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
The views expressed in this posting are the author’s alone and not those of the blog, the host, or other weekend bloggers. As an open forum, weekend bloggers post independently without pre-approval or review. Content and any displays or art are solely their decision and responsibility.
Darren
We should send out KCPQ to investigate how the KOMO news team managed to cross the road…
Max-1
I released your comment 2015/05/09 at 6:48 pm
from the spam filter.
Leaving a child alone in a car, even with the doors locked and windows up is dangerous and for more reasons than hypo/ hyperthermia. Children who are left alone in cars and seen by passers by are reported to police or store owners, for good reason. The concern is legitimate, as is the concern for a 5 year old walking a mile alone on the shoulder of a road with no sidewalks.
Inga – if you read the article, the fault lies on the school for allowing the child off the school ground without a parent or adult. The family is going to home school the young man starting next school year.
“I know w/ bikes the law is to move w/ the traffic. That’s one of the reason I don’t ride bikes. My fat ass is reason #1.”
NIck, I ride a bike – but only on a bike path or off-road. Its bad enough to drive in traffic surrounded by a ton of steel. I’m not going to bike in traffic.
Paul S
Taking anything to an extreme is always a bad idea. I don’t consider parents to be helicopter parents when they insist on keeping a short leash on five year olds. Of course kids need to make mistakes to learn and grow, but unfortunately, some mistakes don’t just end with a skinned knee or a broken heart anymore. Sometimes mistakes have tragic or deadly endings. It’s a brave new world out there. Intelligent, thoughtful and wise parents know and understand what to manage and supervise. It’s not an all or nothing proposition.
bam bam – at birth there are 110 boys for every 100 girls. By age 18 the cohort has leveled at 100 to 100. That is because boys are more adventurous, more exploratory, and more likely to walk a mile home from kindergarten at age 5. However, we no longer allow boys to do those things or we punish them for what is actually an inherent characteristic. We do not let boys be boys. We want to sissyfy them.
rcocean, Good point. Another rule in that regard. Teach kids, particularly girls @ night, there is strength in numbers. Solo is no good. Duo is just OK. Trio is better. Four or more is the best.
BTW, I can remember when my parents not only would leave the car unlocked, they would leave the key in the ignition! That’s how trusting everyone was in small-town USA. Needless to say, neither I – nor any of my siblings do that.
rcocean, pedestrians getting hit by autos has increased a lot w/ cell phone use. I taught my kids to always walk toward oncoming traffic. I know w/ bikes the law is to move w/ the traffic. That’s one of the reason I don’t ride bikes. My fat ass is reason #1.
My parents weren’t helicopter parents – more like be home in time for supper parents. But I don’t remember ever going farther than a block by myself when I was five years old. At the very least I was with other kids or with an older sibling.
Here is the BIG rule that every parent should teach their kid. In the VERY remote chance someone does try and abduct you, and please tell them it is remote, do EVERYTHING possible to not get into the car. Scream, bite, kick, run, do whatever it takes to not get in the car. If you do end up in that car, if it slows sown or stops, JUMP out and run screaming. This is a very important rule that your kid or grandkid will almost certainly NEVER need to employ.
Actually, I would feel nervous about a five-year old walking a mile on a road with no sidewalks. Its hard for cars to see little kids and who knows who’s on the road. I’ve lost 2 dogs, hit by cars on roads that “had little traffic”.
BamBam, let’s send them to some desert sland. No human children. Monkey mothers would need to keep a close eye on their little ones though.
This may give some folks here a stroke, but it is true. It goes along w/ JAG’s sound advice about having kids living in fear. Telling kids to not talk to strangers is bad advice. It teaches them to be fearful of all people. You can’t teach kids how to use their gut skills if you tell them to never engage w/ people they don’t know. You teach them to talk w/ people but not give out personal information. You teach them if a stranger is pressing for personal information then they should be wary. You teach kids to listen to their gut. You teach kids if a person wants you to go w/ them to say ‘NO’ loudly and walk or run away, looking for a mom. And, you teach them it does not matter what that person says.
I had role playing w/ my kids and students. Kids take this seriously almost invariably. I would randomly be a normal stranger just having a pleasant chat. That would be the role I would mostly play. I wanted for them to understand normal. Because, that is w/o question, the most likely real world scenario. But, I would sometimes start getting personal. And, I would be tricky. I would say things like, “I work w/ your dad, he had to take your mom to the hospital and wants me to take you there.” In this regard, you teach kids that you as a parent/grandparent WILL NEVER send someone they don’t know to pick them up. Now, here’s the big rub. A child is much more likely to be abused, abducted, etc. by someone they know. So, I had a rule w/ my kids. I don’t care WHO it is, even if it’s a friend or family, do not go w/ them unless you hear from us. The advent of cell phones really made this much easier. Cell phones are a great safety tool.
BamBam, if only we WERE more like Sweden. We wouldn’t have to be so concerned for the safety of our young children.
Could we deport our pedophiles to Sweden?
https://studyinsweden.se/why-sweden/quick-facts-about-sweden/
“Openness and equality are also important concepts. Homosexual relations have been legal since 1944, and same sex couples have been able to adopt since 2003 and get married since 2009. The country was the first in the world with freedom of the press (1766), and is at the top of global press freedom rankings.”
Sweden really is a wonderful country. Sounds like a great place to raise free range children. More power to them. We could learn a few things from them.
Evils of, not evils or.
Paranoia or, not paranoia of.
A certain healthy amount of fear and caution are more than reasonable. The times and the locale dictate the various degrees of that fear and caution. Stop reminiscing about your magical childhoods. Over. Done. This isn’t Sweden. This isn’t 1925. This isn’t utopia. It is patently unsafe for a five year old baby to walk home, alone, for a mile on a busy street, in 2015. Call me an alarmist or anything else. There’s a reason why Walmart, the biggest retailer in the world, has taken on the responsibility of issuing something called a Code Adam, named after the abducted and murdered child, Adam Walsh, in which doors to a particular store, where the child is reported as missing, lock. That, at least, is my understanding. Even Walmart gets the danger that lurks when kids, often unsupervised, encounter strangers and has tailored its corporate behavior to recognize that very real danger. Paranoia of just being a good corporate citizen? Please, no crazy rants about the evils or Walmart.
bam bam – children need to freely recreate together, away from parental supervision. They need to get into trouble, they need to learn how to deal with each other and form bonds. They need to learn who they can trust and who they cannot. They need to learn to be creative. They need to learn the 1000 and 1 uses of the cardboard box.
None of this can be done with helicopter parents. When the parents pick the playmates and set the playdates the kids learn nothing creative.
https://yourbesttop10.com/top-ten-safest-countries-world/
Top 10 safest countries in the world. Sweden is number 7. Denmark, no,bet 1. Yes indeed we could learn a few things from these wonderful countries.
Annie,
I released your comment at 2015/05/09 at 6:21 pm from the spam filter.
Here is another article for an additional perspective.
http://jonathanturley.org/2014/02/01/nz-school-abandons-playground-rules-fewer-injuries-and-bullying-incidents-result/