By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
A Seattle news medium saw it fitting to send a news team out to investigate a report of a child leaving school early and walking home. No, it was not The Onion but KOMO News. It does show a sense of the zeitgeist and the culture of fear that is sadly inherent in many today.
A five year old boy wanted to walk home after having first been driving to school by his father. He then left school early and walked home to see his mother. He reportedly walked a mile to reach home.
In an interview with reporters, the father reported that he was “scared to death” when he received a call from the school the boy left.
“When somebody like that calls you, you think of every milk carton kid, every lost kid, every child molester”
The parents are now saying they will be home schooling their children beginning next school year.
The school admitted its error and vowed to beef up security and have more adults guarding the perimeter of the school as well as on crosswalks and throughout the area surrounding the school. It showed surveillance video of the boy leaving.
A news crew had a video segment retracing the boy’s route home. The reporter commented how there was no sidewalk and what he described as heavy traffic. (one car driving by) He asked rhetorically at an intersection “How could a little five year old get across without being hit?”
Then came the almost predictable reference to sex offenders amok in the community
“And I did some checking. There are five registered sex offenders in this general area; [Lacey, WA] fortunately, none around this route.”
Statistically, the boy would have a greater chance of being struck by lightning than being abducted. But the fear is that child molesters wait behind trees and mailboxes all day to pounce upon wayward children.
Remembering back, somehow I survived my half-mile walk to kindergarten along with many of my other classmates. In fact, some of my elder relatives who went to school walking or on horseback generations ago seemed to have survived long enough to continue the family lineage. But today the perception of risk is so detached from actual risk the mollycoddling and defensiveness exercised by parents brings up the question of what is actually more of a risk to the children–the culture of fear or the extremely remote risk.
Sadly, a child errantly walking home becomes matter for a major news outlet.
Source: KOMO News
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I think it’s a fad recently to try to present oneself as being a parent who doesn’t mollycoddle their children. There is a huge difference between mollycoddling and an intelligent approach to the safety of one’s child.
Paul, Superb comment. I taught my kids and my students to teach young children to look for a mom when they are lost or frightened. That means find a woman, and say these words, “I’m lost and I’m scared.” They are then safe.
Yes, we must be fearful. Very fearful. Just like this woman was.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/09/forsythia-owen-sentenced-murder_n_7248292.html
I’m sorry, the world today is not more dangerous than it was 30, 50, or 100 years ago. For those that think you are protecting your child, You do not understand risk. Why such fear over something so remotely possible to happen? It is more likely your child will be molested by friend or relative than stranger. So if you are fearful of strangers do you also keep friends and relatives away from your child?
Here is my advise to any child that is approached by somebody to follow them or get in their car, go to the nearest other stranger and ask for help.
I don’t think anyone is confused about whether it is a good idea. However, it also doesn’t justify this dramatic reaction, assuming that every horrible possibility is a likely event. That kind of thinking stops parents from evaluating their kids skills and abilities, and encouraging their independence consistent with those skills and abilities.
bam bam, the trouble with treating all of our children as if the slight risk of a horrible event is likely is that we don’t just protect them against that slight possibility. We also stunt their growth and limit their ability to learn self-reliance. The opportunity to learn that they can deal with the unexpected. That is also doing real harm to our children.
BamBam, I couldn’t agree with you more. I sometimes wonder what sort of instincts some parents are missing when it comes to the reasonable safety of their young children.
The Klass girl was snatched from her own bedroom. People can respond to the fear sold by media and their helicopter nanny accomplices, or make prudent, level headed, common sense decisions. The gullible and vulnerable buy the fear and sell it themselves. You are seeing it right here, right now.
http://www.mercurynews.com/crime-courts/ci_24844203/amber-alert-antioch-girl-rescued-after-abducted-front-her-home
Seven year old girl abducted in FRONT of her own home.
Fear sells and the media are like time share salespeople of fear. BE AFRAID, BE VERRRRY AFFRAID!!
At five years old, to walk a mile alone is dangerous. I don’t understand why there is confusion about this.
When I was six and in the first grade, I was told I needed some sort of note signed by my mother. I forgot to do that before I came to school the next day, so I quietly slipped out and started home. On the highway, I stuck my thumb out to hitch a ride (as I had seen many other people do) for the half-mile to my house. A nice gentleman from the big city 65 miles away stopped and picked me up. Fortunately, he WAS a nice gentleman and took me straight to my home, where he told my mother what happened. She promptly gave me a lecture on why I should never have done that (saying that he easily could have taken me back to the city instead of to my home), got a promise from me to never do it again, signed the note, and took me back to school. End of story.
Contrast that event with the insanity of society today, both from a perspective of extreme parental overreactions to perceived threats to children, and the actual existence of a proliferation of sick sexual deviants who do pose a danger to kids, and it is easy to lament the sad direction things have gone. So much could be prevented if parents simply took the time to explain to their kids why they should and should not do certain things, and then trust them to follow their instructions. Building a good relationship with their kids and promoting intelligent behavior in them produces far better results for parents than neglecting to take the best preventative measures and then panicking in fear and regret later. Unfortunately, people seem more inclined to leave important training to be done by schools instead of at home. This is included in a list of many other things people are often too lazy to do themselves and prefer to leave up to the governments to accomplish, usually more inefficiently, ineffectively, and expensively.
This respect, not the respect
Mistakenly believed, not believe
Making any reference to the statistical probability, of this young child being abducted, is just plain asinine. If your child is the one abducted, statistics go out the window. Who wants to play Russian roulette by allowing a five year old baby, yes, BABY, walk the streets home alone? A much publicized trial, of the very young and precious Etan Patz, in New York, just ended in a mistrial. The parents also mistakenly believe that a young child, similar in age to the one in this article, could manage the streets walking home alone. The statistics didn’t help in that one, and that was more than 35 years ago, when child abductions and murders were not as commonplace. The salutations, commending him on his bravery, are as ludicrous as they are dangerous. The world has changed, unfortunately, and in the respect, not for the better. Don’t agree with me? Fine. Use your child as a social experiment to test the odds. Those with more than a few working brain cells will keep a close eye on our very young children. Talk to John Walsh, the father of Adam Walsh. Let him school you on the grave dangers of letting one’s guard down.
By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
Best to bold that it would seem, especially in light of the comment at 4:42.
Johnathan; aren’t you a little young to go out hiking in the woods alone? Or are you a free range lawyer?
I still feel sex offenders should have their tally-whackers cut off…nuff said!
The point I deduce is the unnecessary hype invading the story and the justification for it even being broadcast. The 24 hour news cycle has taken the new out of news.
The story basically ignores the fact that the boy apparently knew his way home, and made it home without any reported peril. I don’t think he should take off from school on his own, but I salute his bravery and can do spirit.
Certainly a hyperventilating report, to be sure, but you can’t ignore the fact that the boy was 5, home was a mile away, and the area seemed pedestrian unfriendly. This is not a story about free range children as the author seems to be making it.
Very sad indeed.