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How you get from this to the insinuation that the mother is part of a wrong address scheme is beyond me this early in the morning.

I certainly would want to get to the bottom of how the school had the wrong address for the kid. If the school fails to keep accurate records that is a problem which should be addressed. However, as anyone with a child in elementary school can tell you, the mother would have received several pieces of mail from the school by now - yet she seems to be unaware of the proble.

On the other hand, some parents might just give the school an incorect address of a relative if it meant qualifying for a bus ride.

However, as anyone with a child in elementary school can tell you, the mother would have received several pieces of mail from the school by now.

Not necessarily true. In our schools, most communications from the school to the parents are sent home with the kids. We receive very little correspondence via mail. If this child is the woman's oldest, it's quite possible for the school to have the wrong address and the mother not know.

Westbrook says when she contacted the school, the vice principal had no knowledge of her child and said her son may have gotten confused with another conversation she was having with an older student.

We don't even know if the school had the wrong address. We don't even know if the child misunderstood the vice-principal. All we know is that the child thought he was told to walk home - and he hadn't been prepared for that eventuality. And, IMO, 5 years is too young to be forced to make an independent act.

Interesting. The school says it never told the kid to walk home. Do you think it is possible the kid became confused and simply walked to daycare on his own. Five year olds make mistakes once in a while too!

Of course not. This child, like every child, is perfect. Just ask his sobbing mommy.

I've now read the various posts here telling me how wrong I am (if not "stupid" or a "bad parent") for not blaming the school for something they deny was even said, and for not embracing the mother's panic at a simple, harmless, mistake.

After scrolling through the gentle chides of my fellow small government advocates and rugged indivdidualists, I've come around to what, I now realize, is TRUE conservatism.

So, filled with my newfound right wing light, I say we don't do enough for these children. We need to make things foolproof "for the children."

Let's sue our schools every time that a child misunderstands a teacher, or vice versa, no matter whether or not any injury occurred.

Let's mandate that every child be bussed from school to his or her home/daycare, not matter how close it is to the school.

Let's redesign our schools so that the children never have to be outside in the cold or walk anywhere that one of the millions of perverts who haunt our streets might lurk. In fact, let's call for a federal program to make sure that every bus is parked in an enclosed garage until the children get on, so they don't slip and fall in the cold or wet.

And, then, let's log onto Free Republic and bitch and moan about the "damn Democrats with their high taxes and big government."

Man, I love the "new conservatism."