Free Republic

Two suburban Washington, D.C., parents are under scrutiny again for letting their 6- and 10-year-old children play in a park and walk home alone in a case that has stirred debate about "free-range" parenting and government powers. For the second time in four months, police picked up the children of Danielle and Alexander Meitiv on Sunday as they were walking home alone from a park that's nearly a mile from their house. This time, instead of bringing the children home, police took them directly to Child Protective Services. "It's beyond ridiculous," Danielle Meitiv said Monday. "The world is safer today,...

The Maryland parents who let their “free-range” kids walk home alone and were found responsible of unsubstantiated child neglect are under fire again for leaving the children unsupervised in a park. Child Protective Services is investigating Danielle and Alexander Meitiv after their children were found alone in a Silver Springs park Sunday, NBC Washington reported.

Government is out of control. This statement sadly seems to require no additional explanation or defense. Whether one is conservative or liberal, progressive or libertarian, Americans increasingly regard this proclamation as a self-evident truth. But perhaps some Rip Van, catatonic through previous decades, just now awakening, might seek further details and elucidation. For decades we’re been warned about the dangers of high and rising levels of national debt in the United States of America — now an accumulated $18.1 trillion dollars. Moreover, under just the last two presidents the Feds have added two-thirds of this massive debt — $4.9 trillion...

Remember our free range Baltimore kids? Apparently their parents have been convicted of “unsubstantiated neglect” for allowing them to walk home from the park alone.The Meitiv kids, engaging in unapproved “dangerous behavior” How can you hold someone responsible for anything that’s “unsubstantiated?” Where, other than government bureaucracies, would that NOT be an oxymoron?Perhaps I need to elaborate; what exactly  is “unsubstantiated neglect?” It is something that is not illegal (the law being silent on it) butt that some busybody – in this case Maryland Child Protective Services – thinks should be. Therefore they create an “illegal” act on their own...

Hey moms and dads, if you’re like me, before you had kids, you imagined yourself teaching them, raising them, and being responsible for them.  After generations of our parents and grandparents shedding their responsibility to the government in exchange for a selfish, me-centered life, we no longer have primary authority to raise our children as we see fit.  That authority now lies with the government. We’ve given away so much authority to the all-powerful state in the name of protecting children, that it’s a crap-shoot when kids who really need protection will get it.  And when the state gets it...

It’s Sunday, the day of rest. So let’s give it a rest for the day – politics I mean.  Big Guy’s new Soak The Rich plan can wait for the State of the Union, and the #OscarsSoWhite situation is in Al Sharpton’s capable hands.So let’s shift gears and talk about the culture-at-large instead; specifically the care and tending of children in this dangerous culture. In The Overprotected Kid, Hanna Rosin argues that “a preoccupation with safety has stripped childhood of independence, risk taking, and discovery—without making it safer,” and showcases a special playground in Wales designed to reverse this trend.In...

A Montgomery County couple says they’re being investigated for neglect for allowing their two children to walk home from a park by themselves. Danielle and Alexander Meitiv say the county’s Child Protective Services began investigating them after police stopped their 10-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter about half-way through a mile-walk home on Dec. 20 in Silver Spring. Police say they stopped the children and drove them home after someone reported seeing them. …

It was a one-mile walk home from a Silver Spring park on Georgia Avenue on a Saturday afternoon. But what the parents saw as a moment of independence for their 10-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter, they say authorities viewed much differently. Danielle and Alexander Meitiv say they are being investigated for neglect for the Dec. 20 trek — in a case they say reflects a clash of ideas about how safe the world is and whether parents are free to make their own choices about raising their children. “We wouldn’t have let them do it if we didn’t think they...

I received an update from the Maryland mom of two who was contacted by Montgomery Country Child Welfare Service in November after she let her kids, ages 6 and 10, play at the park two blocks from home by themselves. She was cited for allowing a child under age 8 "to be locked or confined in a dwelling, building, enclosure, or motor vehicle while the person charged is absent." The CPS worker decided "confined in a dwelling" was the same thing as "outside in a park."The higher ups at child services agreed that this was insane, and the case was closed—until this...

The proposed adoption of $300,000 worth of reading materials for Cody, Wyoming students stalled this week amid criticisms about the curriculum’s “very liberal, very slanted view of the world.” School board and community members spoke out against a slate of proposed materials for K-12 students that cover topics like global warming, evolution and race. The materials are published by education giant Pearson and Boston publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt ... that aligns with the national Common Core standards. But many in the community are concerned about how the texts address issues like global warming, which is treated as settled science ......

FULL TITLE: Shocking video shows American schoolkids running in terror as teacher whips 'unruly' children with his belt A group of four boys fighting in their classroom were brutally halted when their teacher took off his belt and started hitting them with it. In shocking cell phone video posted to Live leak on Friday, likely recorded in an American classroom, children can be heard shrieking as the unidentified teacher whips them about three times with his belt. Chairs and tables are overturned, what appear to be middle-school aged boys and girls scream in fear and let out nervous laughter as...

It is every parent’s worst nightmare, and according to a report on Police State Daily and the Medical Kidnapping site; for one homeschooling family in Kentucky, it has come true. On May 6, Kentucky homesteading Naugler family had their ten children taken into the custody of the state and are now fighting to regain custody and to prove their innocence. According to the family’s facebook blog page, Blessed Little Homestead, and other sources above, the police showed up, asked to see the children, and when the mother asked to see a warrant and what the charges were, the sheriff proceeded...

It all started with an unwanted knock on the door by a government worker and it’s being answered with a $60 million lawsuit. A New Jersey family is suing the state child-protection agency after it allegedly sent a caseworker to their home to interrogate them on everything from their son’s homeschool education to questions about vaccines and guns in the house. Christopher Zimmer and his wife Nicole of Belvidere filed a civil rights complaint in April in U.S. District Court in Trenton alleging “unlawful and unconstitutional home intrusion.” “I won’t forget that morning for a long, long time,” said Christopher...

The next time they appear in court for homeschooling, Dirk and Petra Wunderlich could face four years in prison—each. “I am sad today,” said Dirk Wunderlich, recounting how on April 28 he lost his most recent case in the German state of Hesse, and also heard dire warnings from the presiding judge. “We had hoped the judge, who seemed open-minded and friendly, might give us a chance,” Wunderlich added. “But no, he said he could not: The law is the law.” In their most recent court appearance, Dirk and Petra Wunderlich were fined 450 euros each (about $1,000) for not...

ANKENY, IA, May 4, 2015 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In a private e-mail exchange with a concerned parent, Republican state legislator Josh Byrnes of Iowa said there is “nothing worse than homeschool parents” making their views known on public school policy.The statement came as Jeff Moorman took exception to a pending bill allegedly dealing with “bullying,” the “Bully Free Iowa Act of 2015” (HSB 39).The proposal would allow school districts to monitor students outside of school hours and punish – or contact law enforcement officials and state bureaucratic agencies over – any communication it deems “bullying” – even if that behavior takes...

A chaotic situation Friday morning as hundreds of parents and guardians showed up at the Broward School District Headquarters to put in applications for reassignments. The first-come-first-served basis had hundreds of caretakers lining up around 7:30 AM Friday. Many said they didn’t expect everyone to show up at the same time and the same date to submit the application.

A 12-year-old Michigan girl who just made it through the biggest fight of her life has been dealt another blow. In August 2012, Rose McGrath, of Battle Creek, was diagnosed with leukemia. But last week, her family received a letter from her school that would turn her world upside down. As CBS affiliate WWMT reports, the letter addressed concerns regarding Rose's attendance and academic performance, and stated that Rose had been dismissed from St. Joseph Middle School. "I didn't do anything wrong, but they still got rid of me," Rose said. screen-shot-2015-04-24-at-11-24-21-am.png Rose McGrath WWMT Rose has been with the...

BELVIDERE—A Warren County family is suing the state's Division of Child Protection and Permanency for alleged unconstitutional home intrusion and civil rights violations. Christopher Zimmer and his wife Nicole, of Belvidere, filed a civil rights complaint in United States District Court in Trenton yesterday against DCP&P, a DCP&P supervisor and one of its case workers for an alleged "unlawful and unconstitutional home intrusion of their home." "I won't forget that morning for a long, long time," said Mr. Zimmer, thinking back to a Tuesday morning in January that began with a caseworker pounding on their door. .... Mr. Zimmer said...

In the wake of the tragic murders of two Michigan children whose mother tortured them before stuffing them into the family’s freezer, lawmakers are calling for more stringent regulation of homeschooling in the state. The proposed legislation from state Rep. Stephanie Chang, a Detroit Democrat, would require homeschooled children to be inspected twice per year by a licensed social worker or law enforcement officer. The bill would also require homeschooling parents to register their children — like dogs or sex offenders — with the superintendent of the school district in which they reside. Michigan is one of eleven states that...

(WXYZ) - A new homeschool bill was introduced this morning after a young brother and sister were found dead in their mother's freezer last month. If passed it would require every child being homeschooled to be registered with their school district. The schooling would be able to take place at any appropriate location. "I believe this bill not only will have a part in monitoring children's education. ..in some cases, save lives," said Stephen Berry and Stoni Blair's grandfather John Blair. John was standing with family members and state and local leaders outside of the Spirit of Detroit Statue at...