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"  Toya Graham made national headlines on Tuesday when she was caught on camera tearing her 16-year-old son out of the Baltimore riots and severely reprimanding him for being there. Now, the woman, deemed #MomOfTheYear, is speaking out about why she didn&amp;#039;t hesitate to scream at (and smack) her son in front of the world to see. Graham told reporters that she was watching the protest in disbelief right before the video was taken when she noticed her son walking toward her among the crowd. &amp;quot;He gave me eye contact. And at that point, you know, not even thinking about cameras or anything like that. That&amp;#039;s my only son and at the end of the day I don&amp;#039;t want him to be a Freddie Gray,&amp;quot; she explained, adding, &amp;quot;I just lost it. I was shocked, I was angry, because you never want to see your child out there doing that.&amp;quot; Graham, a single mother of six, does not approve of the violent demonstrations, so she was not afraid to scold her son for participating. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m a no-tolerant mother. Everybody that knows me know I don&amp;#039;t play that,&amp;quot; she said.  Since the incident, reactions have varied, but many have come out to support Graham\u2014even Baltimore Police Commissioner Anthony Batt. &amp;quot;I wish I had more parents who took charge of their kids tonight,&amp;quot; he told CBS Baltimore.  Her son, too, is receiving support on social media. &amp;quot;Friends and everybody making comments and saying you know, you shouldn&amp;#039;t be mad at your mother, you should give her a hug,&amp;quot; his mom explains. Graham says she and her son watched news coverage of their story last night together, and that she hopes this will be an important lesson for him: &amp;quot;I just hope, I&amp;#039;m not sure, but I hope that he understands the seriousness of what was going on last night.&amp;quot;   [Via CBS News] "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.womansday.com/relationships/family-friends/news/a50451/baltimores-mom-of-the-year-explains-why-she-furiously-punished-her-son/>