FREE RANGE KIDS

[HairOfTheDog]

the recent news reports of the parents who got in trouble for letting their two kids walk home from the park, a couple blocks from their suburban home,ALONE.

CPS took their kids. One kid is 6 and the other is 10. A cop picked them up as they were walking home, he told them he was taking them home but that's not what he did. They sat in the cop car for over two hours and then the cop took them to CPS. I think that's overstepping, big time!

I was glad to see that the charges have been dropped against the Meitivs and the "neglect" policies have been clarified in Silver Spring, Maryland.


Their kids were simply given permission to walk together home from the park and the bus stop -- that's what started the whole shitstorm, police detention, and CPS case.

The parents were cleared of "neglect" this month and now the policies state that children can't be considered neglected if they are walking alone but are not harmed nor put in harm's way. That's good, IMO.

I mean, if the 6-year-old had been wandering the streets alone in the dark or if she and her 10-year-old brother had been forced to walk 10 miles in the rain or something, I'd consider that neglect.

But, kids that age ("free range" or otherwise) walking a short distance in a familiar area together is not a matter for law enforcement in my eyes.