A woman who stripped naked along with
three of her children outside a high school has blamed the psychotic
episode on an adverse reaction to medication she was taking.
Sara Butler's lawyer said conflicting medications for lupus led the 44-year-old mother to think the world was ending.
On
the morning of March 16, Butler drove to Upper Darby High School with
her two adult daughters, Joanne, 23, and Bessie, 22, plus a 14-year-old
son.
She had wanted to pick up another child, but the student
wasn't released because - although Butler was the child’s biological
mother - she was not the custodial parent.
'During
this psychotic episode, Miss Butler thought that basically the world
was coming to an end, so she - caring for her family - decided to bring
all of her children together,' said her attorney Sharmil McKee.
School
district security ordered the family off the property, but they
returned three more times, reports Delco Times. The last came at about 1
p.m., when they arrived in a van and stripped between two parked
vehicles in the parking lot.
'In order to please the Lord, Miss
Butler felt that she needed to exit the world in the same manner that
Adam and Eve entered the world, and to do so she needed to be naked,'
said McKee.
'When police got there, they were in a van and locked
their arms in defiant protest,' said Upper Darby police Superintendent
Michael Chitwood.
'They
were chanting, "Jesus is Lord." When we got them back to the police
station we gave them their clothes and the mom refused to put her
clothes on.'
Sara Butler does not have any underlying
psychological problems and has never been in trouble with the law
before, said McKee. She is currently seeing a therapist, who has
discontinued the medication that triggered the episode.
McKee said
the family had never seen their mother act that way before, but is now
familiar with what a psychotic break looks like. All three women
apologized and promised that the episode will not be repeated.
'I regret what happened that day and it will never happen again,' Sara Butler said.
Butler
and her adult daughters pleaded guilty to indecent exposure and
disorderly conduct, for which they each received one year of probation
and were ordered to stay away from the high school.
Sara Butler
also entered an open plea to simple assault and corrupting the morals of
a minor, for which she was given a concurrent probationary sentence and
ordered to pay a $500 fine.