sorry humans.

Rachgier · Jul 8, 2015

ajole said: ↑

I also love the idiotic news media attempt to make it seem like abuse to force the other kid to use a hose for water.
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I still drink from the hose when I'm outside doing yard work, and I have a goofy kid who will actually go outside just to drink from the hose because he thinks it's cool. They should arrest me for making him come back inside to get a drink of ice-cold, filtered water from the cooler.

lklawson · Jul 8, 2015

ajole said: ↑

It's stupid as can be, and utterly contemptible, ...but I really don't see any laws being broken.

Honestly...a week in a tent in the summer? Meals at home...a few hundred yards away? People pay money to have their kids do this, I don't see any physical abuse.

Mentally though? These two idiots are well on the way to screwing that kid up as badly as they already seem to be. They seem to be threatening the girl with banishment.

I also love the idiotic news media attempt to make it seem like abuse to force the other kid to use a hose for water. Not to mention...if she got "really hungry"...seriously? Like she might starve? In one day?

People on both sides of this story are pretty sorry humans.
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You beat me to every salient point.

I think I hate you.

Peace favor your sword,
Kirk

ajole · Jul 8, 2015

Great minds, brother.

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