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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First of all, the attacks on the parents is unjustified. The boy decided on his own to leave school and walk home. The parents are so unhappy that he could do this that they will be home schooling.
Something I saw on FB seems like a good idea. Mom and Dad set up a password with their kids. If anyone tried to take them somewhere because mom or dad said it was ok, the kid is to ask for the password while staying out of reach. No password, the kid runs and immediately tells another adult.
When I was in kindergarten I was allowed to walk but only on the sidewalk. One day I took a shortcut across the campus. My mother was at the corner watching for me and was more than a little upset when she didn’t see me. It was one of the those “I’m so happy to see you and I want to kill you” kind of welcomes. I stuck to the sidewalk after that and my mother didn’t miss a day of watching me walk part way on my own. I hadn’t known she was doing it. She was more obvious after my transgression.
There is fear that is reasonable and fear that is not reasonable. Responsible parents or guardians make every attempt to safeguard their children from entering into a potentially dangerous or deadly situation. Whether or not a situation meets that definition is highly dependent upon the surrounding circumstances. Hoping that exposure to the outside world will, as some have suggested here, toughen up these children, is misguided. Challenge your kids and encourage growth using methods where the stakes, in terms of health and well-being, are not on the line. Stop the nonsensical conclusion that one will be instilling an abnormal sense of fear in children by doing so.
@justagirl
You said, “NOT every person on the Sex Offenders Reg. is some perv. rapist”
That is true. But it is also true that “NOT every perv. rapist is on the Sex Offenders Reg.”
I suspect that most of them aren’t on the list.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
JAG, I agree that making the kid too fearful isn’t good either. But we know there are ways to keep our kids safe without turning them into fearful timid adults. It’s that balancing act we parents need to do for all those years. Oh Happy Mother’s Day to you and all the Mom’s here. 👸🏻
Annie, I agreed with what you said… hehehehehe… 😀
Of course there was a BUT…
I just also said, that in the USA, people tend to live in MORE fear…
Do you REALLY disagree with that?? 😀
———————————————–
I do think that we have gone a little overboard with the FEAR. The fact is, kids are abducted from their bedrooms, when they are WITH their parents..
the BEST thing we can do as parents, is to make children MORE aware,
and a bit more independent. AND, NOT be driven by FEAR.
———
so, yes, you can disagree… BUT, they are facts…
do I think that 5 years olds should be walking a mile alone to and from school?
No, though, I can see situations where this MIGHT be OK…
BUT… I also don’t think that WHOLE freak out, that happened from this was too healthy for that child either. It went WAYYYYY overboard.
It could instill an unhealthy level of fear in him.
By the way, many on the Sex Offender Reg. are from guys who were 17, dating their 15 years old girlfriend.
NOT every person on the Sex Offenders Reg. is some perv. rapist, who is
hiding behind bushes.
OK, I am through “Fid-dling” around. I have written an Irish Poem for the poor little kid!
Kinder Guardin’???
An Irish Poem by Squeeky Fromm
There once was a five-year old kid.
And you never will guess what he did!
He walked a whole mile
And saw no pedophile!
And none saw him either which means he was pretty darn lucky!
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Jane
🙂
Electromagnetic weapons and 9/11!!!!!
Holy $&@t!!!!!!
Thank you bam bam, and I. Annie. That is very sweet of you.
I adore JAG, but once in a great while, she is simply wrong. Just like every one of us. Also sometimes we see strange bedfellows here on RIL. The most unlikely people will sometimes actually agree with one another.
Children are subjected to more trauma than adults who grew up in years past. Yes it was okay then to walk home then but everything changed after 9/11. Also, children realize and are aware of the trauma caused by people to other people. Yes children are aware that government contractors are torturing people with electromagnetic weapons and that no one is safe. I know first hand because I am a targeted individual who is tortured in my own home. We have almost completed an entire generation since this torture started in earnest after 9/11. Children know of and live in fear of retaliation by the totalitarian state. You can notice the fear in school employees struggling to compensate for their mistake by overdoing the safety. They are essentially afraid of loosing their jobs and being put on a list where they will never work again or worse. Yes they are afraid and the children are being influenced by that fear. I understand that people are afraid, yet they do nothing to stop or attack the root cause of the fear. The German people in pre WWII Germany learned first hand what happens when the state gains too much power and begins attacking the people. They think that they are not attacking them so they wont say anything. It was not a good plan then and is still not. Eventually everyone will be subject to total surveillance and it will be too late. Is this just my opinion?
Squeeky
What can I say? I’m just crazy that way! Lol!
As if all that you mentioned wasn’t tragic enough, I had the audacity to use the word HONEY at the end of a comment. Heaven help us! I do declare, I think that I may be coming down with a case of the vapors!
I have a feeling that HONEY is one of the kinder names that this person has been called.
Thanks Darren.
Dunking your kids head in ice water until they are out of breath in order to teach them how to be resilient adults, seems to be the wrong way to go about teaching one’s children how to grow up to be strong and independent. A five year old walking on the shoulder of a road alone for a mile is no different. It’s a damn dangerous lesson.
Jane, I don’t think this is at all as rare an occurance that some here want to make it seem. When I was a child, they was a neighborhood girl that was snatched in our local park, she was seven or eight. Parents who take such risks with their children are neglectful. I’m glad you survived.
Jane
I am truly sorry for your ordeal. Often people have some misguided intentions. Thank God you are still with us and able to tell your story.
Nick
It’s interesting that all of your comments address what to do AFTER you are confronted or possibly attacked. All well and good, but missing a crucial ELEMENT. It’s called PREVENTION. Sure, teach everyone, especially kids, how to react once they are attacked and/or abducted. Fantastic. Know what’s even more fantastic? Guarding against those attacks or abductions EVER OCCURRING, by using some plain, old common sense, like not allowing a five year old to walk a busy street alone for a mile. I’m all for educating the public about the methods of protecting against those that wish to harm us, but an ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of cure. Wow, am I showing my age? That’s an oldie, but a goodie.
A Samurai quote: “Life is a worthy opponent.”
Don’t put your children into the arena by themselves until they are older and well trained.
I was not coddled at all growing up. I also was abducted from a restaurant when I was 5. My mother thought I should learn to go to the bathroom (at the back of the restaurant in a strange town) by myself without my sister or her having to go with me… and that was 55 years ago. Humans are still humans, and there are some awfully cruel ones out there. It’s just the way it is, certain ones love to crush innocence.
Jane – some 65 years ago my parents put me on a train, by myself, and sent me 600 miles to see my grandfather. I was given instructions on who to avoid on the train (card players, drunks, etc) and who I should rely on if there was a problem (the porters). Over the years after that I traveled by train and plane by myself and with siblings and never once had a problem.
http://www.kidsandcars.org/state-laws.html
Here is a list of states that have laws against leaving children alone in cars.