Free-range kids picked up AGAIN by police

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand this fear of "urban" neighborhoods.

There's nothing to fear - as long as you are sensible and don't let your 6 year old walk around alone!

How about with a 10 year old? Or an 11 year old, which seems to be perfectly fine?

[Anonymous]

Fire safety. This specific law is about fire safety.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Sorry, I thought you were slightly changing the idea each time, so I wanted to make sure I understood clearly what you were saying.

As long as it's legal, that's the important thing.

If you really want to know whether it's legal, you should ask a lawyer, not an anonymous Internet commenter.

It appears that the people in the situation being discussed here believe that it is legal for kids to be without adult supervision as long as they are outside, not indoors or in a car. The law doesn't mention anything about the outdoors. Here is the law that appears to be the one being relied on:

Family Law §5–801.

(a) A person who is charged with the care of a child under the age of 8 years may not allow the child to be locked or confined in a dwelling, building, enclosure, or motor vehicle while the person charged is absent and the dwelling, building, enclosure, or motor vehicle is out of the sight of the person charged unless the person charged provides a reliable person at least 13 years old to remain with the child to protect the child.

No mention of the outdoors in the law so it seems that the idea here is that there is no need to provide a "a reliable person at least 13 years old to remain with the child to protect the child" as long as the child is outdoors and not in a "dwelling, building, enclosure, or motor vehicle"? And that it is why it is legal for the six and ten year old to walk about a mile to a park and back? If the children were indoors or in a car, there would be a need to provide protection but as long as they are outdoors, there is no need to provide a reliable person to protect the children?

If the outdoors is not mentioned in the law, it must mean that children do not need the same level of supervision there that they would need indoors or in a car, correct?

Yes, that is the law. If you don't like the law, work to change it.

Is there any chance that the spirit of the law might be different than the literal reading of the letter of the law?

What is different about the indoors as opposed to the outdoors that caused the law to be written this way?

Anyone know anything about the history of this law? Why was it written to require protection of kids under age eight indoors, but not outdoors? That does seem odd. Does anyone know the reason?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand this fear of "urban" neighborhoods.

There's nothing to fear - as long as you are sensible and don't let your 6 year old walk around alone!

Won't that be news to people in the real actual urban neighborhoods of DC, let alone Manhattan. What's the danger from parking garages, tax accountants, cafes, and dry cleaners?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:WaPo has a new article about MoCo and children walking unaccompanied. They also have a copy of a letter written by Montgomery County Council President George Leventhal (D-At Large) and County Council member Marc Elrich (D-At Large) to to county police and human-services officials, asking for clarification of police and CPS procedures, responses to 9/11 calls, etc.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/montgomery-council-seeks-clarity-stemming-from-free-range-debate/2015/04/22/a74fd086-e82e-11e4-9767-6276fc9b0ada_story.html?hpid=z4

Thanks for posting this. The 16 questions do not seem to hit on basics that mothers in my neighborhood have discussed: At what age may children play outside without a parent or guardian? At what age can a younger child walk to a park with an older one?

Just use your brain. A 10 year old, a small park, a quiet neighborhood, a block away, on a non-busy street, ok. A 6 year old, an urban setting, a busy street - not ok. No law is going to spell this out for you, and indeed, should not.

Oh my gosh, thanks!!! It never occurred to us to "use our brains"!

The county council is really "seeking clarity" around other issues, not about the underlying question of whether what the parents allowed the kids to do is against the law. I guess you didn't read the story or the list of questions.

[Anonymous]

OMG, thread is still going??

[Anonymous]

So I am new to this thread and cannot be reading it all to see if anyone has used the word "kidnapping".

But when ever I see this story in the paper, I wonder why aren't the police charged with kidnapping - if they are picking these kids up and detaining them with no legal framework to do so?

[Anonymous]

The statement regarding "fantasy becoming policy" really resonated with me:

http://www.freerangekids.com/letting-kids-walk-to-the-park-in-maryland-legal-or-not/