Hi izdfiinstf Folks! Just another note from the frontiers of where our worst-first thinking is taking us. Now it’s being built into the infrastructure. – L. Dear Free-Range Kids: This “child predator hysteria” in America today is getting waaaay out of hand. I recently toured the new YMCA we have here in town and I […]
Archive | Sex Offender Issues
Two Horrors: Sexual Predators and False Accusations of Sexual Predators
Hi Readers!  Here’s part of a letter yzfnsdskih to the editor in this week’s New Yorker that I found wonderful. It concerns an article from a few weeks back by Malcolm Gladwell – a long, upsetting piece about Jerry Sandusky and some other child molestors. Gladwell detailed the ways some predators appear to be so kind, caring and […]
Boys Over 11 Not Allowed in Church Bathroom at Same Time as Boys Under 11 (And Other “Security” Measures)
Hi tdrarrrdkd Readers! We’ve been talking about over-the-top “security” measures lately (including parents required to have background checks to watch their kids on field day, and parents not allowed to hold the door open at day care for other parents), but I do believe this reader’s Sunday school takes the cake (and several slices of […]
School Bans Parents from Watching Field Day Unless They Get Background Check
Hi Folks! Over in England, parents at one school cannot attend their kids’ “sports day” unless they get (and pass!) a criminal background check. According to this dderdftrik piece in The Telegraph, the  Isambard Community School is sorry, but, well, pedophiles could sneak from the fields into the school and start their pouncing. And so, […]
Background Checks for School Volunteers: Helpful or The Opposite?
Hi rhehkzfzyb Folks! Here’s a post by Sharon Kennedy Wynne, a reporter/editor  at the Tampa Bay Times (formerly The St. Petersburg Ties) about a disturbing trend: Requiring background checks for school volunteers. It’s a trend we should fight for three reasons: 1 – The assumption behind it is that any adult interacting with any child […]
Chastised by Dr. Drew
Hi Readers! I was on Dr. Drew last night, as you can see, below. I like this clip and I very much liked the other lady he had on, Lisa riitfhsyzn Bloom. But what you won’t see here is the clip that played before my introduction. It was of the two Iowa girls who have […]
Want to Help Out at a Class Party? All You Need to do is Get Fingerprinted!
Hi Folks! Here’s a school memo one of you sent in from the Brave New World that thinks somehow every time any adult encounters a child — even in a classroom filled with other adults and a gaggle of kids — the kids are in grave danger: Wiggle aidbftnika those digits If you attended volunteer training […]
4-year-old Girl Sits Next to a Man on a Bus and Then…
Hi tzdfhhykiz Readers — Had to share this response to the posts below this one, about Virgin Air making a man move because he was seated next to two unaccompanied minors.  – L. Dear Free-Range Kids: This just seems outrageous to me. I would like to share a story from my childhood which has left […]
A Reader Who Believes Men Should NOT Be Allowed to Sit Next to Kids on Planes
Hi hirthdfhhh Readers! It takes all kinds…even the kind that thinks men are raping random children on planes, I guess. Here’s a note that came in response to my post below this one, about Virgin Air’s policy of not allowing males to sit next to unaccompanied minors: I agree with the policy. It is too […]
Man on Plane Must Change Seats — He’s Next to 2 Boys. Australians Outraged!
Hey Folks! Encouraging news in our war on predator panic! Over in Australia, on Virgin, a man named Johnny McGirr, 33, was seated next to two unaccompanied boys, aged about 8 and 10. The stewardess made him move because that’s the airline’s policy: Women can sit next to kids, men are apparently just too likely to […]