Mom lets son walk to park, gets arrested

[blackspade]

http://www.cnn.com/2014/07/31/living/florida-mom-arrested-son-park/index.html

After letting her 7-year-old son walk from their home to a park to play, a Florida mother faces up to five years in jail for child neglect.

Nicole Gainey, 34, was arrested on July 26 after her son, Dominic, was found by police alone in a park less than a half-mile from her Port St. Lucie home.

What kind of stupid, fearful society have we become?

[glasshouses]

1. We rode our bikes at that age more than a halfmile from home but in the city

having a 7 year old by himself in a park is asking for trouble

[marym625]

2. OMFD!

Speechless. This is outrageous

[angstlessk]

3. When I was 4 I extracted enough money from my father's employees

to take a bus ride...the police were called when a young girl, whose mother allowed her to be home sick, yet was able to jump rope (something my mother would never allow, if I were home sick, I was in bed) The police were called and all I knew was my name "Kitty Boo" and my dad owned a cleaners.


My parents were not even considered to be charged...and the cop told my mother I was scared enough that I should not be punished...THAT IS PROTECT AND SERVE!

[Nye Bevan]

4. Would you be outraged by this if the child was 5? How about 4?

I'm just wondering what the age is at which most DUers believe a child should not be allowed to walk through a city by themselves.

[pnwmom]

7. Any child who is expected to walk a certain distance to elementary school

should be able to walk that distance to another place he and his parents agree on, unless there are unusual hazards on that route.

And the crazy part in this situation is that the park is on the boy's regular route to school -- to which he rides a bike every day. How can it be safe to ride a bike to school and not to walk to a park on the same route?

[blackspade]

13. I personally was a free range kid at 4

Both in the city where I lived, and the farm where I spent my summers.

So the answer is "yes"

[Nye Bevan]

32. Here's a case where the mother of a "free range" 4-year old was imprisoned.

A Burlington County mother of five was imprisoned this week on child-abandonment charges after her 4-year-old daughter was spotted for the fourth time in about two months walking alone on a sidewalk, police said.

Riverside Township Police Detective Ron Brock said the child, who was not identified, was unharmed and "in good spirits" each time she wandered out into the neighborhood. Twice, he said, she crossed Middleton Street, where she lives, without an adult and was returned home by police.

Her mother, Maryann Gonteski, 38, told officers that the girl was "hyperactive and likes to run and jump," Brock said.

On Thursday, Superior Court Judge Jeanne Covert set Gonteski's bail at $7,500 with no option to post bond.

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/local/20140801_Mother_jailed_after_4-year-old_found_wandering_a_fourth_time.html#PMjbdDZ07j25VPy5.99

Was this a horrible injustice? Should the police just have let the child continue to wander?

[blackspade]

33. I would say so.

But what is your point?

Do you think that children should be removed from homes and their parents locked up and their families destroyed? For the fear of what 'could' happen?

[hollysmom]

5. it would depend on the child but 7 seems to be a good cut off.

When my sister was 7 she would take me at 4 and we would get a bus to the center of town after walking 1/2 mile and go to the movies, Mother would send us to have some quiet in the house for a while. When I was 7 I was allowed to go myself, I got n allowance at 5, it was a increased when I was 12 and I had to budget and buy my own clothes which meant I had to go to a bigger town to shop in department stores. I was given a saving account at 5 where I was sent to deposit birthday money when I was older, probably 7 since that is when I took the bus alone. My younger brothers though, could not be trusted to do any of this, but they were bike riding fiends at 7 and like all of us out from lunch until dinner with no adult around. .
I took a school bus for kindergarten but had to walk to school 3/4 a mile away at 6 with other kids in the streets.

Kids can do what you expect of them. Of course, my friend in first grade was not mature enough and he paid by being run over by a truck while walking home from school. I think it depends on the child.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

6. After the first couple days of kindergarten we were all walking about that far each day.

Sometimes in groups but other times alone.
This was in a suburb right on the border of Chicago in the early 1960s.

[glasshouses]

9. I don't think the half mile walk really bothered me in the article

It's 5 to 10 minutes

It's that she thought it was fine to let a 7 year old hang out in a city park by himself.

If the cops noticed he was alone so could have any nutcase.

It didn't state he met up with other friends where their parents could have been present

He was just alone

that's a bad mix

[pnwmom]

10. When you were that age were you not allowed to go to parks by yourself?

I was, and we didn't have any cell phones back then. I could go all over my neighborhood on my bike, like many kids still do today -- if their parents aren't too paranoid.

[glasshouses]

12. We didn't have parks where I grew up

[pnwmom]

16. Maybe that's why you have the reaction you do then.

I have lots of good memories of playing in parks.

[Recursion]

23. "Stranger danger" is basically a myth. Bees are a bigger danger to children

There's absolutely nothing wrong with a kid playing in a park by himself in 2015. It's not like 1985 (when nobody batted an eye at this, incidentally) when the country was in the middle of a violent crime spree. Abductions of children by strangers are so rare that you're better off worrying about meteor strikes.

[Glengoolie]

25. He could be hit by a meteor or attacked by bees... So what?

Kids need to be alone sometimes...

Sheesh...

The human race, at least the Western portion, is in deep trouble.

edit: Damn near quoted the post above me without seeing it... What are the odds...

[Revanchist]

31. Kids are more likely to be abused by

their "Wicked Uncle Ernie" than by a nutcase in the park.

[pnwmom]

8. Oh, the INSANITY!!!!

Not only does the school district expect him to transport himself a longer distance every day to his school (and allows him to bike there) -- the park is on the same route that he takes to school!

[SunSeeker]

11. The law seems unconstitutionally vague to me.

Florida's child neglect statute has no age written into the law. Many states do not specify an age at which a child can be legally left at home or allowed to go places alone. This leaves some parents unsure of when it's appropriate or even legal to leave a child unsupervised.

[blackspade]

14. The problem is...

That unsupervised is equated with neglect. That is clearly not true.

[glasshouses]

15. Until something happens then we call her a bad mother for letting a 7 year old play alone

in a city park

[pnwmom]

17. Even if something were to happen, that wouldn't make her a bad mother.

The boy rides his bike past this park every day on the way to school. And the city doesn't have any problem with this, so they must have judged the risk to be low.

Is the school district a bad district for not bussing the boy instead?

If I were going to be worried, I'd be more worried about a 7 year old on a bike in a city street -- but that apparently isn't a concern, since the authorities let him park his bike at school every day.

[glasshouses]

18. But that would be the chant here , I can see it now , and not just here but everywhere..

"7 year old child abducted at city park who the mother let go there all alone"
It's a horror story but it happens


You know most members would jump on the bandwagon saying the mother shouldn't have
left the child alone

[pnwmom]

19. Should people make rational decisions based on real risks

or should they decide based on the imagined reaction from strangers that would occur in the very unlikely event something happened?

[glasshouses]

20. I see as common sense not to let a 7 year old play alone in a city park

Like I said if he was meeting a group of other friends maybe a different story
but the article gave no indication of that.

He was noticed because he was alone

[pnwmom]

21. You don't know why the busy-body noticed him. But the charges were dropped

so the town obviously decided the mother hadn't done anything wrong.

[Recursion]

24. It actually doesn't happen to any real extent

There have been fewer than 1000 cases nationwide since 1990. Compared to that many per year by poisoning, or four times that many per year by auto accident.

[Mariana]

26. And yet, that the FIRST thing that comes to some people's minds.

I know people who honestly believe that hundreds of thousands of kids are being snatched up off the sidewalks by strangers every year, never to be seen again.

[Recursion]

22. OFFS. At 7 I would tell my mom "I'm going out to play" and come back around dusk

This is absurd

[AngryOldDem]

30. I did that too as a kid.

We'd ride bikes, bum 50 cents off our folks to go to the pool, play board games on front porches, Kick the Can in the alley. I remember walking home in the dusk. Even if no one was around, I still spent a lot of time outdoors.

But I think what's changed is that people anymore don't know their neighbors, and can't trust their surroundings. I find that to be a very sad commentary on what society has become.

[icymist]

27. When I was seven years old I could walk up-to three miles in the woods

behind my Grandmother's house. No-one would think twice about it.

[Turbineguy]

28. Everybody knows

you can do anything better if you're in jail.

Especially a for-profit jail.

[muriel_volestrangler]

29. The rush to arrest and impose bail seems ridiculous to me

Maybe 7 is a little young for this. In that case, the police can take him home, and tell the mother they think the boy's too young to be out on his own, even if he does have a mobile phone and seems to be a sensible child (he left the strangers who were asking him questions, and then phoned his mum). If necessary, they can make it a formal caution - tell her to appear at a police station, and have a social worker talk to her.

But an immediate arrest, for what, if she is charged, would be an offence with up to 5 years' prison? She had to pay bail, and get an attorney (though I hope the Rutherford Institute is giving its attorney's services for free - they're getting publicity from this, after all). It's massive over-reaction.

[lunasun]

34. Dream police or Thought police idk which are worse....

Don't play in a park kid that's wrong . Get thee to an Xbox inside and fantasy shoot away