Bizarre, Society

Child Walks Home From School—Panic Ensues

By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor

milk-carton-missingA 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.

No Sidewalk !
No Sidewalk !

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?”

Danger At Every Turn
Danger At Every Turn

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.”

Five Sex Offenders!
Five, count-em, FIVE Sex Offenders In The General Area

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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211 thoughts on “Child Walks Home From School—Panic Ensues”

  8. Isaac, We agree on the War on Drugs being insane and failed. Back to the topic of fear sold by the media. I taught a high school class on current events. I loved it and the kids did as well. The internet was new. I had kids adopt a city and report daily on what was going on in that city via local newspaper and TV. Most picked US cities, but some went international, mostly the Hispanic and Asian students. I also did assignments where groups would do analysis of the major network and cable news. This was in 1999-01, but before 9/11. The first thing students learned was the networks would almost always cover the same stories in the same order. Sometimes I would have them count words used like “crisis.” It was eye opening for these kids. A veteran reporter, I forget who, coined the phrase “weather porn.” That is the obligatory tornado, hurricane, snowstorm reports that the news anchor will often lead w/ on the broadcast. The new guy @ ABC, the pompous little a-hole David Muir, is the Larry Flynt of weather porn. He always leads w/ a weather scare story if there is one available.

  9. > “school … vowed to beef up security … have more adults guard the perimeter of the school”

    So let’s just turn our schools into prisons. No parole until 18 …

  10. Issac, reading about something that happened to someone else, or when it is seen and heard on TV or video, it is detached information. When an individual does something personally, more senses are involved and the experience is perceived and felt directly and it usually makes more of an impact. Without a certain amount of direct experience, a person cannot relate to what is happening to someone else. That’s why rich politicians today are doing such a bad job of running the government: They can’t relate to how bad life is for the poor and middle class because they’ve never experienced poverty themselves. What seems perfectly reasonable to bankers, politicians, crooks and other thieves is economically ruinous to the ordinary citizen.

  11. This story is absolutely ridiculous. The reaction of both the school and the parents makes me ashamed to be a fellow American. You all are a bunch of scaredy cats. He made it home safely. What an adventure! Have a laugh over it. Give him a scoulding and then get on with life. That´s what people would have done 25 years ago when I left the States. What has happened to you? (I know what happened, but why have you let it ruin your lives?)

  12. Nick

    The demographic perspective of the statistics on crime rates is obviously pertinent. However, statisticians can input pretty much all the information relevant with the variables and give us a clearer picture. That I would like to see.

    There are some givens: more people are in jail because of the war on drugs-more innocent people, more people are in jail because of the three strikes approach-a lot of over kill, and many of these people would not have contributed to a rise in crime. On the other hand the three strikes program probably stopped a lot of crime. But, a lot of people have been forced into a life of crime by the mindless, ‘lock em up’ attitude.

    There is one thing that is for sure, America my be getting results in one area but at a cost that is detrimental to too many people. I know many kids whose lives were ruined because they got caught smoking pot. I know many more, including myself, whose lives could have been ruined. A DUI is a thousand times more serious and potentially harmful to society than smoking pot and results on a stain on one’s record that is embarrassing but somehow acceptable. Perhaps the permanent record is going too far. Perhaps someone who drives drunk should be forced to remedy the condition. All that is involved with drinking is vastly more serious than that involved with pot. Either send Clinton, Bush, and Obama to jail or let the others out.

    Another fact is that there are enough more successful paradigms to prove that there are better ways to deal with this than our way. Which brings me to the age old question for those that are number one, why is it so hard to learn from others?

    1. issac –

      But, a lot of people have been forced into a life of crime by the mindless, ‘lock em up’ attitude.

      This is unproveable. It actually doesn’t make sense.

  13. Corn flakes aren’t safe when there is a serial killer around, Paul.

  14. Justagurl, you’re probably right. Killing children is not a socially acceptable behavior — unless the parents also EAT their kids after they’ve killed them. That gets rid of the evidence, provides food for the parents, and leaves the food the children would consume available for everyone else.

    When someone asks me if I like children, I usually respond by saying that “No, I’ve never found a good way to cook them. They always taste spoiled to me.”

  16. JAG, Here’s my hope w/ bam. That she can learn from you. We have gone toe to toe on issues but are able to let it go afterward and be civil and friendly. I think bam has that capability. Some, as we know, do not.

  17. Squeeky, Regarding the sharp decline in crime stats I would point you to the great book, Freakonomics. That book took on the task of slaying conventional wisdom, something truly wise people know is not wisdom @ all. They show, through FACTS, that the reason for the sharp rise in crime, and then its decline, was simply demographics. Males ages ~16-28 commit the majority of crimes, particularly violent crimes. The sharp rise in crime was do to baby boomers being in that demographic, and the decrease was due to that demographic shrinking w/ the end of the baby boom. The baby boom generation are 1946-64. The Freakonomic guys[whip smart] break it down so anyone w/ an open minb sees it clearly.

    Regarding your saying “maybe hovering works.” In that regard, maybe keeping your kids in the house would work the best. Well, that didn’t work for Polly Klass. The toll paranoia takes on kids is insidious. One simply cannot be on guard all the time. I think most Americans learned that w/ the insane color coded alerts after 9/11. If you are @ yellow, an ELEVATED risk for months and years, well, yellow comes to mean nothing.

  18. Squeeky

    As always, you make some great and thoughtful points.

    Some refuse to believe, for whatever reason, that society has changed. The prudent, among us, will learn to adjust our behavior accordingly. Recent example, splashed all over the newspaper here in St. Louis, involves a young college student who posted an ad on Craigslist to sell his car. Simple enough, right? Maybe at one time, yes. Not anymore. The young man, selling his vehicle, was killed and dumped into a shallow grave. People are now being urgently warned, by the police and by Craigslist, itself, to no longer make transactions, especially ones involving high ticket items, unless the parties are at a police station. Who would have ever thought that the day would come where simple exchanges, like these, could be deadly? Are the police being overly alarmist in warning the public to refrain from making these sales outside the scope and protection of the police department? My answer is no, given the rise in these type of murders across the country. Are the odds in favor of unsupervised transactions going off without a hitch? Probably, yes; however, the rise in these sorts of problems has, as expected, elicited a response from both law enforcement and Craigslist. No one is urging anyone to live in fear. It’s about making the safest and most sound choices, given the atmosphere and climate in which we live. That advice is even more relevant in discussing the safety of our children.

    1. bam bam – society has not changed. My memory goes back far enough to remember several killings based on selling items through newspaper ads. Billy the Kid was a serial killer.

  19. Okay, Bam, I can understand the problem of not catching a typo on your phone, with its small screen, and all. And auto-completion frequently makes matters worse while creating the comment with a phone’s keypad.

    I consider the corrections cryptic because after I have read and understood a comment, typos and all, I move on to the next comment, ready for another thought or idea. When that post is a correction, it seems cryptic to me until I can connect it to the previous post, in which I’ve already forgotten the error. Then I’ve got to go back and re-read the previous post to see what the correction is meant to fix (and this is not as easy when reading the comments in email as it is on the blog). Unless the error changes the meaning of your comment, such as leaving out the word “not”, I would suggest just letting it go.

  20. Isaac, Good comment. I agree w/ your assessment on the poor work ethic of reporters[I would add incompetence], the insane immediacy of news, and the overwhelming nature of so much news. However, I think there is something much more sinister. News is profit driven. News, particularly network news selling all types of prescription drugs, have to SELL. We know fear sells. Taking this obviously emotional issue for some, off the table and look @ weather. What used to be just a snowstorm is now Armageddon. The Weather Channel recently started naming winter storms like hurricanes. I am heartened to see people pointing out how ludicrous that is, but it continues. Fear sells ads. Fear gets vulnerable, impressionable, emotional people to buy into the drama. Isaac, I live in Wisconsin until January. You’re a Canadian so you understand cold and snow. When I moved to Wisconsin from nearby Chicago in the early 80’s, Cheeseheads took pride in accepting winter as no big deal. -20 degrees, a 12 inch snowstorm, was hardly noteworthy. The Weather Channel changed that. Now, a 5-6 inch snow approaches and fat Cheesheads are clogging the grocery aisles stocking up on bread, milk, and of course, cheese. They literally clear the shelves. Fear sells drugs, cars, groceries, etc. and corporate America sees that clearly and exploits it.

    Now, look @ this topic and thread. We see how the manipulation by corporate media has put out a conventional wisdom that there is a kidnapper, rapist, child molester behind every tree. This is not selling bread, milk and cheese because people think they won’t be able to shop for a week. This is selling A LIE and getting good hearted people who love their kids/grandkids to do things that are detrimental to their children/grandchildren. That is despicable.

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