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
ping
Follow the money.
Starving the beast (even accidentally) gets cops called on you, and then CPS.
Welcome to the land of the (formerly) free.
/johnny
It just gets worse and worse...
Personally, I’d much prefer packing all my stuff in a U-Haul truck, and getting the Hell out of stupid Tennessee, and I will go to Texas. The sooner the better.
I don’t know why the police don’t have a form that you sign that if your kid rides the bike and gets taken or is hit by a car then the family is on their own. To me that satisfies both sides.
First mom lets her daughter cycle to school, next she’ll help the kid set up an unlicensed lemonade stand.
If it’s an issue of safety, the solution seems to be for the mom to ride with her daughter.
Why should you have to sign anything or waive any rights to do something perfectly legal? There is no reason to satisfy the other side.
Nanny State Gestapo strike again.
Pure, unadulterated, 24 karat bullsh*t from yet another corrupted, Leftist, Keystone Kops organization.
When I was 7, I refused to ride the bus to school. I walked and sometimes rode my bike. My parents would never drive me to school, and I didn’t want them to, (unless it was raining cats and dogs...and even then I had to beg).
When I was 11, I rode 17 miles on my bike to the
beach for the first time (without a helmet, of course, since they didn’t exist then).
When I was 16, I drove down to Ensenada Mexico for the first time.
I’m 43 now, and I’ve never been seriously hurt, nor died yet.
If it is against the law for children to ride their bicycles in public without adult supervision the entire population is in violation of child safety laws and should have their children summarily removed from the home.
You shouldn't have to ask permission for or notify the authorities of your decision to let your own child ride a bike to school. It's nonsense.
Some people are busy trying to see if they can get comfortable chains. Beating the rush, so to speak.
The character of the neighborhood makes a big difference. Capitol Hill is pretty gentrified although we have our issues. I think I'd be more concerned if we lived in a rural area and had kids walking/riding on lonely country roads. Here there are lots of people and eyes on the street.
Thinking back, I rode a bus through sixth grade, but I went to a country school that was too far to be walkable. A lot of the town kids started walking in elementary school. I started walking home in junior high, when I transferred into the city system and the school was only two miles away.
Thanks for posting this. It’s very close to where I live but I have not seen it in the local media. I gave it to my local radio station this morning.
Homeschool. Problem solved. (It is LONG past time to dismantle the public school cartel...)
When we homeschooled, our boys were sometimes outside during the day. We made them a card explaining who they were and how to reach us. They were questioned a couple of times by police, but, eventually things settled down. Another advantage of small town life.
“Why should you have to sign anything or waive any rights to do something perfectly legal?”
Exactly!
The socialization on school buses is critical to the development of your child. Not
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