Maryland Finds ‘Free Range’ Children At Park, Throws Them In Baby Jail

[niyad]

Not This Shit Again?


Maryland Finds ‘Free Range’ Children At Park, Throws Them In Baby Jail

image:
Except in this case, the kids are fine and the "adults" are terrible. Some of them. Just read the story.

You might remember that back in January we had a story about these nice parents — actually nice nice, not Wonkette “they seem nice” nice — in Silver Spring, Maryland, who were investigated for “neglect” for the offense of allowing their 10-year-old son and his 6-year-old sister to walk around their neighborhood unsupervised in December 2014. Some concerned busybody called Child Protective Services, and the parents, Danielle and Alexander Meitiv, got a stern warning that Maryland is apparently not friendly to “free range” kids, not even if the kids were in no actual danger other than perhaps being pooped upon by birds. At the time, the Meitivs were given a good talking-to, told they would have to agree not to let their kids roam free for the rest of that weekend, and that was supposedly that.


Guess who’s been letting their children experience too much freedom again? On Sunday, the Meitiv children were seen playing in a park near their home, a helpful stranger called the cops, and CPS came and took the kids into custody again. Only this time, the Meitivs were in BIG TROUBLE, because thanks to that earlier call — which Montgomery County CPS categorized as “unsubstantiated” child neglect — the agency has to keep a file on the family for five years. And now, they have committed a second instance of allowing kids to play unsupervised in a perfectly safe place. Seriously, not a heroin needle or loaded pistol in the whole park (loaded pistols, by the way, are SAFE).


Danielle Meitiv told MyFoxDC that she and her husband were driving around looking for their children when they did not return home at the agreed upon time of 6.30pm. She said CPS did not contact the parents until about 8pm and the family was reunited around 10.30pm.
Meitiv said the initial incident provoked nightmares in her kids, who were distressed by their experience with the police. “The only people who have threatened to abduct my kids are the Child Protective Services,” she told the Guardian last month.

Look, Montgomery County CPS: we know that protecting kids is important. We know that there are lots of genuinely terrible, horribly abusive parents out there. Some are even State Legislators. The Meitivs are not those parents, and their kids do not belong in baby jail. Don’t make us start marching around with Gadsden flags, because they’d really clash with our tie-dyed shirts and Birkenstocks.

l

The family has been reunited, after the Meitivs signed a “safety plan” promising to not leave their kids unattended — for how long, god only knows; maybe until they’re 16 and can drive everywhere like Real Americans are supposed to.

Read more at http://wonkette.com/582681/maryland-finds-free-range-children-at-park-throws-them-in-baby-jail#oMsm0oBfSabuf61J.99

[Vinca]

1. Maybe next time they'll remember to bubble wrap them as society seems to demand.

I feel sorry for kids these days. They don't get a chance to be kids unless it's a supervised activity.

[niyad]

2. so thankful I don't have these kinds of issues to deal with.

I see kids around my neighborhood all the time, playing in the park, WALKING ON THE STREETS!!! alone, unsupervised. I had no idea I should be calling cps.

[randome]

3. This was posted yesterday. There's more to the story.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026498859
[hr][font color="blue"][center]All things in moderation, including moderation.[/center][/font][hr]

[niyad]

6. I read all that, and it only makes the authorities look worse.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/free-range-kids-and-our-parenting-police-state/2015/04/13/42c30336-e1df-11e4-905f-cc896d379a32_story.html

[randome]

8. So bad, in fact, that it makes me doubt we have the full story.

Often stories like this are too 'good' to be true.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]All things in moderation, including moderation.[/center][/font][hr]

[niyad]

10. your concern is noted.

[NV Whino]

4. Maybe they could just pin a note on them

If found, please return to….

[niyad]

5. the meitiv family

[tularetom]

7. OMG, they were playing in a park?

A park for chissakes.

Don't those parents know that every park is crawling with pervs and pedophiles?

By all means every kid needs to be sheltered from the world until they reach the age of 40 or so.

Jesus effing christ. Glad somebody is standing up to the child protective nazis. This kind of shit is what gives us liberals a bad name.

Let kids have a childhood. They'll eventually have to grow up and be paranoid scared sheep like the rest of us but they should be allowed to enjoy life while they can.

[niyad]

9. you have the right of that!

[packman]

11. Don't care - cops were right

Parks are not safe play areas. It is a fertile area for pervs and pedophiles to harvest children. Montgomery County acted correctly and I applaud them. If these two "parents" want to have some "Free" time to do whatever they want to do - get a sitter, get a neighbor, provide some back-yard activities, let them play in their rooms. But, as parents they are failing.

I wonder what would be the reaction if these "free-range" kids were abducted, abused, or God knows what? Montgomery County is the home of the Lyon children (two girls) who were abducted and their bodies never found when they were allowed to free roam in a up-scale county mall. Again - well done Montgomery County. Parents sound like self-centered assholes.

[niyad]

12. and do you applaud the cops holding the children in the back of the police car for hours

without notifying the parents?

[packman]

24. Never said that - said parents were assholes.

[niyad]

46. so how do you feel about what the cops did, terrorizing the kids, holding them in the car

for hours without notifying the parents?

[philosslayer]

50. I think the police officers had to do an assessment

Given the previous case history, were the children at immediate risk going back into the home? The children's immediate well being is more important than notifying the parents right away. And the cops didn't "terrorize" the children. They took them away from a potentially dangerous situation, and ensured that they were returned to a safe environment. They did their jobs.

[niyad]

53. the previous case history of nothing happened, right? and this "assessment" took them

hours? wow. . . .just. . . .wow.

[Comrade Grumpy]

15. Paranoia will destroy ya.

That's some real dark tunnel vision you have there. I see a park and I see someplace for kids to play; you see a park and see "a fertile area for pervs and pedophlles to harvest children."

Your world must be a very frightening place.

[packman]

23. That is a really stupid response

My world is full of young children enjoying their childhood. Is your world seeing children being cared for by parents who don't give a damn and letting them get into harm's way ? Your's is a myopic rainbow world vision. Parks are fun places, never said otherwise, that and a parental laziness is what pervs count on - time you be realistic.

[Comrade Grumpy]

30. And yours is a seriously frightened one.

The parents in this case let their kids go to the park. For you that's "parents who don't give a damn;" for me, that parents.

You appear to be very worried about "pervs." You should be equally worried about lightning strikes.

Maybe this will cheer you up:

https://missingchild.wordpress.com/2006/08/17/how-dangerouus-is-childhood-cont/

But how common are what the Justice Department calls “stereotypical” abductions, the nightmare-caliber crime involving a stranger or slight acquaintance who whisks away a child with the intention of holding him for ransom, keeping him or killing him?


Statistics vary, but not by much. Some estimate about 40 such cases occur each year in the United States. The Justice Department report says there were 115 cases in 2002.

Either way, with 60,700,000 children 14 and under in the United States, the odds of your child being the victim of an Adam Walsh-style abduction are roughly 1 in a million.

You’d be wiser to cancel those horseback-riding lessons. Your child is more likely to be killed in an equestrian accident. (Odds in one year for people who ride horses: 1 in 297,000.) Or better yet, pull him off the football team. (Yearly odds of dying for youth football players: 1 in 78,260.) And if you really want to protect them, sell your car. (Lifetime odds of dying as a passenger: 1 in 228. Odds of dying this year alone: 1 in 17,625.)

Or, to put another spin on it, your child is 700 times more likely to get into Harvard than to be the victim of such an abduction.

Chances that the kidnapped child will be killed are smaller still. The U.S. Department of Justice says 40 percent of the 115 victims were murdered.

Horrific, yes, but “almost certain not to happen,” says Stearns.

“But our emotions overwhelm our ability to calculate reality.”

http://news.discovery.com/human/psychology/stranger-child-abductions-actually-very-rare-130514.htm

With the news coverage of the abduction and long-term captivity of three girls in Cleveland, many parents are keeping an extra-close eye on their children while the news media warn kids about the dangers of kidnapping.

Time magazine, among many news outlets, emphasized the threat of stranger kidnappings and offered tips for kids and adults on how to avoid abduction. In a story about a smartphone app to thwart kidnappings, one TechHive writer stated, “Although we’d like to think otherwise, women are still abducted on a daily basis.”

Unfortunately, information on kidnapping prevention rarely tells children what to do in case of the most common type of abduction. It may also be needlessly scaring children and parents by mischaracterizing the majority of child abductions.

PHOTOS: Long-Lost and Found: Missing People Who Were Found

As discussed in my book Media Mythmakers: How Journalists, Activists, and Advertisers Mislead Us, “While the term ‘missing child’ may conjure up visions of malevolent, trench-coated men luring children into their cars with candy or Pokémon cards, the reality is much different. The vast majority of ‘missing’ children are taken by family members, often when one divorced parent absconds with a child during legally sanctioned visitation. The child may not be where he morally or legally should be, but it is a far cry from being in a dangerous stranger’s clutches. This puts the term ‘missing’ in a whole new light, since at least one parent knew exactly where the child was. ‘Missing,’ then, is used as more of a legal word regarding the child’s status than a descriptive one designating the child’s whereabouts.”

False Reports

Not only are most children abducted by a parent or caregiver, but — perhaps surprisingly — many abduction reports (thankfully) turn out to be hoaxes or false alarms. In just the past week, for example, a North Carolina mother lied about her toddler being abducted from her home. An Amber Alert was issued, and police later found the child safe in Washington, D.C., with her father.

A few days before that, a pair of 13-year-olds in Canada told police that they were approached by a man in a white SUV who repeatedly made sexual comments and tried to lure them into his vehicle. Police determined the report was false, and the teens admitted they made up the story. That same day a 13-year-old Tucson girl told police that two men in a van tried to abduct her on the way to school. She refused to get in the van with them, and when they finally drove off she heard someone inside the van screaming for help. Police teams searched the area for hours but nothing was found. The girl soon admitted that “she made up the story because she was late for school.”

Despite such hoaxes and false alarms, all reports of abductions and attempted abductions are taken seriously and fully investigated by police. Parents may find some comfort that child abductions are much less common than they seem to be, and that many cases they hear about on the news turn out to be mistakes or pranks, not an endangered child.

Stranger Danger Fears

Only a tiny minority of kidnapped children are taken by strangers. Between 1990 and 1995 the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children handled only 515 stranger abductions, 3.1 percent of its caseload. A 2000 report by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Programs reported that more than 3/4 of kidnappings were committed by family members or acquaintances of the child. The study also found that children abducted by strangers were harmed less frequently than those taken by acquaintances.

BLOG: Psychic Claimed Amanda Berry Was Dead

In fact, children are in far more danger of being abused, kidnapped or killed by their parents than any stranger on the street. University of Southern California sociology professor Barry Glassner wrote about missing children in his book The Culture of Fear: “In national surveys conducted in recent years 3 out of 4 parents say they fear that their child will be kidnapped by a stranger. They harbor this anxiety, no doubt, because they keep hearing frightening statistics and stories about perverts snatching children off the street. What the public doesn’t hear often or clearly enough is that the majority of missing children are runaways fleeing from physically or emotionally abusive parents.”

Child abductions are a real threat, but the risk should be kept in perspective to avoid unnecessarily alarming parents and children. In his book Protecting the Gift, child-safety expert Gavin De Becker pointed out that compared to a stranger kidnapping, “ child is vastly more likely to have a heart attack, and child heart attacks are so rare that most parents (correctly) never even consider the risk.”

[whatthehey]

16. Might as well hassle people for having kids outside in rainstorms; lightning strikes are less rare

http://www.cnn.com/2012/05/25/opinion/lanning-missing-children/

[appleannie1]

19. I must be a terrible grandparent. I let all my kids and grandkids play in parks.

I felt parks were safer than playing in the street.

[EL34x4]

21. The Lyon Sisters?

1975.

Sounds like an epidemic of child abductions in Montgomery County! Parents, lock up your kids! It's not safe out there!!!

[packman]

25. Parents - grandparents are still grieving

and the police are still searching for the killers. Yes- it is not safe out there.

[hatrack]

43. This just in - it's not 100% safe anywhere, anytime for anyone

I suggest you digest, deal and move on with your life.

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

22. I have a hard time understanding this-

It is a fertile area for pervs and pedophiles to harvest children. Can you provide facts that back this statement up?

[packman]

27. Just one of many done by a cursory google search

"• Many child molesters know their victims. Some stalk their victims, observing their habits as they walk to and from school. They often try to buy houses near schools or parks"

Read More http://www.lindenhurststrangerdanger.com

[hatrack]

44. Well, better start closing down all the parks, then . . .

.

[DustyJoe]

32. fertile children areas

Parks are not safe play areas.

So why does the pedophile infested city government parks departments keep building parks with sandboxes and swings and other playground equipment ? It's almost as if they are luring children to these 'fertile areas' for all sorts of perverted acts. What's next ? Allowing ice cream trucks to roam residential areas enticing children for unknown danger like giving them diabetes or STD's.

On one hand helicopter parents are ridiculed for stifling childrens ability to experience everyday life and 'free range' parents are set upon by the government for daring let their children experience anything but very closely supervised activity. Even schools don't watch the children that closely, otherwise ditching class would be a felony.

Maybe fenced in areas with locked gates and adults to guard these poor children in their play is needed, but wait, that sounds like the exercise yard at Attica.

[packman]

34. Jesus-I don't believe your reasoning

Governments creating "fertile areas"? Are you serious? NEVER said parks are unsafe, said parents who send kids unsupervised even in the most casual of ways are irresponsible and these two parents are assholes.




Your writing this nonsense is an example of hyper-inflating a statement. Attica? Diabetes? STD's? Shit man, just be done with it and bring in the Nazi's and Hitler.

[DustyJoe]

38. your words

NEVER said parks are unsafe

Your post stated
Parks are not safe play areas.

And yes, city parks and play areas are predominately built/maintained by local govts.

Your description of city parks describe a park that must have scared you at some time.

[gollygee]

41. Most kids who are sexually abused are abused within their families

So they aren't safe at home or being supervised by their parents either I guess.

[Ms. Yertle]

13. I'd be the last to defend CPS,

but in a lot of cases they don't have a choice.

I was once turned in to CPS by a trouble-making crazy neighbor, because my 3- or 4-year old son was allowed to cross our quiet, mostly traffic-free street by himself.

The social worker did a drive-by to check out our neighborhood, and knew it wasn't a busy street, but had to follow up on the complaint.

I explained to the social worker that when a family with a young son moved in across the street from us, I was concerned that he would forget or ignore my rules about crossing the street by himself, so I taught him the safe way to cross.

She told me that if she got any further complaints on us they would end up in the circular file.

[Taitertots]

14. Why are the cops driving around abducting children

Oh yeah, the U.S. is a police state.

Don't let your children leave the house unattended or the gestapo is going to swoop them up.

[niyad]

17. and to think, we used to just have to worry about pervs and pedos in civvies.

[Taitertots]

36. Did you ever really need to worry about them

You would think that if pervs were the problem, then the cops should arrest the child molesters and not their potential victims.

[niyad]

47. sorry, you are absolutely correct. I know a couple who collect child porn, and the cops have

never touched them (and please notice I said couple. old couple, very prominent in the local anti-choice movement)

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

18. It makes me want to stand on the rooftop and yell

ABSURD!!!
based on the childhood I had and where I went so on. This cannot, in the long run, be healthy for kids, this helicopter style supervision. For Pete's sake, the world is a dangerous place, it has always been a dangerous place but how else do you prepare children for life other than allowing them to experience it?

[niyad]

20. in this particular case, my guess is that there is a neighbor with issues.

[eridani]

26. When I was a kid, there was no need for a special term like "free range"

The only limit was that at 6 o'clock you had to be within hearing range of the dinner call.

[Taitertots]

37. My friends Mom had a vuvuzela for the diner bell

[Warren Stupidity]

39. no shit.

Saturday morning I was on the bike and out of the house. We had to be home for dinner. I just feel sorry for the kids growing up in this world of fearful wimps.

[Novara]

28. Self-reliance....

....isn't grown by keeping kids sheltered; it's learned behavior built by practicing. What kind of society are we raising if we constantly keep kids wrapped in bubble wrap and never teach them the basics of keeping their very own eyes open to the world around them? What happens when they grow up but can't navigate the world by themselves because they've never been taught to rely on themselves? How can kids recognize danger unless we allow them to see it?

[Nine]

29. I wonder why such emphasis is placed on the "type" of parents these are.

It seems like people are going out of their way to draw attention to the fact - without saying it outright - that these are hip, white parents, not, you know, the other kind.

"They wear tie-dye and birkenstocks! Here's a photo of the family! They live in a nice neighborhood! There are no heroin needles anywhere! I know this because... well, I just know."

It reminds me of the people who complain that they don't get special security exemptions in airports: Come on, do I look like a terrorist?

A six-year-old is too young to be left unsupervised in a public park. And a ten-year-old is not mature enough to supervise a six-year-old. There is room for parental discretion but in Maryland the law is explicit: you must be at least eight to be left home unsupervised, and you must be thirteen to babysit. And the parents knew that.

I wonder why the parents were "frantic" when their kids didn't return at the appointed time? I guess they were thinking of all the things that can happen to young children who are left unsupervised in public parks.

[randome]

31. And all the accusations of bad behavior come from the parents. It's a very one-sided story.

The parents are well-known public advocates for 'free-range' behavior so this sounds a trifle too 'convenient' for them.

They also said their children always have a card on them that says "I am not lost. I am a free-range child." Yet for some inexplicable reason, they did not have it this time.

As I've said, I'm sure there is more to this story than meets the eye.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]All things in moderation, including moderation.[/center][/font][hr]

[Comrade Grumpy]

33. Let us know when you get to the bottom of it.

[randome]

35. I'll wait for a journalist to do the job.

Articles like this play up the hyperbole without doing any investigation to get at the truth. It could be that all of Maryland's protective agencies in this article are incompetent and corrupt.

But I doubt it.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]"If you're bored then you're boring." -Harvey Danger[/center][/font][hr]

[Warren Stupidity]

40. You mean you'll stick to your position despite lack of any evidence,

and insist that the evidence has to be there and that there must be some malfeasance keeping it out of reach.

[Comrade Grumpy]

56. A man called police because they asked to pet his dog. He said they looked dirty.

According to an article linked to below.

I dunno. I used to pet dogs. And I used to play in the park and get dirty. I wasn't neglected, though, and it doesn't seem like these kids are either.

Oh, but the cops said a homeless man was "eyeing" them. I guess that's something like looking in their direction.

Nah, this still looks unjustified. And the family will sue. Good.

[F4lconF16]

52. The parents were "frantic" because their child was missing.

When I was in middle school, I walked home every day, about a mile and something. There was no danger, and it was completely safe. One day I decided to take the bus home--the first time I ever had. It should have been faster. Instead, I got the most idiotic substitute bus driver I have ever met. Not only did she not know the route, she asked a bus full of middle school children for directions. 3 hours later, I got home, and yeah, my parents were pretty freaked out. I got a cell phone after that.

The parents did nothing wrong by not worrying about the kids until something was amiss. A place can be perfectly safe, and yet you're still going to worry when your kid is not where they should be. Most people can trust their kids, too.

I completely agree with the attention being drawn to the "niceness" of the parents and the area. I have friends who grew up in some pretty sketchy areas, where parks might have had heroin needles, and oddly enough, they turned out just fine. I agree that this seems to be calling on sterotypes and race in order to make their point, which is unfortunate. You're absolutely right that this is creating an "other" type of parent, who by virtue of poverty or race clearly must be horrible parents.

That said, I think you're wrong about a 10 year old child and a 6 year old child being able to handle themselves at a nearby park. The odds of something happening are so much smaller than them dying in a car crash on the way to the store. Kids are smarter than we give them credit for, and fostering their independence is a critical part of their development. There is also a difference between being left home unsupervised and being allowed to play at a park unsupervised. Sorry, but my parents did that for me all the time. I never had a problem, and I don't think the vast majority of people do.

[greymattermom]

42. dog parks

They have fenced in off leash dog parks, right? They should also have this for kids. Check them in at the gate.

[hatrack]

45. But whatever you do, don't remove their leashes!

[niyad]

48. seems like an obvious solution.

[randome]

49. Twenty seven children enter but only one will leave.

Join us for tonight's edition of "Child Survivor!"
[hr][font color="blue"][center]No squirrels were harmed in the making of this post. Yet.[/center][/font][hr]

[Sissyk]

51. For one thing,

I could never call my kids "free-range children". Sounds too much like "free-range chickens". If you've spent any time around chickens, you know children and chickens are nothing alike!! lol!

My kids stayed gone more than they were at home. But, I always knew the general vicinity, and was informed of SOME plan changes. Not the majority, I'm sure though.

However, I do think there is more to this story and look forward to reading about a lawsuit if the "free-range" parents file one.

[TorchTheWitch]

55. I really dislike that "free range" expression myself

Makes me think of chickens, too.

I also think there's a lot more to the story. The mother has been complaining that the first incident left her children traumatized, yet she sends them out to "free range" again this time without their supposed cards on them that say "I'm not lost. I'm a free range kid" which is a stupid thing to have written on a card in the first place to be picked up again by the police and further traumatized while she does the round of the tv circuit. It smells of using ones children to promote a parenting style.

I'm not seeing who the parents plan on suing either and for what. The police did what was required of them, CPS did what was required of them, so who are they going to sue and what for?

[Sissyk]

57. Hey, TTW!

Good to see you. Hope all is getting better.

I thought I read a different thread here that they may be going to sue the City or someone. I very well could be wrong.

[Nine]

54. more info

http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Parents-of-Free-Range-Kids-to-File-Lawsuit-299721601.html

The suit stems from an incident Sunday, the second time police got involved with Danielle and Alexander Meitiv and their kids. In the latest incident, a man called 911 to report two unaccompanied children at Ellsworth Park in Silver Spring around 5 p.m. Sunday. The man said he was walking his dog when the children asked to pet it.

So, not a vindictive neighbor (if this report is true) as some suggested, but a stranger approached by the children.