Hi Readers — Above is the question a Walmart employee in Arizona asked himself when some parents brought in a camera memory stick to be processed. Seven or eight of 144 photos showed the family’s three girls frolicking in the bath. Kodak Moment? Or kiddie porn? We know what the employee decided — and we know what the D.A. decided — because the girls, ages 5, 4 and 1 at the time, were taken away from the parents. For how long? A month. The parents weren’t even allowed to SEE their girls for several days. (Here’s the story.)…
Author: lskenazy
Hi Readers! Here’s a little piece from MSNBC some of you sent in (thank you!), about kids and slides. Turns out when mom slides down with Junior on her lap to make him safer…she doesn’t. That’s what Dr. John Gaffney, a pediatric orthopedist and professor at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, discovered, to his surprise: After treating a spate of broken shinbones in toddlers who’d been riding on slides, Dr. John Gaffney decided to look for the cause. Gaffney, a pediatric orthopedist at Winthrop University Hospital in Mineola, N.Y., and a clinical professor at State University…
Hi Readers! I usually don’t like to comment on the comments — “Everyone’s entitled to his own opinion,” etc. etc. — but this time I must. This comment arrived in response to the story I posted last night (below this one) about a teacher who wanted an author to speak to her fourth grade class. Since the school and the author are 1000 miles apart, the author suggested using the video-chat service Skype. The teacher said no — not unless he could come up with a way the kids could see HIM, but not vice versa. Then, to add…
Hi Readers — Here’s a note from puzzlemeister Eric Berlin, author of The Puzzling World of Winston Breen. Read it and peep. Er…weep: I’m an author of middle-grade novels, and as such I have a lot of interaction with elementary school kids. I’m glad to say I haven’t often come in contact with the kind of paranoia you document on your blog, but today that changed: I was setting up a phone call with a 4th-grade teacher and her class — they live a good thousand miles across the country from me. I let her know that…
Hi Readers! Here’s a cool story from the Press-Telegram in Long Beach, California. Can you spot the ridiculous safety precaution? Betcha can! Long Beach pupils’ message in a bottle gets a reply — 10 years later By Kevin Butler, Staff Writer LONG BEACH – In 1999, a third-grade class at Mark Twain Elementary wrote letters that were put into bottles and dropped in the Pacific Ocean. Incredibly, 10 years later – and from nearly 3,500 miles away – the school received a reply. The bottle containing the May 25, 1999, letter was found June 20 on the shore of…
Hi Readers — Over the summer Judy Molland gave me an advance copy of her book, Get Out! 150 Easy Ways for Kids and Grown-Ups to Get into Nature and Build a Greener Future,” which is filled with the kind of tips I like: Simple ones I hadn’t thought of. Now the book is out (and about). May her tips work for you! Get Out! by Judy Molland As an advisor to a couple of parenting sites, I’ve received several notes along the lines of, “When I tell my kids to go outside and play, they come back five…
Hi Readers — After the terrible story of Jaycee Dugard’s abduction and 18-year imprisonment came to light a few weeks ago, the media was on fire with reminders that our children are NEVER safe on the streets and anything like this could happen at any time on any unchaperoned trip to school. You’ll recall one bit of advice I questioned was an article that said we should never — that’s right, NEVER — let our children go “anywhere alone.” Last week, Annie Le, a graduate student, was murdered at Yale. Shouldn’t the talk show hosts and fearmongers be wringing…
Hi Folks! I know, I know — I should have a million by now: Stunning repostes with which to parry fearmongers, who always have “rigtheousness” on their side, as if THEY care and WE don’t. (E.g., “But even if we save ONE LIFE isn’t it worth it?” — a very hard line to respond to without sounding heartless.) Anyway, the fact is: I could always use some more. Over the weekend I was being interviewed by a radio talk show host who brought up Jaycee Dugard (of course). I said I hoped that parents would not use this incredibly sad…
Hi Readers! In defiance of a policy that seems to forbid biking to the local grammar and middle schools in Saratoga, New York, a mom and her middle school son did just that last Wednesday. That is, they ignored “a phone call placed to students’ homes by school officials, asking parents not to allow students to walk or ride bikes to school,” according to The Saratogan. And then? Upon arriving at school on Wednesday, Adam and Janette Kaddo Marino were met outside by school officials and a New York State Trooper, who were on hand for the first day of…
Hi Readers — To see a line of cars snaking up to the door of school on a sparkling fall day is disheartening, especially when those cars disgorge perfectly able-bodied little kids who live just a few blocks away. But sometimes the problem is not parental hysteria. Sometimes, it’s that there are no crossing guards at a busy street, or no sidewalks. Safe Routes to School is a program that addresses just such issues to make it easier for kids to get THEMSELVES to school, safely. (As you might guess from its name.) Here’s a note from the…