Arrested and charged because my 11yo was walking 1 mile from home

https://www.businessinsider.com/mom-arrested-after-tween-walked-mile-town-alone-2024-11

by tomohawk • 2 years ago

40 50 2 years ago

wccrawford• 2 years ago

Absolutely ridiculous.

Basically, "your child might encounter danger, so we're going to remove his mother from the equation and make him even less safe."

soco2• 2 years ago

Wait until I tell you about the KESB in Switzerland and their crazy solutions to family crisis (real or imaginary).

kyleee• 2 years ago

Let’s hear

not_your_vase• 2 years ago

Finally I can sleep again. I hope they will take this menace out of public for a long enough time to learn.

throwup238• 2 years ago

They should have arrested the 11 year old for good measure.

Sins of the father and all that.

euroderf• 2 years ago

Even science fiction can't cook up a story quite this stupid.

sciurus• 2 years ago

For another perspective, here is the local news story where I first heard about this- https://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/ga-mother-arrested-after-ch...

willvarfar• 2 years ago

My thought as I read it was that there are always multiple sides to the story.

Can you please summarise for those of us who can't access it from outside the US?

viraptor3• 2 years ago

https://archive.md/jKJjz

I'm not sure it's much of a different take. She was arrested for reckless behaviour for not reporting the son missing within 1h when she knew he ran away on his own. (Georgia has no minimum time for missing person reports, she claims she didn't know about that process)

glimshe• 2 years ago

I'm glad she's standing up to this nonsense. My parents would have spent their life in jail if these authoritarian officers caught wind of what I did by myself as an early teenager...

nkrisc2• 2 years ago

No joke, I’m actually more afraid of incidents like this than I am of my child being kidnapped or whatever. I wonder how common these sorts of incidents are compared to actual kidnappings (most of which are done by someone the child knows or is even related to).

Second fear after this is becoming internet-famous because someone filmed me in public without my knowledge.

rightbyte2• 2 years ago

Ye it is terrible.

To make your nightmares worse, what if the sheriff asks your 3yo 'Have your dad raped you?'. Like, the chance of a yes is probably about 50% and higher if the sheriff asks in a way where 'yes' is obviously the answer he wants.

With low enough crime rate the police becomes a greater threat then the ones they are supposed to protect you from.

wkat4242• 2 years ago

Lol when I was 11 I would go on the train to another city on my own to visit my grandpa. In fact already when I was 9.

humanrebar2• 2 years ago

This is really counterproductive policing. Seems like the big lesson the mother should take is about discussing her parenting with a police officer.

fitblipper2• 2 years ago

With kids involved many of the rights you normally have are removed. Police and DCS can use your silence (or a pile of dirty laundry, or you asking for a lawyer to be present, or anything they want) as a reason they need to take your child and put them in foster care, claiming that they see your actions as attempting to hide abuse or withhold access to the kid for investigation.

humanrebar2• 2 years ago

All the more reason not to overshare.

afandian• 2 years ago

Curious. What age do American children go to school on their own on public transport / foot / bike? In the UK (at least this corner of it) they’re allowed age 10.

bsenftner• 2 years ago

In the 70's my elementary school was 2 miles away, and every day all the kids walked, rain, snow, whatever. Lines of kids from 1st grade through 6th. The bus was reserved for the kids out of town on farms. Back then, most of the school year was walking in the dark during the morning.

waltbosz• 2 years ago

In the 1990s, I walked alone to to school starting at age 5. School was 0.8 miles from my home.

nkrisc2• 2 years ago

Starting at age 12 I took the Chicago El home from school most days. I got dropped off in the morning as it was on my dad’s route to work.

Around where I live now in the suburbs of another state I see kids walking to the local elementary school that look to be between 8-10. Most walk with their parents and some younger kids with older siblings/friends/neighbors. The main road is busy and people speed but there is a police officer at the main crossing on school mornings directing traffic.

bravetraveler• 2 years ago

Varies wildly. I was 7, went to school in the 90s/2000s. At least, at a time, it was less about 'allowed' and more 'required'

AstralStorm• 2 years ago

This is reckless conduct and harassment on part of cops. I would sue them for damages, since they literally cannot prove danger and made the kid fear for their life.

Enjoy cops being lawyered. And your $10k+ settlement.

"According to the deputies" without a camera on? Tsk tsk.

IWeldMelons• 2 years ago

Hmm I live in a large Asian city. 11 year olds ride buses and do shopping errands by themselves. A mile a bit of a stretch though unless it is a school trip.

ezekiel68• 2 years ago

The GoFundMe campaign to support the mother in resisting this ridiculous over-reach is around 80% funded.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-parentsusas-fight-for-bri...

wslh• 2 years ago

I always feel there are big contradictions in America. Imagine if something like this became an issue outside of the U.S., except, perhaps, if there are Morlocks [1].

Here’s a personal anecdote: I was at Miami Art Basel [0] with my family. We decided to spend a day or two at the beach. It was relatively empty, with just two noticeable groups: one couple practically having semi-clothed sex near us, and another group of two people who, by my standards, seemed anorexic.

While playing with my daughters in the sand, not hitting or kicking, just playful throws and holds where I was mostly the one falling. Those same “anorexic” individuals approached my wife to ask if our play was too rough.

Later that evening, I was searching for my mobile phone, which had been stolen. Since there was a “hard” party happening at our hotel, and I was with my daughters, security stopped me from crossing one of the exits, saying minors shouldn’t see the dancing. I replied, “I understand the rules here, but in my country, this is nothing.” For context, pogo dancing [2] is familiar to my daughters.

[0] https://www.artbasel.com/

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morlock

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pogo_(dance)

mikub• 2 years ago

Here in germany 6-7 year olds go to school alone in the morning around 6:30 when it's still dark outside. They either walk or take the bus/train, it's working perfectly fine.

tomohawk• 2 years ago

That was the norm in the US in the 1970s.

beej71• 2 years ago

Yup. Walked to school alone when I was 5. Eternally grateful for having that freedom as a kid.

delichon• 2 years ago

When I was that age I learned to get seriously lost in a vast suburb, and then figure it out and get oriented. Usually on my stingray bike. I pedelled around most of Orange County, CA. It was such a joy. I still love to go get lost and wander around a foreign place. I'm sorry for kids that have to cower in sight of home. Living in a smaller world makes them smaller.

LightHugger• 2 years ago

Can we just throw the weirdo who asked the kid creepy questions then called the cops to harass a child in jail instead? Then the cops in after her?

rightbyte2• 2 years ago

I'd say that we probably want people to care about children they think are lost.

The fault is with the police.

viraptor3• 2 years ago

https://archive.md/ALWln

ginvok• 2 years ago

The only crime here should be homeschooling.

christophilus• 2 years ago

This blows my mind. I just got done reading an account of my great grandfather who, by the time he was 10, was regularly wandering around alone in Montana, befriending Native American tribes, etc. When he was 12, he ran away and made it to the Great Lakes where he worked a regular job on a ship. America used to be pretty wild. Now, it seems more like a schizophrenic nanny state.

floppiplopp• 2 years ago

Hopefully this little demonstration of paternal authority will teach them the necessary submissiveness towards the dear leader, the loving government and their benevolent enforcers that'll be required of US citizens the next couple of decades. /s

fsflover• 2 years ago

28304283409234• 2 years ago

My daughters at 11 would be too embarassed to allow me to walk them to school! At 13 and 14 they took public transport (trains and buses for 2,5 hours) to go to an amusement parc (Efteling), which is about 130km from our home. And back again. By themselves.

And fun fact about the Efteling: "There is no minimum age to visit the park without an adult. Parents or guardians are perfectly capable of assessing this for themselves."

trilbyglens• 2 years ago

America is so neurotic

fitblipper2• 2 years ago

Even more than phones, this is the reason our children are being raised stuck indoors, contributing to the ever increasing mental health crisis with our kids. Instead they should be able to discovering the pride and joy that comes from self sufficient, independent exploration of the world around them. The government and society should form a support for parents, not treat them like their kids are already wards of the state and the parents only exist to support the government.

daft_pink• 2 years ago

I actually found out from research after this article that some states have passed free range parenting laws and the things parents have been taught are no longer true in some states and letting your kids walk to school is legal in some states now where it previously wasn’t a few years ago.

ChrisArchitect• 2 years ago

[dupe] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42118970

tivert• 2 years ago

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temp424683236• 2 years ago

https://archive.ph/ALWln

kaycey2022• 2 years ago

In a town with so few people the cops aren’t afraid of the consequences?

Arrested and charged because my 11yo was walking 1 mile from home

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