Like everyone else, I'm pretty clueless as to what happened to Hannah. I do have some thoughts on the cell phone issue, though. As the mother of a teenage girl, I can definitely empathize with anyone who is facing parenting challenges- I struggle with my daughter too. One thing I will not do, however, is physically take her cell phone away from her as a form of punishment. There is only one reason for this: My daughter's father and I are divorced, and he doesn't have a phone at his house. We share joint custody of our daughter, and when he leaves her home alone, he takes his cell phone with him. The idea that my child has no way to contact anyone in case of emergency, unless she has her own phone with her, is scary enough to me that I won't physically take it from her.
That said, however, I am no pushover. I simply remove my daughter's social privileges where her phone is concerned as a disciplinary action. My cell phone provider- and all providers, I believe- have parental options that allow me to restrict what (if any) numbers she's allowed to call, what time of the day or night her phone is operational, and whether she can use any internet- such as Facebook, Twitter, etc. There have been times when literally, my daughter's cell phone is so severely restricted, she can only use it to call her father, 911 or me. No texting, surfing, or anything else.
I wonder if Hannah's mother thought of anything like this? Leaving your daughter with no way to contact you or the police in cases of emergency alarms me far more than the idea that her phone was taken. IMO there were other equally effective (but much safer) ways to discipline her child. Making a child less safe in order to discipline her is not appropriate.
While I am not a trained expert, I do have 6 kids, aged 10-28, the youngest is the only boy. I am going through some stuff with my own daughter right now who is 13 going on 25. She speaks, looks, and carries herself as much older, and it's frustrating, to say the least. Her current favorite game is "I don't want to live with you anymore. I want to live with my Dad". HE EATS THIS UP! You can't convince him that she is full of drama & embellishing/omitting actual events. Problem is, Dad travels constantly. There is zero stability for a teenage girl in his line of work. This comes up ANY time she doesn't get her way. He is an enabler of her behavior and it's hard to deal with in house, every single day. SO in this sense, I feel for Mom. My gut tells me she isn't responsible for the crime. Did they fight? Probably. Was there a competition for dominance in their relationship or attention? Most likely.
