Lisa Snyder has been finally stopped. Because some parents in her neighborhood have to go to work before the bus picks up their kids in front of Snyder’s house, Snyder watches three children in Middleville, Michigan for the 15 or so minutes while they wait. The Michigan Department of Human Services has now filed a complaint against her for illegally operating a child care home.
When the Department received a complaint, they told Snyder to get a license if she wanted to watch the kids at the bus stop or face formal charges.
Mother Mindy Rose insisted that she is a “friend.” Really Mindy? Or are you just one more enabling parent who is encouraging these types of opportunistic, predatorial acts of kindness. Do you think that block parties and other scourges of society just happen, Mindy? No, it starts with parents like you and Snyder, the child watcher.
The DHS insists that they are just protecting Michigan’s children. It is a cautionary tale for us all. If it were not for the people at the DHS, we could see an outbreak of neighbors venturing out of their homes to watch and protect neighborhood children. Not only would this be horrific for pedophiles and felons, but it would only encourage the creation of neighborhood ties and associations that are the bane of our collective existence. Lisa Snyder is a menace and should be stopped. Thank God for the thin line of DHS investigators to keep neighbors apart.
This is not the first such act of brilliance by the Michigan DHS as shown in this other remarkable case.
For the full story, click here.
tmaxPA 1, September 26, 2009 at 3:34 pm
but from what I know of it the licensing process can be long, onerous and expensive.
What do you know of it? Are you even in Michigan?
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Yes, I have and I have worked with the demigods from DHS. And the process can be long and extensive. I just talked with someone in the legislature and this is an issue. The feeling is you are damned if you do and damned if you don’t. Personally, I do not see anything wrong with a person watching children unless that person has been deemed as unsafe to watch the children.
Too much bureaucratic brutalization bullshit.
SP:
Just saw what you were talking about,didn’t see picture before.
I was basing my opinion on what I read in the above story.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1216220/Mothers-banned-looking-children.html
Apparently American bureaucrats are not alone – this link will take you to a story out of England about a similar situation.
What a world!
What do you know of it? Are you even in Michigan?
Neighborliness and cooperation are fine for crises, but I’m afraid we just don’t live in the mythical worlds of yesteryear. If this is a daily routine practice, it raises liability concerns.
Now, show some evidence that, for example, the complaint was made by a commercial day care provider who didn’t like the ‘evaporative effect’ on their market, and my concerns might be reversed.
I just prefer to base them on what is known, not what is assumed.
Enibob:
Call me gullible, but the picture of the woman in question standing outside with the kids looks an awful lot like someone not glancing out a window.
http://www.wzzm13.com/genthumb.ashx?e=3&h=240&w=320&i=/assetpool/images/090925083228_GOOD%20NEIGHBOR%20BILL%20john%20lin.jpg
There’s a video too. Of her outside, talking to a reporter. I could be wrong but there appears to be no overt use of a window there either.
“Lisa Snyder has been finally stopped. Because some parents in her neighborhood have to go to work before the bus picks up their kids in front of Snyder’s house, Snyder watches three children in Middleville, Michigan for the 15 or so minutes while they wait.”
It dosen’t say that she is standing outside with them,a watch could be glancing out of the window from time to time,until the bus comes.
tmaxPA,
Good scenario and point, but from what I know of it the licensing process can be long, onerous and expensive. While the ability of torts actions to look for deep pockets is well known,
this type of action would present a chilling effect on simple neighborliness and cooperation within a community.
Here’s a scenario: a child gets hurt, their temporary caretaker is unlicensed, and so then the parents end up suing none other than the DHS for not ‘protecting’ their kids.
It always works both ways; often the most clueless bureaucrat in neat little stories like this are actually just a reasonable person who is, in turn, trying to accommodate some clueless bureaucrat.
To be honest, if this is an everyday thing, I simply can’t consider it outrageously oppressive to insist they maintain a license. It would be great if we could all live in a laissez-faire la-de-da que-sera-sera world, but that damn common law Tort thing they invented a few centuries ago keeps making things complicated!
How about if we just have the rich people win all these battles and the poor people lose them all. That’s fair, isn’t it?
During my eight years in Child Protective Services most people were quite dedicated and cared very much about their jobs. However, there was also a small minority of officious bastards, some of whom with power, who got off on exerting power over people. This case is no doubt an example of this and is silly to the extreme. There must be a misinterpretation of State Law conveniently being made. It would also seem that since there is no pay involved the DHS should have no jurisdiction. I wonder if there isn’t some deeper animus against Ms Snyder in the small town that is unreported.
Seems it all started when the DHS received a complaint….
I ‘d sure love to see that complaint.
The situation in which the “Menance of Middleville” finds herself
is absolutely silly. I would find it hard to believe if I myself
had not been a victim of an over zealous “Defaxgate” 3 years ago in Georgia. I know there must be more important cases before the Michigan Department of Human Services than this. If not, I am
moving to Michigan where the quality of life is so superior that
the DHS has no more to do than to interfere with a parent’s right
to ensure their child is properly supervised and protected while
waiting for the school bus.
Have they not heard the polar ice caps are melting, there is a
a thriving slave trade of young children in the United States,
and that even the Middle Class are finding it difficult to keep
food on the family table? Let them work on one of these issues
if they have nothing better to do.
mespo727272,
“It gives credence to Bader’s famous remark that “Rules are for the guidance of wise men and the obedience of fools.””
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Well think about this: How many wisemen have you ever found working for the government? Nary a one I tell you.
“The DHS insists that they are just protecting Michigan’s children.”
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This is the problem with law being interpreted by bureaucrats or dunder-headed government attorneys with no experience with real people or their problems. The law is not a cudgel; it is a shield. It gives credence to Bader’s famous remark that “Rules are for the guidance of wise men and the obedience of fools.”
jonathanturley 1, September 26, 2009 at 9:24 am
Stel:
That standard would shutdown municipal, state, and federal government as we know it.
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We do have to start somewhere, yes?
LOL … even elastic man could not stretch the facts like those gummit dudes and dudettes did.
New evidence for the hypothesis that “No good deed goes unpunished”.
Well, well what do you expect from a town named Middlesville. It is a rural town. About 4 or 5 thousand people total. If memory serves me correctly it pretty much white. It is in Barry County. In between Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo. This area of the state is also fairly Dutch and someone must have been upset, so an anonymous phone call cane be made.
DHS(Department of inHuman Services)name is a contradiction in of itself. They usually do no good and play God, why? Because they can and they know it. LEO have to bend to what they say. So LEO’s usually work in tandem with them. If memory serves me correctly one case worker was shot a few years ago in either Wayne or Oakland County.
Usually, the people hired are not the brightest bulb in the box. So, they use stupidity as a replacement for commonsense.
This does not surprise me in the least.
Can they be sued for excess stupidity?
Stel:
That standard would shutdown municipal, state, and federal government as we know it.
Having gone through this bus stop thing with a grandaughter and the school bus,I didn’t have to be anywhere in particular so it was no problem for me to wait with her for her bus,and I have been in a position where a parent was going to work,and I could see the looking at the watch and the paceing some parents would do,while waiting for the bus.
For someone to do this as a favor and be “harrassed” by authorities is for doing this,shows how far we are losing our way in this country.
Wasn’t there a push for a National Day Of Service not to long ago?
This may not seem like a big deal to some,but knowing that someone would do this for strangers and not ask for anything in return,well like I said I have been at the bus stop and I have seen the frustration of parents trying to be parents and also be on time for work.
I hope I am making sense to you all.
This is the kind of thing that makes one want to grab an official by the shoulders, shake them, and scream “Are you out of you #$%*ing mind!” I call it “Lewis Black Therapy” or LBT for short. I’ve contacted Mr. Black about setting up franchise operations all across the country to deal with public officials who act in a manifestly bone-headed manner and/or inexplicably punished people who are doing the right thing. So far, I haven’t heard back, but I’m sure Lewis is busy either yelling at someone or getting ready to yell at someone. He’s a busy guy being from D.C. and an adopted New Yorker and all that famous stuff like limos and hookers and strangers with booze and drugs, but I’m sure he’d like the idea.