. Here’s one of the occasional letters I get from divorced parents who see their child’s safety differently: Dear Free-Range Kids: I hope you can help me or provide me with some recommendations. I have a court date on October 6th in which it will be discussed whether I can let my 9-year-old daughter (4th grade) ride her bike to and from school alone. . I am a divorced father. I share 50/50 custody with my ex wife. When my daughter is at my house, I allow her to ride her bike to school alone (distance= 0.9miles, time: 4-6 mins…
Author: lskenazy
. A note asked me to take a look at this story, about a boy, 10, who walked out of his school and no one noticed he was gone. . Which is, admittedly, egregious….but not necessarily dangerous. We’re talking a 10 year old, not a toddler. And as the note correctly remarked: Of course, I know you share my frustration with the tone of this article. It belabors the idea of all the horrible things that could have happened to this 10 year old. . And to be fair, the mother has every right to be angry with the school,…
Best story of the week? Month? Year? And I’m just talking about the parents! Get a load of this: Two five-year-old Russian boys used spades to dig their way out of their kindergarten and set off on a mission to buy a Jaguar sports car, Komsomolskaya Pravda daily reported Tuesday. The two boys disappeared as their group took part in a supervised walk in the grounds of the kindergarten in the city of Magnitogorsk in the Urals region, the tabloid reported. Chelyabinsk regional interior ministry confirmed the boys’ escape from kindergarten to AFP. “We don’t have any details yet, we…
This should tell you something about how meaningless and capricious the “Sex Offender” label is: Zach Anderson, the Elkhart, Indiana 19-year-old labeled a sex offender for having consensual sex with a girl who said she was 17 (but turned out to be 14), has had his sentence “vacated.” That means it’s as if his case had never been sentenced. It will be heard anew by a different judge. The judge who originally sentenced him to a quarter century of pariah-dom, including no internet, no talking to minors, no living near a school, no smart phone, and no staying out past…
Following up on our discussion of the security theater at Chuck E. Cheese (and what DOES that “E” stand for?), here’s a little rant about the TSA. I post it mostly because it links to such a truly fun video (below). I laughed out loud. But the TSA’s “You May Be a Terrorist If…” list of behaviors actually reminds me of “You may be a predator if…” — the way that schools send out bulletins alerting parents that, “A man was seen near the bus stop,” or, “A van slowed down by some children today.” We see the same overkill…
How this poor girl will ever recover from the trauma she endured, I just don’t know. Australia’s New South Wales police are alerting the public to a: Child approach – Mount Annan near Camden Friday, 04 September 2015 10:56:36 AM Police are appealing for witnesses after a girl was approached by a man at Mount Annan near Camden yesterday. About 2:55pm yesterday (Thursday 3 September 2015) a 12-year-old girl was walking east along Main Street towards the intersection of Watermouth Drive on her way home from school. As she walked further towards the intersection, a man allegedly approached the girl…
There are two fears stalking today’s parents: 1 – That their child will be kidnapped and killed by a stranger, or 2 – Won’t get into Harvard. Conveniently, both fears are solved the same way: Constant adult supervision and involvement. To protect from predators, parents and institutions hover. But to protect from under-achievement, kids are channeled into early academic training. Even in pre-k they are told to sit down and study. As if they learn nothing of consequence — nothing that will get them AHEAD — by simply playing house, or ball, or let’s all be kitty cats. The problems…
Sometimes, you gotta print the whole story, just to prove that THIS IS THE WHOLE STORY. Note what is missing. (Hint: It’s not the child.) WNYT reports that: 09/01/2015 Schenectady police are investigating a report of a possible missing child. They say an unconfirmed third party saw a child get into a white Ford Econoline van around 10:30 or 11 a.m. on Tuesday near Emmons and Henry streets. The child is described as a white male, about 9 years old old and 4 feet 10 inches tall. He has a skinny build, brown hair, and may answer to the name…
From my mailbox — with a lot of good points. To whom it may concern: First of all, please let me say that I experienced excellent customer service at the Paramus, NJ location. The facility was clean, employees friendly and patient, and I have nothing negative to say about my specific experience. I’m writing to voice a complaint about the policies a Chuck E. Cheese. I find it humiliating, distrustful and sad that in order to take my children in we must be stamped and tagged upon entrance and verified upon exit. It…
An Arizona mom of four accidentally left her baby in his carseat in her shopping cart after she left the supermarket. The tot was spotted almost immediately by an off-duty cop and taken next door to a Supercuts where he remained, watched over by the locals, for 40 mins — which is the time it took for the mom, Cherish Peterson, to get home, realize her mistake, and rush back. The KPHO/KTVK correspondent reports that, “Fortunately, the baby boy is uninjured and doing fine.” Fortunately? Like, “Phew! Somehow the boy wasn’t mangled”? The kid was in a carseat in a…