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Kids taken after 'Southern Momma' shoots phones, burns mattresses

A Coweta County mom is getting national attention after setting the mattresses of her two teenage sons on fire and using a shotgun to destroy a cell phone.

COWETA COUNTY, GA -- A Coweta County mom is getting national attention after setting the mattresses of her two teenage sons on fire and using a shotgun to destroy a cell phone.

A family member posted the video on YouTube, prompting a visit from DFCS. But Deborah Smith insists, she’s not a mother gone made – she’s a mom on a mission.

About a year ago, Smith says her children became obsessed with social media. Their grades were slipping and her daughter was chatting with a potential child predator in Texas.

Smith tried to talk with them and even cut off their data. They still found a way to do what they wanted to do. So she went to extremes, taking one of their cell phones and her shotgun – and shooting it to bits.

“The only way they could communicate was through text or Instagram,” said Smith.

Her daughter McKenzie, now 17, says it worked. While she didn’t like the wake up call at the time, she says it shook her up enough to get a new set of friends, and a new passion for life.

“I brought my grades up. I was failing. I didn’t care about school at that time.”

But Smith says her two 16-year old sons didn’t seem to learn anything at all. Instead they traded scholarships in sports and music for a new passion. Drugs.

“They had come in, stolen my mom’s debit card. Cleaned out checking, savings,” said their brother Josh Smith.

He says his brothers also drained their sister’s college savings to buy drugs and would sneak out at night after everyone was asleep to get high. After their mom found drugs in their bedroom she decided to take drastic action again. This time she dragged their mattresses out to the burn pile, added two pounds of tannerite, a gallon of gas and two road flares.

“It made one heck of an explosion,” said Smith. “I figured if they wanted a bed to sleep in, they could earn their own bed.”

The boys weren’t home at the time, but she believes they saw it online and decided to retaliate by calling the Division of Family and Children Services. The day after the fire, a case worker showed up at the house.

“It was only meant as a tool to get their attention. It was meant to embarrass them in front of their friends. It was meant to drive their drug friends away,” explained Smith. But she says the case worker wasn’t interested.

Smith showed 11Alive’s Rebecca Lindstrom a safety plan that she was ordered to sign if she wanted to keep her boy’s at home. It required Smith to clean up the mess made by the birds that stayed in the home, as well as her two boys. It also said she could no longer use her guns around her children.

Smith felt her sons had already stolen enough, they shouldn’t get her second amendment rights as well.

“Some people will say that woman’s crazy. Yeah, she’s crazy. She’s crazy about getting help for these boys. And she loves them so much,” said their sister McKenzie.

Smith has five children, all of them adopted. She’s also given a home to iguanas, snakes, dogs, and nearly a dozen bird. She’s a woman with a heart to help. But she says she’s at wits end with how to care for her youngest children.

“We’ve had therapists for years. Child psychiatrist, psychologist,” said Smith.

While she misses her sons, if DFCS can get them back on track, she’s willing to be apart for a while.

“I want my boys back but I want them healthy. I want them clean. And I don’t want them to die out on the streets.”

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