TEXAS MOTHER ALLEGEDLY PUT SON IN TRUNK OF CAR TO AVOID BEING EXPOSED TO COVID19

By Chandrayee Roy Choudhury, Canada: Texas mother has been charged with endangering a child after she allegedly placed her 13-year-old son, who had COVID-19, into her car's trunk to avoid being exposed to the virus, according to a warrant from the Harris County District Attorney's Office.

Sarah Beam, 41, was charged after authorities arrived at a Houston-area COVID testing site on January 3 following a report that a health services official had found the child in trunk of Beam's car. According to the warrant, the director of health services stated she was gathering information from cars in a line for COVID testing when "she found a female driver, later identified as Sarah Beam, having her child in the trunk of her car."

When the health official asked Beam to see the child, the mother opened the trunk where the "child was lying down inside the trunk." The mother was then told that the child would not get a test until he was removed from the trunk and placed in the back seat of the car. The health official called police and returned to the car where the child was found in the back seat.