Man put on probation for making 8 year old walk 1 mile

[Maggie Mae]

http://www.staradvertiser.com/news/brea ... _home.html

This is ridiculous.

[doggie]

I know right. maybe if it was a freeway or such but 1 mile is not a big deal. my daughter could work more then a mile easily when she was 5 or 6

[Coconut Flan]

My kids had to walk 3/4 of a mile to the bus stop when they began kindergarten and it was no problem. Are the police and CPS making up child endangerment as they go along now? How about the busy body neighbor?

[Maggie Mae]

I know right. maybe if it was a freeway or such but 1 mile is not a big deal. my daughter could work more then a mile easily when she was 5 or 6

It's a town with 2,000 people on Kauai. I think the most danger would be from the feral chickens.

[Toothfairy]

:cray-cray: What's the problem with this.

[Jilli]

Idk I'm not going to be quick to judge law enforcement's actions in this case. I'm not worried about the mile, but the conditions in which he had to walk it(just because he says it wasn't a busy road doesn't mean the kid won't be hit.) I would also be interested in finding out why the neighbor called the cops. Maybe I'm just a sheltered only child of two hippies but I have huge problem with the kid being abandon on the road, he's 8 for heaven sake. I'm not exactly pro-dad in the manner.

[jerichojones]

The kid was hardly abandoned. The father was back within 5 minutes and I bet that the kid would have apologised, said what it was that he had done wrong and that the kid would have been back in the car.

I bet the kid exaggerated the situation and told the neighbour that had been abandoned or that he was being forced to walk all the way home as opposed to a small fraction of the way.

Honestly, I've seen our neighbours kids walking along the road to/from school and, even though we're good friends, I wouldn't pick up the kids and drive them to school or home. If it were late at night or unsafe, I'd stop and ask them if they wanted a lift, but if it was after school and it's somewhere perfectly safe to walk, I'd let them walk. It's not my place to do anything there. I'm talking about neighbours I'm really close to, like I consider them family. If I was really concerned, I'd give the family a call and ask them and certainly wouldn't call the cops.

[louisa05]

My kids had to walk 3/4 of a mile to the bus stop when they began kindergarten and it was no problem. Are the police and CPS making up child endangerment as they go along now? How about the busy body neighbor?

I walked around a mile to school from 2nd-6th grade. Now, our next door neighbor drives her kid 2 1/2 blocks down the street. Literally, down the street. Only one not busy street to cross on the way. In a small town.

Of course, in this town, teachers are assigned daily duty in the elementary schools to walk kids 30 yards from the front door to the bus, daycare van, or their parents' cars for fear they will be lost or abducted between. And it is far from a large or dangerous place.

We've become a tad over protective and kids are becoming totally dependent as a result.

[Trynn]

I was forced to run a mile in school at that age. I WISHED someone would've called CPS at the time because in my opinion that was torture.

Actually, as an adult, I'd STILL consider it torture.

We weren't running for punishment though. It was some school requirement... Some sort of presidential competition thing?

And then, since the teacher didn't discover her stop watch broke, we had to run the mile AGAIN. I was PISSED.

I don't know of this is an Adventist school thing or a regular school thing, but it's one of he reasons i hated school with a passion.

Edit: I'd have to know more details about the case, but I don't see she's wrong with having your kid walk one measly little mile. Unless there were other factors like extreme weather conditions, disability, etc.

[louisa05]

I was forced to run a mile in school at that age. I WISHED someone would've called CPS at the time because in my opinion that was torture.

Actually, as an adult, I'd STILL consider it torture.

We weren't running for punishment though. It was some school requirement... Some sort of presidential competition thing?

And then, since the teacher didn't discover her stop watch broke, we had to run the mile AGAIN. I was PISSED.

I don't know of this is an Adventist school thing or a regular school thing, but it's one of he reasons i hated school with a passion.

Edit: I'd have to know more details about the case, but I don't see she's wrong with having your kid walk one measly little mile. Unless there were other factors like extreme weather conditions, disability, etc.

We had to as well in both public school and Catholic school. Presidential Fitness test. I think it has changed a bit now.

In junior high and high school, I had issues with my knees and could not run without pain. In ninth grade, I had a PE teacher who refused to acknowledge the problem in spite of two conferences with my parents and multiple communications from my orthopedist. She would force me to run in spite of it and loudly mock me for being too slow. For that and a myriad of other incidents that were abusive to students, she was fired at the end of that year.

[Jilli]

We had to as well in both public school and Catholic school. Presidential Fitness test. I think it has changed a bit now.

In junior high and high school, I had issues with my knees and could not run without pain. In ninth grade, I had a PE teacher who refused to acknowledge the problem in spite of two conferences with my parents and multiple communications from my orthopedist. She would force me to run in spite of it and loudly mock me for being too slow. For that and a myriad of other incidents that were abusive to students, she was fired at the end of that year.

Oh that's awful. My PE teachers always accepted my Medical papers from my doctor. I had an issue in 8th grade when I ran it for the first time under the time limit since 2nd grade. I nearly passed out because of breathing problems, so I got excused from that part of gym all through high school.

[NotALoserLikeYou]

I just looked it up at my daughters middle school is 2 miles away. She rides her bike often and I see kids walking it daily. Granted, she is 12. But for sure my 9 and 6 year olds could walk half that. That's not far at all. They walk the .4 miles to and from their school in no time at all. And then play for hours afterward. Kids all over the world walk farther than that on a daily basis. Even in overprotective America. I can't believe the father was actually arrested.

[louisa05]

Oh that's awful. My PE teachers always accepted my Medical papers from my doctor. I had an issue in 8th grade when I ran it for the first time under the time limit since 2nd grade. I nearly passed out because of breathing problems, so I got excused from that part of gym all through high school.

She failed a girl who had knee surgery the first semester on grounds of "refusal to participate". The grade did not stand, then she verbally abused her for the entire spring semester. One day, she was screaming endlessly at our class about how we were worthless losers who would never succeed in life because we could not master some complicated volleyball drill (in PE--no need to be able to do it). She did not notice (but we certainly did) that the principal was standing in the doorway behind her listening. After a few minutes, he came in and asked to see her in the hall. We found out she was getting fired about a week after that. As an adult and former teacher, I assume he let it go on for a bit merely for the sake of letting her grab more rope for her hanging.

For some reason I cannot explain (my areas are history and English), I am frequently called to sub for PE. It seems that the focus these days is fitness being fun and teaching lifetime skills for staying fit. It is not at all competitive the way it was when I was in school. That is a very good change.

[O Latin]

I wish fitness being fun had been the focus when I was in high school PE about eight years ago. I always thought that my teacher had missed his calling as a drill sergeant, and I had no medical issues or anything, I just wasn't particularly fit and was slightly overweight so I couldn't do as much as a lot of my peers. Furthermore, the class was, with a few exceptions, made up of people who fancied themselves athletes but lacked either the skills or the grades to play school sports, and people who just didn't care and would loiter at the back of the group making a half-hearted attempt to throw a ball or whatever every now and then. I wasn't at all athletic, but I was a straight-A student, and standing around with the slackers would get you docked participation points, so I had to make an attempt to actually "play" with people who took four-on-four basketball in PE class as seriously as the NBA championship.What always annoyed me was that the school was right across the street from the local YMCA, who I'm sure would have been happy to have us come in and learn about ways to stay fit for life, but instead we spent the year being shouted at by our teacher while we played one "competitive" sport after another. I swear that was the most useless class of my high school career, including health.

[lilah]

This is ridiculous. In elementary school we used to have to run a mile in gym class all the time. I also used to walk to my hebrew school clases, which was a mile from my school. My friends thought it was so cool we were allowed to walk by ourselves.

I walked around a mile to school from 2nd-6th grade. Now, our next door neighbor drives her kid 2 1/2 blocks down the street. Literally, down the street. Only one not busy street to cross on the way. In a small town.

So my parents were trying to figure out why there were tired marks on the side of their yard. Turns out one of the neighbors drives her son to the bus stop because he can't walk down the driveway and cross the street, and she keeps driving over their yard.

[Cats B4 Quivers]

I walked to school on my own from grade 1 to 4, then with my younger brother until I started high school. I never thought it was a big deal walking a mile to school and enjoyed the walks. My neighbour has a couple of kids who get a ride to school each day because they attend the before and after school daycare and their father is bothered by the lack of activity of the younger child. It seems he's not interested in athletics. The father is thinking of having the kids walk to school in the next school year as they are now 10& 8 years old.

The linked article said a neighbour returned the child to school. Maybe the neighbour dislikes the child's father and thought this would be a nice, easy bit of revenge? Pretty rotten thing to do.

[medimus]

The suggested distance a young child can walk (once they've learnt to walk and don't fall over anymore) is twice their age in miles. I can't find the link now, but I'm sure I read that somewhere.

And in the UK the government will only provide school transport if the school is more than 3 miles away if the child is 8 or over (if they are under 8 the distance is 2 miles), with the expectation that anything closer can be walked.

So I don't see how a one mile walk with clear reasoning for it can possibly be criminal (barring exceptional circumstances).

It's like something from the free range kids blog which keeps track of stories like this.

[ADoyle90815]

I wish fitness being fun had been the focus when I was in high school PE about eight years ago. I always thought that my teacher had missed his calling as a drill sergeant, and I had no medical issues or anything, I just wasn't particularly fit and was slightly overweight so I couldn't do as much as a lot of my peers. Furthermore, the class was, with a few exceptions, made up of people who fancied themselves athletes but lacked either the skills or the grades to play school sports, and people who just didn't care and would loiter at the back of the group making a half-hearted attempt to throw a ball or whatever every now and then. I wasn't at all athletic, but I was a straight-A student, and standing around with the slackers would get you docked participation points, so I had to make an attempt to actually "play" with people who took four-on-four basketball in PE class as seriously as the NBA championship.What always annoyed me was that the school was right across the street from the local YMCA, who I'm sure would have been happy to have us come in and learn about ways to stay fit for life, but instead we spent the year being shouted at by our teacher while we played one "competitive" sport after another. I swear that was the most useless class of my high school career, including health.

That was also true for me, especially in the 7th grade where that particular teacher happened to be female. I think that having to do that mile run made me hate running as a form of exercise, so when I go to the gym, I use anything but the treadmill. From about kindergarten on, I walked to and from school, so I was already walking maybe 2-3 miles a day. My high school was on my mom's way to her teaching job, so unless I had band practice or some other after school activity, I walked home at the end of the day. Now, from what I've observed with living close to schools is that parents are afraid to let their kids walk as they jam up the streets in the mornings and afternoons during the school year. My opinion is that this is one of the reasons childhood obesity is such a huge epidemic.

[eightykatie]

My kids walk 1/2 mile to and from school each day. My littlest had been doing it since he was 3 (to drop-off/pick-up). We walk - rain, sleet, snow - whatever the weather. We walk past 3 other family's houses who drive their kids to/from school.*

A mile really isn't far, especially for an 8 year old.

I wonder if the kid was crying, and that's why the neighbor picked him up? I'd for sure stop for a crying kid.

*One Mom has started walking more, she said seeing my 3 year do it made her realize her 3rd grader probably could too!

[OddlyAmused]

I walked 1/3 of a mile each way to my first three years of school (mid-1990s), and most of the kids walked further as the only buses for the elementary school were for kindergarteners who got out around noon. I was accompanied by my mother or my brother, but if we hadn't moved I almost certainly would have been walking alone the next year and no one would have thought anything of it.

We moved before my third grade year to a different district in which the designated schools were at least 2 miles away (10, in the case of my high school) and across highways, so walking was never an option and I rode the bus.

I believe in my county buses were provided for students who lived more than a mile away from a school, and those under a mile were expected to walk or be driven, unless there was a highway in the way.

[Trynn]

I hated gym class, it was never fun. I just did not get the point of all the games. If it had been more about staying physically fit or Even included forms of exercise like dancing (too sinful, unfortunately) I might have liked it better.

However, I needed no help to stay active. My favorite activity outside of school was climbing trees and running around the woods with my shirt off. Well, there was no one around.

Unfortunately there was no tree climbing in gym class, or ripe climbing, though I've tried and hated the latter.

[2xx1xy1JD]

My kids walk 1/2 mile to and from school each day. My littlest had been doing it since he was 3 (to drop-off/pick-up). We walk - rain, sleet, snow - whatever the weather. We walk past 3 other family's houses who drive their kids to/from school.*

A mile really isn't far, especially for an 8 year old.

I wonder if the kid was crying, and that's why the neighbor picked him up? I'd for sure stop for a crying kid.

*One Mom has started walking more, she said seeing my 3 year do it made her realize her 3rd grader probably could too!

I'd assume that it wasn't about the distance - it was about the fact that an 8 yr old who didn't normally walk by himself was alone and possibly crying. I'm not going to blame a neighbor for caring enough to get involved when they see a child who seems to be upset.

Nobody would have called CPS if the father had been walking WITH the child for a mile.

Also, from the description of him going back for the child after 5 min, it sounds like his intention wasn't to have the son walk the whole mile, but to scare him by leaving him. Kids don't always judge distance well, esp. if they are used to driving instead of walking a route. If he was scared and his dad had just left him after getting angry with him, then I can totally see a child that age being upset and crying.

BTW, why didn't the dad just ask the teacher why the child was in time out?

[Trynn]

I might have stopped if the kid was crying, to make sure nothing was seriously wrong.

I could also maybe see staying with the kid until the parent got back.

I doubt I would've called CPS... Barring extreme weather conditions or leaving him in a dangerous area, of course.

[turquoise]

I'd assume that it wasn't about the distance - it was about the fact that an 8 yr old who didn't normally walk by himself was alone and possibly crying. I'm not going to blame a neighbor for caring enough to get involved when they see a child who seems to be upset.

Nobody would have called CPS if the father had been walking WITH the child for a mile.

Also, from the description of him going back for the child after 5 min, it sounds like his intention wasn't to have the son walk the whole mile, but to scare him by leaving him. Kids don't always judge distance well, esp. if they are used to driving instead of walking a route. If he was scared and his dad had just left him after getting angry with him, then I can totally see a child that age being upset and crying.

BTW, why didn't the dad just ask the teacher why the child was in time out?

I agree, I think his intention was to scare the kid. I don't think it's terrible to have an 8 year old walk a mile. But I strongly disagree with scaring children as a method of discipline.

Also, while some kids would lie and say they didn't know why they were in time out if they thought it would get them out of trouble, it's also possible there was some sort of misunderstanding by either the teacher or the child. Maybe the kid really wasn't entirely sure why he was in time out. But either way, that's why you talk to the teacher. Make sure the kid actually knows what he did wrong, and make sure he knows that denial won't get him anywhere.

[Trynn]

My dad tried to scare me with that once. I hadn't even done anything wrong, my dad was just yelling and screaming like he usually does. It's possible I was upset with my little brother because he tended to bother me during car trips.

So dad was mad at me, because my brother could do no wrong. He pulled over and told me to get out of the car. I was a little scared, but not much. I just wanted to get away from myfather's rage. So I started to open the car door.

My dad flipped on those child safety locks so fast and floored the gas pedal so fast, I never had time to even move the door handle.

The whole thing scared him more than it did me. I was ready for him to LET ME OUT! And he was terrified cuz he knew I would've actually done it. I don't really know why this frightened him, but it did.

Amazingly, this calmed him down considerably. I remember his anger deflated like a balloon.

So, if his intent was to frighten me, it actually backfired considerably.

I could not have planned that better if I had been trying. I was 12 ish a the time, and is like to say I really was that sneaky, but I wasn't.