July 10th, 1997. Geraldo on his namesake talk show brings us the background on the nationwide trend of strip searching minors. After a couple minutes explaining the issue at large, we hear the story of Jeremy Anderson, who at 9 years old was arrested at school and taken to juvenile detention.
“I was scared…about being arrested, taken to juvenile hall…and another kid threatened to beat me up.”
It is exposed during this segment that Jeremy was in fact given permission to write his name in the concrete by a construction worker, as were other kids who also wrote their names. What could explain the outrageous overreaction by authorities?
Jeremy’s mother speaks about the experience, and hist lawyer Robert J Kossack also speaks about the case. The child’s confession to writing his name in concrete was thrown out, because his mother was not present while he was being charged.
This day, Geraldo’s television history.