You made your child walk home from school? CRIMINAL!

A father in Hawaii made his kid walk ONE MILE home from school. So he was prosecuted and convicted of child abuse. Really.

Linky

But of course. These days parents drive their kids one block to school. That's why every school zone is moo van central every day at 8 and 3.

Oh geeze... what kind of a wuss society is being created here? I walked a mile.. just to the bus stop every day when I was in Jr High. Now it's a CRIME???

On that note... I stepped out in front of my house this morning to let my dog go in my side yard. I saw about 7 vehicles parked at the circle where the bus picks up Jr High kids in the mornings. SEVEN vehicles parked there with moos and their tweens waiting for the bus. It was 60 degrees, maybe misty but not raining and they have to sit in the cars to wait? All of these kids only live 1 block from the bus stop and moo loads them in the car and drives to the end of the street and then waits with them so they won't get cold and wet... in a 60 degree mist! Crap.. I sound like an old steriotype when I say "I walked a mile to the school bus in rain, snow, wind and blaizing heat and I stood there and waited in the elements for my bus with all the other kids doing the same thing". That is no exageration. Get over it people!!!

I guess I could retroactively see my parents charged with child abuse for the same, if I weren't too busy being the independant adult I would never have become if they'd coddled me. Of course for me it was routine, not punishment.

Given how poorly they're being parented, I suppose I should be glad that the next generation of entitled sociopaths are apparently going to be too cowardly and out of shape to pose much of a threat.

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Watanabe said times are different today, given child predators and traffic.

Can someone please tell me when this "everybody you don't know is a pedophile" mentality started?

I'm not denying there is danger, but this is not a healthy mindset for a kid or adult to have. There's safety and being cautious, and there's paranoia.

My family raised me with this idea and it actually got to a point where I refused to leave the house, even for school. Thankfully, that didn't last long, but teaching your kid everyone is a threat is a bad idea.

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brown-eyed diamond

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Watanabe said times are different today, given child predators and traffic.

Can someone please tell me when this "everybody you don't know is a pedophile" mentality started?

I'm not denying there is danger, but this is not a healthy mindset for a kid or adult to have. There's safety and being cautious, and there's paranoia.

My family raised me with this idea and it actually got to a point where I refused to leave the house, even for school. Thankfully, that didn't last long, but teaching your kid everyone is a threat is a bad idea.

My parents weren't much different, but they didn't like us going out because they didn't want us associating with what they considered riff raff, which was most of the population of where we lived at the time.

Yikes! I had to walk a mile to and from school every day, starting in grade 1. This was on a very busy main artery, with lots of heavy traffic and several people walking around.

It didn't matter if it was snowing, baking hot or whatever...my mooo had to work, and I had no choice but to do it. I actually learned how to stay safe on the sidewalk, and never had a problem.

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brown-eyed diamond

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Watanabe said times are different today, given child predators and traffic.

Can someone please tell me when this "everybody you don't know is a pedophile" mentality started?

That's what I'm wondering. And don't most pedos come from folks the child knows, then the rare complete stranger?

The old ways they taught kids should have mostly been enough to avoid the odd stranger, so this paranoia must mean that they don't trust their kids to have enough brains to sense a threat on their own.

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brown-eyed diamond

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Watanabe said times are different today, given child predators and traffic.

Can someone please tell me when this "everybody you don't know is a pedophile" mentality started?

I'm not denying there is danger, but this is not a healthy mindset for a kid or adult to have. There's safety and being cautious, and there's paranoia.

I'm a product of the 80s, and I'm guessing it started about the late 80s/early 90s. The "Stranger Danger" dog and ...something else... and the PSAs that ran constantly. I played outside by myself a lot, and even ran around in the woods by my house alone, BUT, starting about age 7, my parents constantly freaked out over it more and more the older I got. Eventually, my mom's paranoia sank in, and I started going out of the house alone less and less. You are right that it's NOT a healthy mindset to have, and once it's ingrained, it is damn hard to break. Caution is good. Paranoia is not. Looking both ways before you cross the road, and double checking that is good. Refusing to cross the road at all is unhealthy and wrong. I really wish my mom had kept that kind of stuff to herself - the ingrained fear substantiallly impacts my life from the kind of person I *want* to be, and it's been a long road to let go of it.

And yes, most child abuse (sexual and otherwise) is by someone the kyd knows.

"Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live." - Oscar Wilde

I walked 3/4 of a mile to school - with my brother - starting from the in third grade onwards. There were several other kids walking at the same time.

This was considered good excerise and a good opportunity to enforce the rules (woe be told of anyone that did not walk stragight to school and straight home). When, exactly, did such expectations become child abuse? This ruling is ridiculous.

Until I entered 5th grade, my mother used to walk me to school. It was a 10-15 min walk. Not so much because I couldn't go alone (after school I walked home alone) but because there was a bus stop she used to get to work on the way.
After that she started to work elsewhere and I went to school alone.
I don't see what's so bad about letting them go alone.
But I may be too easygoing... I don't know.

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I think you're on to something Akihiko.

When I attended jr high and high school in the early to mid 80s my classmates and I mostly walked to school. You only got driven if you were sick or injured and only got picked up if you had to go somewhere with your parent after school. I would have been MORTIFIED if I had such overprotective parents that they insisted on driving my precious ass too and from school daily. There's a high school near my home now and it appalls me to see the traffic jams there at 3pm where pahrunts queue up to shuttle the kids. There are still quite a few hoofing it, though, which gives me hope. And the kids walking seem to be enjoying themselves just fine. Walking with friends is an important part of growing up, one that the helicopter bubble wrapper parents are depriving their kids of.

The only reason I can think of for calling it child endangerment would be if the kid had to walk on really unsafe, busy roads with no sidewalk or shoulder. That's all I got.

When house-hunting, my parents specifically looked for places that were within walking/biking distance of schools. The only time I rode the bus was third grade, when the route to school involved a rural two-lane road with very little shoulder and a narrow bridge. It wasn't far, but it wasn't safe to walk. Safety hazards like that aside, the district required that you live about 1.5 or 2 miles away from school to ride the bus.

I swear, modern children's feet don't touch the ground unless it's for a kiddie soccer game.

Transporting myself to school taught me a fair bit about responsibility, time management, and self-sufficiency. All of those are skills lacking in kids of all ages today. They depend on adults for EVERYTHING.

The county had a 1.5 mile rule for bus service, it also decided I lived within walking distance even though I lived 1.75 miles away. So I walked everyday to school, if I had a ton of stuff to bring I took the city bus which was a pain since it involved transfers. Half hour walk or or just over an hour via bus, it was easier and free to walk. Had to cross busy streets without a traffic light or crossing guard. Walked in the aftermath of snow storms and in blazing hot weather.

Drove past the middle school (grades 6-8) while running errands, and could not believe what I saw. I drive past this school mainly on the weekends and evenings, there's a traffic light and across from the school is a residential neighborhood. Not horribly busy for me it's the quickest way home from Major road. I stop at the red light and wait, and a police officer walks across the street blows, a whistle, and directs the brats across the street. Brats today are too dumb to cross the street at a traffic light they need an adult to tell them it's safe? Holy shit I knew how to safely cross the street when I was 6. Just hope none of these dumbasses tries to Darwin themselves on my car.

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yurble
Given how poorly they're being parented, I suppose I should be glad that the next generation of entitled sociopaths are apparently going to be too cowardly and out of shape to pose much of a threat.

larious Sad but true!

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notaparunt
But of course. These days parents drive their kids one block to school. That's why every school zone is moo van central every day at 8 and 3.

These same parents constantly bitch that gasoline is at or near $4/gallon in most of North America.

Concepts such as supply, demand, and unnecessary consumption don't cross their thought patterns.

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StudioFiftyFour

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notaparunt
But of course. These days parents drive their kids one block to school. That's why every school zone is moo van central every day at 8 and 3.

These same parents constantly bitch that gasoline is at or near $4/gallon in most of North America.

Concepts such as supply, demand, and unnecessary consumption don't cross their thought patterns.

These same parents also drive giant SUVs that cut me off in traffic because moo is too busy talking on her phone to pay attention.

I am tempted to say something like "I had to walk 20 miles to school in the snow with no shoes". I did walk to school, and I survived. In fact, one of the schools I walked to was in a very busy area with lots of traffic and I never once got hit by a car. nor did I get snatched by a wierdo. I understand that times are different now, but damn, kids these days really need to toughen up.

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chevygirl54
I am tempted to say something like "I had to walk 20 miles to school in the snow with no shoes". I did walk to school, and I survived. In fact, one of the schools I walked to was in a very busy area with lots of traffic and I never once got hit by a car. nor did I get snatched by a wierdo. I understand that times are different now, but damn, kids these days really need to toughen up.

I didn't have to walk 20 miles to school, and I didn't go shoeless, but I did WALK.

And you know what? I didn't spend my childhood dealing with morbid obesity, diabetes, and suffering from every goddamn allergy known to man.

Sitting on your ass 24/7 playing video games and having Moo cart you to and from everyplace in the neighborhood can really screw you up.

High school brats in Tennessee have a crossing guard to stop traffic in the morning and afternoon. The school closest to me is a magnet school for arts and music, so getting in is a competitive process and not just random idiots living in the right neighborhood. Some of these people are old enough to vote and around half are old enough to drive, yet they don't seem to have the sense to walk to corner and stand there until the pretty picture changes from the don't walk symbol to the walk symbol. They don't even have to learn what red and green lights mean.
The elementary schools are even worse. All during the school year, over-involved moos and duhs complain about the level and speed of traffic in an area that has been zoned both for residential and commercial use for at least 20 years now. In addition to stupid speed limits all of the time, they also have a crossing guard who does nothing but direct all the traffic in and out of the school from people dropping their kyds off who live 4 blocks away or less.
Ack! No wonder that state is so damn fat. By the time these people clog up the streets, slow down the traffic and drop off Precious they could have walked Precious to the school and walked themselves home.

In first or second grade, I walked home from school, about half a mile. My duh was working nights in a bar. One day, we had a snow storm, and like most other kids at the time, wore a snow suit. The teacher bundled me up and sent me on my way. The walk took longer than usual, and I had to pee. I tried running, fell on my face, peed in my suit. As I got home, duh was having a buddy over drinking. When I told him what had happened, they both started to laugh and taunt me, calling me a fucking baby, which I was. Still, it stung, and I cried harder. The only year I did not walk was 6th grade, thank goodness. Riding the bus sucked, made me queasy, and we were crammed like sardines. All through high school I got to walk again. Glad it wasn't in the Hawaiian heat and humidity.

Hey I guess I was abused as well I walked 3/4 of a mile to school every day. What pisses me off is nowadays if you live like 1 block away from school you ride the bus. Here are some things that continue to piss me off! When i was going to school buses ran in mornings and mid afternoon. Nowadays buses run all friggen day and into the night! Also you just haven't lived until your going to work in the AM and there is a school bus in front of you. that stops every friggen block to pick up like 20 kids each stop. and then you get the one kid who is still getting dressed and the bus has to wait! and anytime your behind a bus and you see a moo, soccer mom type standing there with a pad or clip board, be ready for a long wait! Myself I just lay on the horn . It works! And of course when I drive by the idiot a comment like "How Rude" is heard.