Readers — In response to my mini rant yesterday about coach passengers not being allowed to use the lavatories closer to the front of the plane due to “heightened security” concerns, one commenter sent along this item from techdirt: A leaked (ha ha! Bathrooms? Leak?) TSA document stating: “As of mid-2011, terrorist threat groups present in the Homeland are not known to be actively plotting against civil aviation targets or airports; instead, their focus is on fundraising, recruiting, and propagandizing. In other words, the TSA knows darn well that it is engaging in security theater, and yet it persists, for…
Author: lskenazy
Here it is, from Glenn Garvin at The Miami Herald, “Scared Out of Our Wits by Halloween,” detailing how we can make ANYTHING into a danger — candy, costumes, childhood, fun. An equal opportunity for all different factions to fight for the “safety” of our children!
So I was flying home from L.A. last week and the flight attendant announced, “Due to heightened security, passengers in coach” — yours truly — were expressly forbidden from going to the bathroom that might be closest to us, and required to march to the back instead. Apparently, if we took a few mincing steps forward, bladders full, this could all too easily be construed as rushing the cockpit to execute the pilots and commandeer the plane. Yup. My question: When is security no longer “heightened”? It’s been over a decade since 9/11. Is the answer NEVER? We’re supposed to…
Readers — Tomorrow one of my favorite magazines of all time, Highlights, will unveil the results of its 2013 “State of the Kid” survey. It should be really interesting (and, often, funny). Meantime, here’s a look at the answers to a question I got to suggest for the magazine’s 2011 survey: “What do you think your parents worry about the most?” While a few kids mentioned hard times and family illness, here are some samples of what appeared to be the overwhelming response: “Me because they love me and sometimes they protect me from bad people.” “I think my parents…
Readers — This is a story that makes me ill for three reasons: http://youtu.be/AYFD18BwmJ4 1 – It involves a fantastic, irreparable piece of nature being destroyed. 2 – It involves Scouts. My sons are Scouts (in New York City, where there is no discrimination on the basis of anything!). They have learned so much about appreciating nature, as opposed to knocking it — literally. 3 – “Some little kid was about to walk down here and die. It’s all about saving lives.” That. The scout leaders based their decision on something noble — keeping kids safe. (One account I read…
Hi Folks! This piece comes to us from a gal who uses the pseudonym Shelly Stow when she writes about sex offenders at her blog Justice for All, where this post comes from. Shelly is a member of Reform Sex Offender Laws, a group that tries to keep our fears for our kids from corroding into injustice. This piece dovetails with a terrific piece by Emily Horowitz on the Huffiington Post today titled, Manufacturing Fear: Halloween Laws for Sex Offenders. – L IT’S ALMOST HALLOWEEN: WHAT DO WE DO ABOUT THE SEX OFFENDERS? Two months ago I posted Is August…
Readers — The name Maddie McCann may well still resonate for you. She’s the girl who was stolen from her hotel room in Portugal in 2007. Her parents were eating in a restaurant nearby. When I give my talks, I often ask my audiences if they can think of ANY other story they’ve heard out of Portugal… For the last 500 years. Usually, they can’t. My point is that this story came to us from an ocean away because it is so incredibly important…to the news media. Why? Because it’s a crime that no parent could have predicted. As such,…
Readers — This just in, from jolly old England: Three years ago, a 9-year-old boy horsing around the school playground went to punch his brother, 7, who ducked under the drinking fountain. The older boy, Lewis Pierce, ended up slicing open his thumb on the fountain, and his mom sued the local council (which seems to be the British equivalent of school district) for about 3000 pounds. The mom won (yeah, I know), so the school appealed. At the new trial, according to yesterday’s Daily Mail: Iain O’Donnell [the school district’s lawyer], said schools might have to ban the fountains…
Readers — I don’t want Free-Range Kids to simply become a forum for the latest Zero Tolerance insanity (tempting though that is), so I am posting this story with a different aim. It’s to talk about how we create regulations and laws. Briefly, a boy with autism — not sure that’s relevant — drew a bomb that looks like the ones in his favorite video game, Bomber Man. (Similar bombs have been deployed by Wile E. Coyote.): Obviously, the drawing of a bomb is NOT a bomb, which is why the suspension is so ridiculous. But according to the boy’s…
Readers — You’re not going to believe this one. Sounds like just one overzealous employee was involved. But the Free-Range point? Kids are NOT in constant danger, so can we please stop dreaming up ever more dramatic ways to “protect” them as if they were?