Parents investigated for neglect after letting kids walk home alone

It was a one-mile walk home from a Silver Spring park on Georgia Avenue on a Saturday afternoon. But what the parents saw as a moment of independence for their 10-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter, they say authorities viewed much differently.

Danielle and Alexander Meitiv say they are being investigated for neglect for the Dec. 20 trek — in a case they say reflects a clash of ideas about how safe the world is and whether parents are free to make their own choices about raising their children.
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The Meitivs say that on Dec. 20, a CPS worker required Alexander to sign a safety plan pledging he would not leave his children unsupervised until the following Monday, when CPS would follow up. At first he refused, saying he needed to talk t

Parents investigated for neglect after letting kids walk home alone

More wonderful Nanny State activities regarding children doing things that children do - waking to the park. I personally find the actions of the police and CPS very disturbing. It's not surprising, but it shows complete lack of judgement and ability or desire to assess a situation. (This type of thing is a perfect example of "just following orders.")

This is Maryland - according to the article state law directs that children under the age of 8 must have a 13+ yr old present. HOWEVER, the law only covers children unattended in dwellings, enclosures, and vehicles. It apparently does not cover being outside.

I've said it before and I will say it again, change will come when it's painful and the two things that you don't mess with of someone's are 1. their kids and 2. their money.

Idiot parents. I lived less than 3 blocks from the school i went to when i was a kid. I couldn't walk there till i was 12.

A freaking mile? ALONE???

HANG THEM!

I agree. I have too many emotions tied up into this type of thing. idiots.....I had to walk to school by myself everyday my entire life from kindergarten through college graduation.

This nanny state crap, is just more of the same intrusive PC crap that has infected the whole world. Its like these people are trying to make the whole world a giant freaking highschool with all of the cliques and foolish meaningless social baloney.

Live and let live and stay the hell away from my daughter with your inane impositions.

a reply to: shaneslaughta

Ridiculous, seriously a MILE? I hope that was sarcasm. A mile takes 15 minutes in a nice country town.

I started walking to school everyday since i was 6 year old, no problem there.

a reply to: BlueJacket

It seems like "they" are trying to turn the next generation into a bunch of people always dependent on someone telling them what to do, how to do it, and when they can do it. They will be totally accustomed to it.

Bravo for the parents trying to give their children some rope of independence yet keeping some reins on them. That's real parenting, imo.

Anyone who lets their kids walk alone is dumb neglectful bad parents. PERIOD!

All it takes is ten seconds for someone to pull up and snatch them.

Look at the Amish girls a few months ago.

If you cant take care of your kids, you don't effing deserve them.

a reply to: WCmutant

Ya this seems ridiculous.
I walked 8+ blocks to the park every day!

Shoot my mom made us cause the other park we had to cross one of the main roads in the town that just had stop sign that people blew thru all the time.

Get the heck away from the nanny cities, and enjoy rural America. Your kids can free range all day without interfering busy bodies threatening to take your kids away for allowing them some sunshine, exercise and self reliance. My kids spent the bulk of their young childhoods in a tiny town, it was wonderful.

Children that young don't have any concept of the true dangers that lurk around the world.

Pedophiles and rapists and murders are everywhere. Don't any of you watch the news?

I hate the nanny state but i can understand this.

a reply to: shaneslaughta

There are evil people in the world, and kids can be snatched from the playground at school or from their own front yards, or even from their own beds. You can't put your kids in a bubble, keeping them living in fear of their own shadows.

The most recent, comprehensive national study for the number of missing children estimated in 1999: [1] Approximately 800,000 children younger than 18 were reported missing. More than 200,000 children were abducted by family members. More than 58,000 children were abducted by nonfamily members. An estimated 115 children were the victims of “stereotypical” kidnapping. These “stereotypical” kidnappings involved someone the child did not know or was an acquaintance. The child was held overnight, transported 50 miles or more, killed, ransomed or held with the intent to keep the child permanently. In 2013, there were 462,567 entries for missing children under the age of 18 into the FBI's National Crime Information Center, also called NCIC.

www.missingkids.com...

Only about one child out of each 10,000 missing children reported to the local police is not found alive. However, about 20 percent of the children reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in nonfamily abductions are not found alive.

www.parents.com...

Anyone who says the children don't need to be protected till they are old and wise enough to make informed decisions shouldn't have kids.

Im shocked and staggered at some of the comments in this thread.

a reply to: eeyipes

I agree, some places I have no worries about letting my kids roam aroud. Like where I live my kids walk to the stop and go or to the park about a mile one way for each. The same as i did when i was thier age. Now if I lived in a major metropolitan are I would think twice.

originally posted by: shaneslaughta
Anyone who lets their kids walk alone is dumb neglectful bad parents. PERIOD!

All it takes is ten seconds for someone to pull up and snatch them.

Look at the Amish girls a few months ago.

If you cant take care of your kids, you don't effing deserve them.

I thoroughly agree with what you've said here. For one thing, this isn't the "US" of even 30 years ago. It's nearly more like a free range criminal zoo. So to the people who decry the "Nanny State", PC crap, I'd suggest you consider the crummy environment in which we live, surrounded by creeps of all makes and models, many of whom are nearly entirely undocumented but for the fact that they've been incarcerated before and deported after serving time for crimes committed in the US. I'd also suggest you consider the fact that there's a huge amount in trafficking kids around the country for illicit and disgusting purposes.

But even if you don't care about all that and prefer to think of this as sort of Darwinism in action, lets not forget the horrendous cost of one of these "Amber Alert" situations, the cost of all the search parties and law enforcement time looking for disappeared kids who may well turn up 20 years later as homeless people after having been trafficked through their youth. Who pays for all that? The people who are still working and paying taxes.

a reply to: shaneslaughta

More than 200,000 children were abducted by family members. More than 58,000 children were abducted by nonfamily members.

So its safer to send a kid to a park that to a family reunion?

What will i do i got called an idiot because i think my kids are safe to walk to the park when the sun is up. Just wow.

It's all down to context. I fully understand there are areas in America that it's completely normal and acceptable to kick your kids out of the house in the morning and tell them to come back for dinner. I have close friends who's children spend most of their time out of, and away from, the house. And they're terrific parents, terrific kids, etc.

That being said, I don't live in one of those areas and would not even contemplate doing this where I live. It's more about the traffic issues than anything else.

For better or worse, CPS has a large degree of latitude in what they do. I've seen instances where one county's CPS opens an investigation for somethjng like this, while the next county over doesn't bat an eyelash at it.

a reply to: TonyS

At least there is one sane person on this site.

Too many people want to believe the world is all sunshine rainbows and puppys. They forget its full of sickos like ariel castro who abducted three teenagers and kept them locked up for ten years.

www.ibtimes.com...

But Whatever, some of you people are clearly off your frigging rockers.

There are about 74 million kids under the age of 18 in the US. According to those stats, 115 were the stereotypical abductions by the pedophiles and rapists and murders that are everywhere. That is a very small number.

Of course you have to keep your kids safe and consider your location and environment before allowing them extra freedoms. There is risk involved, and there are also cool safety gadgets we did not having growing up like cell phones, gps tracking backpacks and ear shattering sound alarm devices. Kids need to be drilled with stranger danger awareness and common sense.

But, a 15 minute walk is not abandoning your children to the wilderness. Kids need to learn confidence and self reliance in the wide world around them.

IMHO, I believe the 24 hour news cycle is a big problem. I walked many blocks to school, in a major Dallas Suburb when I was in Second grade back in the early '70s. They warned us about talking to strangers with candy or puppies, etc. But the television news was on early in the morning, at 5:00pm, 6:00pm, and then at 10:00pm. Then, some time in the mid-late '80's, Mr. Turner gave us CNN. News around the clock. Then the competition shows up later on. Now we have the Internet. We are inundated with bad news, horrible stories involving children being abused, abducted, or worse. And it has affected how we view the world. I believe that the percentage of 'bad' people vs 'good' people is the same now as it always has been. But because the 24 hour news have to report something, we have, in America, anyway, became a very distrusting lot.

It doesn't matter the size of the town. I remember being outside playing in the neighborhood with pretty much all the other kids on my block. Now, step outside on a nice day. You won't see much activity. It's pretty sad.