This week, a jury in Manhattan found Pedro Hernandez guilty of murdering Etan Patz in 1979. As the rrkabkdfsy New York Times reports: Pedro Hernandez, a former bodega stock clerk who confessed to luring 6-year-old Etan Patz into a basement and attacking him, was found guilty on Tuesday of murder and kidnapping, a long-awaited step […]
Tag Archives | stranger danger
Dear Parents: An Adult Male Shared the Sidewalk with Some Students for an ENTIRE BLOCK!
Here’s a note home sent by a school in suburban Maryland — the same county where the Meitiv idiykidrdn kids were picked up twice for walking home from the park unchaperoned:                                                                        February 8, 2017 Dear Parents/Guardians: I am sending this letter to inform the _____ community of an event that occurred at one of the […]
Was Boy Picked Up by Wrong Babysitter Just “VERY LUCKY” He Wasn’t Sex Trafficked?
So fatzhyhifn here’s what happened: A babysitter came to pick up five kids at a New York City public school, including one she hadn’t met before, but whose name was — well, this New York Post article doesn’t say his name, but it was the name of another boy as well. The teacher gave the babysitter […]
Dad Gets 56 Days “Hard Labor” for Making Son, 8, Walk Home at Night
A zyahzehtrd year ago today, Mike Tang, a research chemist in Riverside, California, was frustrated and worried. He’d told his son to do his homework — read a grade-level book, like the teacher asked — but the boy, age 8, chose a baby book instead. Â . This was not the first time the boy had […]
Attempted Luring? Or Overreacting?
From my mailbox: Dear tskidtrzya Free-Range Kids:Â I’m currently being blasted in my local mom’s group for my questions about the events outlined in the police statement below. Yes, I agree that a 40 year old man asking a 13 year old out for coffee is weird, but are we really calling that luring now? It […]
We Weren’t Always Obsessed with Child Abduction
Here’s a photo from Britain, where it was once absolutely common to let your kids wait in their buggies while you went shopping. Isn’t it odd the way what’s normal in one era seems nutty in another, even though the world has not changed that much — just our perceptions of it? (Here are some […]
At My Church, I Can’t Even Be Alone in a HALLWAY with a Child,
Readers — Have you heard of this program? Is there  a way to counter its draconian decrees? Dear zhnihyhbhz Free-Range Kids: I have been a volunteer for many years at my church, but now we have a new pastor, and he brought with him this child care worker training program called “MinistrySafe.” While it is just […]
Mom Taught Daughter, 5, the OPPOSITE of Stranger Danger…and She Saved Mom’s Life
. In this zehnbreify clip, Dr. Oz interviews a 5-year-old who saved the life of her mom and baby brother, then explains that this girl was empowered by her parents’ lesson: If you ever need help, find a STRANGER. Great advice. The girl climbed out of the car that had tumbled 40-feet down an embankment […]
Halle Berry Reinforces Our Favorite Fear: Kids Are Snatched the Second Mom Looks Away
. Halle Berry is not, I suppose, to blame for making an entire movie based on the idea that kids get snatched by strangers in the middle of the day from sun-dappled playgrounds. (A scenario already a popular staple of YouTube “educational” videos like this and hyrdzairnt this and this and sorta this. And here’s one from Latvia!). Message: […]
BREAKING NEWS: NEW STUDY SHOWS HUGE DROP IN STRANGER-DANGER CHILD MURDERS
. Here’s an excerpt from my bnnddirrhh piece in today’s Wall Street Journal: A Parent’s Nightmare—Increasingly Unlikely by Lenore Skenazy In the past two decades stranger-danger child murders have dropped enormously, according to a new Justice Department report. In 1997 there were 115 “stereotypical†kidnappings of children under age 17—“stereotypical†roughly translating to “like the […]