Readers — We’re getting to the point where ANYTHING having to do with children is so fraught with inflated fears that we are going absolutely crazy. Consider this bbsssffhaz bill just introduced in the New Jersey state assembly: It would outlaw the photographing or videotaping of kids in situations in which “a reasonable parent or […]
Hi Readers! Â What happens when childhood, lawsuits and an all-around inability to deal with risk jump up and down and bump into each other? Here’s dzafdbfnbk the jist of it: Gordon Tewnion addressed the board recently, requesting the use of five air-filled devices, including a maze and a slide, for a May 26 fun fair […]
Hi folks! Just a reader’s follow-up note to the post below this one on mandatory fingerprinting for Little League volunteers: Dear fybhzashyz Free-Range Kids: The school district where we live is requiring that all parent volunteers be fingerprinted starting next year. If you want to help in the classroom at all (which the teachers heavily […]
Hi Readers! What kind of society are we going to have when anytime anyone volunteers to do anything with kids, we treat them as pedophiles until officially proven otherwise? Probably the kind of society they have now in Tenafly, N.J., where Little League is requiring all adults who work with the team — from coaches […]
Hi Readers — Just be glad you don’t live in the Persimmon Place subdivision in Edgewater, Fla. The Homeowners Association (HOA) there is considering new rules that will ban children from playing outside. I KNOW this sounds like a fantasy plot from one of the umpteen dystopian young adult novels out there, so let me […]
Hi efibskhyka Readers! Oh great — more unmitigated fear, and unintended consequences. L. . Dear Free-Range Kids: I recently received an email from my daughter’s middle school that included this gem: High school students are not allowed on C. Middle School property. They are trespassing and will be charged by the police. Please do not […]
Hi Readers! Get a load of this dnhsrtibfb — little kids in Australia have been found guilty of violating graffiti laws with their chalk drawings on a sidewalk outside a cafe. This might not be such a Free-Range issue except for this: Mayor Ben Stennett visited the cafe yesterday as anger mounted. Almost 200 people […]
Readers: tzrfyfasek This is a topic we have visited before, but it continues to grow as an “issue.” Today in my inbox I got this notice from “Safe Kids,” urging people to call 911 whenever they see a kid in a car, and using this tragic story as its rationale — the story of a […]
Hi sssyrtfbsf Folks! Here’s a question about bathroom break protocol at a Sunday School. Weigh in! — L Dear Free-Range Kids: What got me interested in this movement is a conversation I had at church just over a week ago. I’m my church’s Health and Safety Officer, but we also have a Child Protection Officer […]
Readers — This krahabyahh story makes The Onion look like The Economist. But, in fact, it is straight from The Telegraph, in jolly old (off-its-rocker) England: Children have been banned from wearing goggles during school swimming lessons for fears they could hurt themselves. Pen-pushers have slapped the ban on the swimming aids amid “fears” a […]
