Posted on 09/01/2011 12:15:41 AM PDT by cycjec
Could you be arrested for allowing your 5'th grade child to ride her bike one mile to school? That certainly seems crazy as we try to encourage active life styles for our kids. That certainly seems crazy as we try to promote safe routes to school programs. That certainly seems crazy as we talk of an obesity epidemic amongst our children. But that is what police in Elizabethton Tennessee are threatening.
Teresa Tryon said, "On August 25th my 10 year daughter arrived home via police officer, requested to speak to me on the front porch of my home. The officer informed me that in his 'judgement' it was unsafe for my daughter to ride her bike to school."
Ms Tryon called the mayor's office and the chief of police office in order to determine what laws she was breaking by allowing her daughter to ride her bike to school. Her daughter's route to school was reasonably safe.
Major Verran of the police department returned Ms Tryon's call. She said he told me, "He had spoke with the District Attorney's office who advised that until the officer can speak with Child Protective Services that if I allow my daughter to ride/walk to school I will be breaking the law and treated accordingly.
She asked, "What law she would be breaking to which the answer was 'child neglect'".
Ms Tryon confirm with Major Verran that her daughter was indeed breaking no laws at any level, but it was Ms Tryon who was breaking the law by allowing her daughter to ride/walk to school. Even though it only takes her daughter 7 - 9 minutes to bicycle to school, she is expected to ride the bus. Posted by Tom_E at 7:07 AM
“Your papers, please.”
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Teresa Tryon said, "On August 25th my 10 year daughter arrived home via police officer, requested to speak to me on the front porch of my home. The officer informed me that in his 'judgement' it was unsafe for my daughter to ride her bike to school."
Get back to me when my kid actually breaks the law. You opinion isn't worth my time otherwise.
"Did you really think that we want those laws to be observed? We want them broken. You'd better get it straight that it's not a bunch of boy scouts you're up against . . . We're after power and we mean it. You fellows were pikers, but we know the real trick, and you'd better get wise to it. There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What's there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced nor objectively interpreted and you create a nation of law-breakers - and then you cash in on guilt. Now that's the system, Mr. Rearden, and once you understand it, you'll be much easier to deal with."
The communists ( I refuse to call them "liberals") don't want a nation of law abiding citizens. They want control.
Maybe Officer Cryptic is afraid to tell the mom that there is a registered predator along the bike route. There ARE plenty of reasons that a child is no longer safe unaccompanied in public. But the cops are being really stupid about how they are handling this.
Mom: these are the local issues that could spark a political career. Go Sarah on 'em!!!
The good stuff is in the comments.
In our district in Texas, they won’t pick you up if you’re within a mile of the campus.
If this lady actually does care for her child then she will take the child out of public school altogether.
As a parent, I think I’d feel that it’s safer if my child walked or rode his bike rather than taking the bus. However, homeschooling is the only viable option for me.
Sounds like this little girl needs armed militia with her on her route to keep her from being kidknapped by the State’s out of control enforcers.
anyone ever hear of such?
Wow, this just floors me. The public education system becomes more Orwellian every day.
We live about 4 miles off the main road, and every day during the school year a giant school bus comes and goes, twice in the morning and twice in the afternoon.
For two children. One is picked up for high school, one is picked up for grade school, and the kids are from the same family even!
When I was a kid in high school, every kid in my neighborhood walked to the main road to catch the bus; for me it was about 1 1/2 miles each way I think. I loved the walk - finding wild grapes in the fall, walking through the snow in the winter, unwinding from hated school every day.
Criminal insanity. And you read what goes on in those buses sometimes!
To me that satisfies both sides.
Freedom. Look it up.
Very situationally dependent.
Technically, in some states, the Superintendent of Schools is considered to be responsible for the safety of minors from when they depart their parents property, entering the public trafficways, until they arrive at school and upon their return to their parents care at home again.
In such states, these responsibilities are reflected by County and Municipal planning commissions which review construction permits. A new subdivision is considered by the schools district in mapping out walking routes and bis routes for children and their safety when trafficking to school.
While I haven’t been in the Elizabethtown area for some 25 years, even at that time, there was inadequate planning in many Tennessee counties to support contiguous safe sidewalks or bicycle routes in many communities.
If the only routes for bicycle access are along 45 mph 2 lane roads with overgrown brush, it wouldn’t surprise me if an officer brought the kid back home, and it probably would have been the correct action depending upon the situation.
Two problems here. First of all Tennessee public schools are almost in a lock down mentality these days. Most require kids walking home to walk with their parents even if it is a couple of blocks. This is true even in many small communities so I assume the state is behind it.
To pick up your own kids when school is out in the car rider line some schools require placards with the kids name displayed in you window. If you don't have the placard it's too the office for you.
The second thing is The Tennessee Department of Childrens Services or DCS as it is called. They will likely get far more upset over a non issue like this than parents actually abusing kids. DCS in Tennessee is nothing more than a Poor Misunderstood and Confused Mommy Oligarchy. It's a sick joke with an agenda & policies wriiten by liberal idiots from the village with their ultra liberal agendas.
Oh BTW one other Tennessee factoid. A 14 or 15 year old girl can without parents knowledge or permission go to any County Health Department and get the morning after pills. No the health department will not tell you if you ask. You have no rights under the law to obtain any medical knowledge concerning pregnancy etc.
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