Utah Mom charged after allegedly kidnapping her autistic son's bully
A Utah mom has been charged with child kidnapping offences after allegedly taking her son's bully and demanding that he apologize to her son.
Unfortunately, bullying is prevalent in many school across the US, with close to 20 percent of students aged 12-18 having experienced some kind of bullying.
There are of course various routes that can be taken to ensure the bullying stops, and you'd hope such action would be taken by the school if they were serious about the situation.
However, Shannon Tufuga, 40, is accused of going to shocking lengths to ensure the bullying of her autistic son stopped.
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The mother was charged with child kidnapping and aggravated child abuse on Monday (March 23) after an incident on September 17, 2025, which allegedly saw Tufuga 'driving around looking' looking for an 11-year-old boy, as per charging documents seen by KSL.com.
The documents state she spotted the boy riding his bike and approached him for an explanation on the alleged bullying.
"She stopped her vehicle in front of [the boy's] bike and made [him] get into her vehicle. [Tufuga] transported [the boy] to her home in Provo, without [the boy's] parents' knowledge or permission, to have [the boy] apologize to her child," the charged document alleges.
The 11-year-old is said to have issued an apology to the Utah mother's son, though Tufuga is alleged to have 'threatened to have her husband beat the boy up'.
KSL reports that the mother is said to have then driven the boy home. The alleged kidnapping is said to have caused 'serious emotional distress' to the 11-year-old and he now 'has high anxiety and has had to alter his daily routines significantly'.
Tufuga's charges were initially filed as first-degree felonies, but her alleged crimes have since been reduced to second-degree felonies after a district court determined 'that the reduction would be in the interests of justice'.
While close to 20 percent of students aged between 12 and 18 had experienced bullying as of 2020-2021 school year, that figure had decreased massively over a period of a decade.
Stopbullying.gov explained: "This is lower than the prevalence of bullying at the beginning of the last decade, during the 2010-2011 school year (28%), and lower than the prevalence last measured by the School Crime Supplement during the 2018-2019 school year (22%)."
If you’ve been affected by bullying and want to speak to someone in confidence, contact Bullying UK (part of Family Lives) on 0808 800 2222. The helpline service is open 9am–9pm Monday to Friday and 10am–3pm Saturday and Sunday.
Callum Jones