This Isn't Kenya: Maryland Parents Investigated by CPS for Letting 10 and 6 Year Olds Walk Home One Mile from School

more to the story wrote:

You have to understand that online newspapers make their money by getting people worked up over things so that they'll click links. As such, the reporting often isn't complete/objective. There's almost always way more to a story than is reported.

Does it really make sense that two kids were picked up just for walking home from school before they'd even walked a half mile? Kids walk home from school pretty much everywhere, but you rarely hear about CPS being brought in.

Something else was going on. Maybe the kids were doing something dangerous that isn't reported in the article.

This. The story doesn't really pass the sniff test as presented. I've lived everywhere from rural PA to NYC. Everywhere I've lived--urban, rural suburban, rich, poor, etc.-- I've seen kids walking places without being bothered by the authorities. I'm not buying that CPS was called simply because two kids were making a short walk home.

For one thing, the article says that they were half way home when they were picked up. If they'd just been walking home, they would have been ~10 minutes into their trip at this point. The cops would have had to have been called pretty much immediately upon their departure from school to pick them up so promptly.

Anyway, we all know that the main online newspaper business model is to get clicks by posting stories that make people mad about something, and that this is often accomplished by presenting a one-sided story that sounds completely ridiculous due to omitted facts. I don't know how any adult reads a story like this and doesn't immediately think "there must be more to this than what has been presented." They are telling us that a) two kids did something that thousands of kids do every single day all across the country, and b) the authorities became involved within a matter of minutes of the initiation of (a). This doesn't immediately make you say "There's more going on here"?

Nope, because nothing has to be going on in order to warrant an investigation by "the authorities". No evidence is needed; any random call from an anonymous person is sufficient to launch an investigation.

runningart2004 wrote:

The problem is with the 6 yr old. 10 yrs old is too young to watch a 6 yr old for that distance. Also depends on the traffic on the road as well. I wouldn't let my daughter walk a mile home with just a 10yr old....would have to be at least a teenager.

We let our 6yr old walk with other 6yr olds and 10yr olds down to the bus stop. But its only about a 1/4 mile and other parents are at the bus stop and its in the neighborhood not crossing roads for a mile.

I would have to agree with CPS. Unless you have or have had a 6 yr old your opinion on this doesn't mean much.

Alan

So a 1/4 mile is ok, but at a mile the parents should be threatened with having their children taken away? That's a 3min walk versus a 12min walk. Those 9min must be extremely hazardous...

CPS engenders obesity wrote:

CPS to the rescue! Because, as we all know, allowing your kid to sit in front of the TV playing video games before/after school is FAR more healthy than walking outside in the fresh air.

Hahaha this ^^^

I'm with Alan. Have you ever had a 10 and 6 year old? I think most people would be right to be very concerned about their kids making it a mile safely every day without supervision.

I recently showed my old house (when I was 0-9 years old) to somebody. I remember my friend three houses down as feeling very far away. I was sometimes surprised my parents would let me walk that far by myself. Well, the neighborhood looked tiny when I went back as an adult. That house 3 lots down was probably 1/16 of a mile. Places I thought of as really far away were a quarter mile away. The places a half mile away and more were like foreign lands. A mile is very far to a kid.

Don't get me wrong -- walking is absolutely a healthy thing for a kid to do. I just think most responsible parents would want their kids supervised at that age, especially when walking a mile outdoors.

another hs coach wrote:

i'd be more encouraged to hear about CPS investigating parents who don't let their kids walk to/from school.

it's ridiculous that CPS is doing this. if your kids can't walk home from school, it's time to move to a new neighborhood.

Along the same lines how about investigating parents of obese children. Which parents are putting their kids MORE at risk?

Something that is lost in the conversation; who is the person calling in the complaints? If I saw a 10 year old walking alone or with a younger sibling, neglect wouldn't even enter my mind. Not the same when I see an obese child.

Long distance walking is overrated. Do you want your kids to end up looking like SCRAWNY kenyans? No?

They now have CrossFit for kids at select boxes. This is a great concept for after school activities or the weekends. Very safe compared to team sports yet the team aspect is still there. Win/win.

I'm a parent of a 6yo and 9yo and we live 1 mile from school. The route is sidewalks the whole way, with crossing guards. My 9yo can walk the distance (not that he would want to) but the 6yo is another matter. I don't trust him to stay on task, and the 9yo has no idea how to manage a kindergartener. Not a wise parenting decision to send them out and trust they will arrive on time.

As for safety, if I lived in a rural area I would have no concerns. But I live in a "mixed" urban area with subsidized housing next to nice areas. You never know who your neighbors are because of the high turnover. I suppose I could forget all that and send my kids out alone. But this is uncommon practice...the kids who do go out alone look very conspicuous. So we don't do it either.

I live in the same county and have three kids around the same age. I let my 7 and 9 year old go for a 1-mile run in the neighborhood by themselves. There are nearby streets that I have told them to avoid due to dangerous vehicular traffic. I'll side with the parents on this one simply because the county government around here has proven to be complete idiots when judging these kinds of situations.

Clearly the state knows how you should raise better than you do.

I'm sure there is more to the story but that doesn't remove the simple truth that rampant liberalism and the intrusion of the State is gutting the middle class and destroying American culture.

Big John wrote:

I live in the same county and have three kids around the same age. I let my 7 and 9 year old go for a 1-mile run in the neighborhood by themselves. There are nearby streets that I have told them to avoid due to dangerous vehicular traffic. I'll side with the parents on this one simply because the county government around here has proven to be complete idiots when judging these kinds of situations.

Boy, wait till Nancy Grace (the queen of hysteria) hears about this.

krispy kremlin wrote:

Clearly the state knows how you should raise better than you do.

I'm sure there is more to the story but that doesn't remove the simple truth that rampant liberalism and the intrusion of the State is gutting the middle class and destroying American culture.

This- though, I would phrase it as destroying American freedom.

typical media hype wrote:

Anyway, we all know that the main online newspaper business model is to get clicks by posting stories that make people mad about something, and that this is often accomplished by presenting a one-sided story that sounds completely ridiculous due to omitted facts.

It's not really an on-line newspaper, it's The Washington Post.

I have a physical newspaper that I picked up with my hands and read this article since the link didn't work for me.

The facts are clear enough. The kids got picked up because they were walking without an adult and CPS got involved.

My daughters started the year at ages 10 and 8 and we live a half mile from their school.

For the last two years (started at ages 8 and 6) I drive them about halfway and drop them off about a quarter mile straight shot to the school and then I drive in to work.

They are unsupervised for that stretch but a bunch of other kids and some parents are also walking along the route.

I wanted to let them walk from the house and do the half mile on their own even from age 6 but my wife wouldn't allow that so I have the quarter mile compromise which she still doesn't like.

I think these walks are much safer than the car rides they participate in all of the time everywhere.

And I agree that the kids gain something from it.

It should be a parent's decision for this situation.

Problem is, CPS doesn't need any law to be broken or any objective measure to invade your privacy. Sometimes that's good if there is real abuse and sometimes it's just an invasion of privacy.

And let's acknowledge that CPS workers don't always show the best judgment themselves (just refer to the countless stories of horribly abused children suffering while under the protective oversight of this government abomination). CPS workers tend to be dull-minded, emotionally damaged people with robust savior complexes. They see nothing wrong with intruding in people's lives and mandating "therapy" as an elixir for everyone. Meanwhile, many of them are too dim witted to realize that they are reenacting their own abuse stories through others and disrupting innocent lives.

runningart2004 wrote:

The problem is with the 6 yr old. 10 yrs old is too young to watch a 6 yr old for that distance. Also depends on the traffic on the road as well. I wouldn't let my daughter walk a mile home with just a 10yr old....would have to be at least a teenager.

We let our 6yr old walk with other 6yr olds and 10yr olds down to the bus stop. But its only about a 1/4 mile and other parents are at the bus stop and its in the neighborhood not crossing roads for a mile.

I would have to agree with CPS. Unless you have or have had a 6 yr old your opinion on this doesn't mean much.

Alan

You sir are an idiot.

Like many others, I walked back and forth to school when I was in first grade. 1.5 miles each way. For this I had my 2nd grade sister and my 4th grade brother with me.

I also have raised three kids, all of whom walked back and forth to each of their schools from about the same ages (school distances from 0.7 to 1.1 miles).

The world really isn't such a scary place. And it is far safer than it was when I was a kid doing the walking.

So really, your opinion doesn't mean much (no offense, of course).

Clearly the state knows who you should marry better than you do.

I'm sure there is more to the story but that doesn't remove the simple truth that rampant conservativism and the intrusion of the State is gutting our humanity and destroying American freedom.

snoop buys a nail gun wrote:

Bodymore, Murdaland

This was in Silver Spring, DC suburb, not Baltimore. I used to live in Baltimore and saw kids walk home from school all the time, in shaky neighborhoods that I was sometimes a little uncomfortable running through and near the ritzy private schools near the border between Baltimore City and the county. I also committed egregious traffic violations pretty much every day and never got pulled over. Bmore cops have better things to do.

I walked back and forth to school one mile each way in rain, snow, sleet from 1st grade through 6th grade. I was accompanied by no one. I was fine. These kids are fine too- except now they will have to endure endless questioning and threats of removal from their families by none other than the CPS bully gang.

Two Maryland kids, ages 10 and 6, were picked up by cops on their walk from home and their parents investigated by CPS because they let them walk the one mile home. Here is the article:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/maryland-couple-want-free-range-kids-but-not-all-do/2015/01/14/d406c0be-9c0f-11e4-bcfb-059ec7a93ddc_story.html

The kids often carry cards saying "I am not lost. I am a free-range kid." but didn't have them on them this day. Their mother said, "The world is actually even safer than when I was a child, and I just want to give them the same freedom and independence that I had"

What do other US parents think?

For a little international perspective, in Kenya there are likely hundreds of thousands if not millions of kids this age running/walking to school.

In Switzerland at age 4 and 5 kids are encouraged to walk to school by themselves and teachers give kids saws to play on the playground with according to this article:

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/why-my-child-will-be-your-childs-boss/