Lawsuit Eyed In Kids Tossed Off Amtrak Train 600 Miles from Home

The father whose several children, ages 12 to 15, were removed from an Amtrak train said he's considering filing a lawsuit against the rail carrier.

Peter Sharfin accused Amtrak of overreacting and abusing the children, who booted them out in the dark and 600 miles from home after accusations that one of them stole an iPod.

"I felt like it was child endangerment," he said. "These are children alone at night."

Sharfin said the children didn't know where they were.

....

Amtrak spokeswoman Vernae Graham said the children "weren't just put off in the middle of nowhere, mind you. They were put off in the custody of the police department."

http://www.kpho.com/news/13746005/detail.html

Remember Amtrak a few weeks ago tossed that elderly diabetic man off a train in a wilderness area and he ran off when police came leading to a hunt to find him. Amtrak is sure screwing up in the PR dept.

who was diabetic. The club car ran out of food. His incoherancy was assumed to be drunkeness by Amtrack, who put HIM off the train, in the wilderness, far from his destination. Have not heard anything else on this since they found him, alive thank god!

Women returning from the bathroom on the Adirondak train said "I think I will just pee my pants instead."

Amtrak doesn't operate like other businesses. But it seems all they need to do on this PR-wise is put out their side that they turned the deliquent children over to police. Seems reasonable to me.

listed in the article that says one of them did steal the ipod.

AmTrack did nothing wrong in contacting the police to investigate, but putting the kids off the train without making sure first the there was an actual theft, and the the kids did it doesn't seem wise to me.

and states that the children were "alone" when they never were, never.

Peter Sharfin accused Amtrak of overreacting and abusing the children.
"I felt like it was child endangerment," he said. "These are children alone at night."
...
"It was dark. Their parents weren't there."

In my experience, parents who blame others for their own "not being there" raise kids who also don't take personal responsibility. And packs of young teens are among the most disorderly people in society -- just comes with the age.

They were put off for "disorderly behavior" which seems highly likely and is within Amtrak's rights to enforce. Going through bags and handling other people's children at 2am on a dark train is disorderly.

and to be clear: Amtrak sucks but this lawsuit is a non-starter. No injury. No damages.

The kids were apparently being disorderly and one of them was caught in posession of another passengers iPod. There was also an accusation that they stole another passengers cell phone.

The train radioed ahead for the police, stopped at a station, and turned them over to the local PD when they arrived. The kids were never alone and they weren't in any danger.

It is not Amtraks job to babysit unattended kids, and if this group was unable to behave themselves, Amtrak was correct in putting them off the train. Since the kids were found in possession of another passengers belongings, the parents should be happy that their punishment was limited to being dropped off, and that no criminal charges were levied.

nobody was left abandoned anywhere.

Were they put off in the dark or put off into police custody?

I am not condoning what Amtrak did, I just find those 2 statements contradictory.