Canadian school crossing guards who high-five students have been ordered to stop this obviously super-dangerous practice. According to GlobalNews: Kevin Jones, Peterborough’s manager of transportation, said the city is standing by its policy that bans any sort of physical interaction between crossing guards and the children. “Their main priority is to monitor traffic, to direct traffic and to make sure the kids are safe at the crossing and they need to devote their attention to those duties,” said Jones, who said about 10 people were at the protest. He said the guards were recently reminded of the policy after city…
Author: lskenazy
A Free-Range Kids app? Yes!!! Thanks to Tanya Ruttenberg at Blue Door Apps. Amazing as it is, this is version 1.0, so please let us know any bugs you encounter or great ideas you’d like to see. Blue Door found ME and I’m so glad, because they were a pleasure to work with. Fast! Smart! Painless! Just terrific! If you go to the app store, look for Free-Range Kids. At the moment it’s hard to find, but when you do, just be aware that there’s my book ($11) and my app (free) — same name. Here is the link to…
From Des Moines, Iowa to Hamilton, Ontario, towns are banning tobogganing and/or sledding, for fear of both injuries and lawsuits. The Associated Press lists towns in Nebraska, Indiana, and New Jersey that have banned the sport, although most American and Canadian towns DO still allow it. The problem, of course, is that sometimes people get hurt sledding. The article quotes a brain surgeon who treated a young woman paralyzed for life in a sledding accident. A story like that makes me ache with sadness and terror. And then there’s the fact that some children have died in sledding accidents, too.…
As most of you have heard by now, 7-year-old Sailor Gutzler survived the plane crash that killed her mother, father, sister and cousin Friday night. The small plane landed in the middle of a Kentucky forest. Bloodied and with a broken wrist, Sailor found her way to the cabin of Larry Wilkins. According to CNN: Even with the plane upside down, the 7-year-old made it out and trekked three-quarters of a mile in the dark through what Wilkins described as “very, very rough territory,” mired with fallen trees, creeks, ditches and blackberry briars. Sailor was barefoot except for one sock…
“Flying has gotten safer since the 1980s, but the headlines about the fewer disasters are bigger,” reader Stacey Gordon writes in a note to us, which included a link to Ask the Pilot. The salient part: …Whatever caused the crash of flight 8501, the year appears to be closing on a tragic note. That’s a shame, seeing that 2013 was the safest year in the history of modern commercial aviation. Not to sound flip, but we can’t expect every year to be the safest, and it’s important to look at the broader context. This year will be something of a…
This was the year a second grade teacher learned never to bring carpentry tools to school, even as a high school student in a bathing suit was forced to stand outside in the Minnesota winter. And then there’s the kid who was crazy enough to share his lunch. 1. Student, 13, shares lunch, gets detention A 13-year-old boy at Weaverville Elementary School in California shared his school lunch (a chicken burrito) with a hungry friend. For this, he got detention. Superintendent Tom Barnett explained, “Because of safety and liability we cannot allow students to actually exchange meals.” 2. Sunscreen not…
Congratulations! It’s a bouncing bundle of paranoid fantasy! The first crazy fear of 2015 goes to three Virginia hospitals. According to the Richmond Times Dispatch: In a joint statement released Tuesday, Bon Secours Richmond Health System, HCA Virginia and VCU Medical Center have said they will not announce the first birth of 2015 as a safety precaution and to protect families’ privacy. It’s a trend, with more hospitals around the country declining to announce the first baby of the year for similar reasons. “The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has cautioned against these announcements due to potential risk…
Here’s a cool idea from regular commenter Papilio! Since we commenters live not just in the USA, but also in Europe and Australia and New Zealand (and that’s just that I know of), wouldn’t it be fun if we would all post a little ‘happy new year’ or whatever around our own midnight, so that we can see the new year arrive across the planet? Yes!! Feel free to add your wishes for the new year! This is a lovely connecting idea! Happy New Year (in advance) – L.
Ever wonder why most of the parents in children’s literature are far away or dead? Melinda Moore did. She’s a mother of three and “speculative fiction” author, who tweets @MelindaJMoore and is on Facebook here. She posted this story on her blog, Enchanted Spark. Children’s Lit: Call Social Services by Melinda J. Moore When I first started writing, my goal was to be a children’s and YA [Young Adult] author. I’m not sure what happened except that my ideas for protagonists became older and older. But this month, I’ve been working on a story for my two daughters for Christmas.…
When does it make sense for the cops to stop kids and make sure they’re safe? A mom in Maine writes: Dear Free-Range Kids: My daughter, 9, wanted to hang out with a friend of hers that lives about 2 miles away. Because neither set of parents could take them, the decided to walk to the middle and then come back here. Seems like a good way to get some exercise, doesn’t it? Well her friend was stopped TWICE by police in the less than a mile it took her to meet up with my daughter! Are you…