A new US law means that kids can now walk to school unattended by adults.
Section 8542 of the Every Student Succeeds Act allows “a child from traveling to and from school on foot or by car, bus, or bike when the parents of the child have given permission” and it does not “expose parents to civil or criminal charges for allowing their child to responsibly and safely travel to and from school by a means the parents believe is age appropriate.”
Read the full story at Boing Boing.
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Journalist Lenore Skenazy caused uproar in 2008 when she wrote about how she let her 9 year old child ride the New York subway alone. She subsequently dubbed “America’s Worst Mom.” Her book “Free Range Kids” eventually became a movement. She argues that in the states, parents are too afraid of “stranger danger” to let their kids have any kind of freedom, and that this level of parental control is damaging to children’s development.
On her website she includes helpful state-by-state laws regarding how independent you can let your kids be. See here.
Do you think the laws regarding how people should parent are appropriate? Let us know what you think in the comments.
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That this is even needed is sick, sick, sick. Teach kids the basic rules of safety with strangers and let them be. The US has had so much fear driven into them it is amazing that anyone is sane
Donna Lane
Please take a deep breath and calm down. This is not the America of the 1950s. While there may not be pedophiles, drug dealers terrorists and terrorist recruiters on every corner, there is a real risk. This is why I support microchips with GPS locators for our children as a compromise between freedom and safety.