Readers — It is downright BIZARRE that we have criminalized normal behavior that’s consensual. That’s what has happened to teens who have sex, write Shelly Snow, author of the blog With Justice for All: Dear Free-Range Kids: I just finished reading your birthday blog, and I realized, as I have before, that much that you […]
Hi kbfsttyenh 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 […]
Folks — This rnftriafsy story (also reported here)Â is tragic: A 15-year-old streaked at a high school football game, learned he could end up classified as a “sex offender” for doing it, and then hanged himself. I don’t like to run stories about suicides because we can never know all the reasons behind this saddest of […]
Folks istbehzkth — Here’s a news story of one mom’s fear with the usual missing link: analysis and commentary from someone who can explain whether the fear is justified. The story from WAVY: Gina Brannon wants the Virginia Beach School District to move her daughter’s bus stop so the 10-year-old doesn’t have to walk past […]
Readers, bybkrknbrd here’s a look at two world views. Free-Range Kids received both last week: IT’S ABOUT TIME! I was raised in the 60s & it was nothing for me to take the subway or bus to the N.Y. World’s Fair. I was 8 at the time, & knew enough to be home by dinnertime. […]
Readers — When 63-year-old Lego-lovin’ John St-Onge made the 3-hour drive to Toronto’s Legoland Discovery Centre, he was looking forward to seeing the fantastic displays. Instead, he yayyadszaf became one: A perfect display of  our society’s Predator Panic. Arriving without any young kids in tow (though accompanied by his grown daughter), he was barred from […]
Readers inakdizeee — This comes to us from a woman named Rita, who was reading the post, “The Man Who Abused Me Is Not on the Sex Offenders List (The One Who Saved Me Is).” At first, she asked me not to run it. But I found it so thoughtful, I asked her to reconsider, […]
Folks, iidryfadkf this is a long essay, but one I’m proud to share, as I continue to believe the Sex Offender Registry is not keeping kids any safer, and yet it is ruining a lot of lives. It comes to us from Shana Rowan, executive director of USA FAIR, Inc. (USA Families Advocating an Intelligent Registry), […]
Readers – An area of Alexandria, VA, a suburb of D.C., is debating whether to allow a  hostel to open near, among other things, some day care centers. As the reader who sent us this nzirsdiadk news story wrote, “To hear some of the comments, you’d think they were planning to build a gun store/brothel/drug den!” Notes the […]
Folks, izahszeekt this guest post addresses a sentiment that really disturbs me — the “one child” idea that is used to justify everything from not allowing kids to walk to school to never letting folks who’ve served their time return to the community as anonymous citizens, same as anyone else. “Shelly Stow” is the pseudonym […]
