The 11-year-old son of medical marijuana advocate Shona Banda spoke out
in his Kansas classroom to correct his teacher's misinformation about
pot; then the state of Kansas raided his house and took him away from
his mother.
After her son spoke out about medical marijuana, he was detained, and
police launched a raid on Shona Banda’s home. “Well, they had that drug
education class at school that was just conducted by the counselors…
They pulled my son out of school at about 1:40 in the afternoon and
interrogated him. Police showed up at my house at 3… I let them know
that they weren’t allowed in my home without a warrant… I didn’t believe
you could get a warrant off of something a child says in school.” Banda
continued, “We waited from 3 o’clock until 6 o’clock. They got a
warrant at 6 o’clock at night and executed a warrant into my home. My
husband and I are separated, and neither parent was contacted by
authorities before [our son] was taken and questioned.”
“They subsequently conducted a raid and then called me when the raid was
over letting me know that there was a list of items they took on my
kitchen table, I was allowed to go home, and [an officer] gave me his
word I would not be arrested in person or at work and that charges would
be given to me in a postcard in the mail. I have not been charged with
anything at this point, but I have a hard time believing that it’s OK
for them to interrogate my child without parental consent for hours,”
said Banda. A report by The Human Solution International notes that
officers found 2 ounces of cannabis and an ounce of cannabis oil during
the raid.
Banda then described the actions that the State of Kansas began to take
in an effort to take her son from her, “On the 24th, he was taken into
custody. That was on a Tuesday. He was taken out of town Tuesday,
Wednesday, and Thursday. Friday we had a temporary hearing… and
temporary custody was granted to my ex. Now the only reason why
temporary custody was granted to my ex is because the judge said
something to the effect that the amount of cannabis found in my home was
going to possibly be felony charges and it was pointless letting the
child return home to his mother.” She believes that the state is trying
to take her son away and said, “The state is trying to deem it to where
[Shona's ex-husband] is not fit and I’m not fit and they’re trying to
take custody of our child.”
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