More than $130,000 has been raised on a GoFundMe page in support of an Ohio mom who was arrested last week and charged with child endangerment for allegedly leaving her children alone in a motel room while she was at work.
Shaina Bell, who has since been released from jail after making bail, faces charges after police say left her 9-year-old and 3-year-old daughters in a Motel 6 room when she went to work at a Little Caesars pizza shop across the street.
According to local CBS affiliate WKBN-TV, Bell’s 7-year-old son was not at the motel where the family had been living.
Bell was arrested at work after the children’s father called police, according to the local news outlet.
The case attracted national attention, with several vocalizing support for the young mother, including Arizona Rep. Ruben Gallego (D), who tweeted last weekend, “Women are dammed if they do or damned if they don’t.”
“Stay at home with your kids and receive government assistance and you are a leach, go to work for poverty wages and can’t get consistent sitters and go to jail,” he added.
Danielle Hosey, who according to the GoFundMe page is Bell’s mother, started the fundraiser after she was “notified that there are people in the community that would like to send assistance to my daughter and her children.”
In the four days since it was launched, the page has brought in more than $138,000.
Hosey wrote in the page’s description that the funds will go toward helping the family access “permanent and safe housing.”
“Shaina is a single mother of three young children. She works hard and she loves her family very much,” Hosey added, while thanking people for the financial contributions, as well as “the outpouring of support in the form of kind words and understanding.”
In an interview published by WKBN-TV on Friday, Bell said that she “would never do anything to harm my kids.”
“My kids are everything to me,” she added. “That’s all I do is go to work and take care of my kids. That’s all I do.”
Bell said one of her daughters said she wanted to stay at the motel, adding “I felt that she was old enough to be able to stay here with her sister for a few hours because my job is right down the street.”
The mother told the local news outlet that she has gained criticism from some for leaving her children to go to work, though “a lot of people are also being there for me and showing great support.”