If something happens, the school would get a backlash for not having better security. I'm thinking Kyron Horman in Oregon.

media now, we hear about every single one of them, so it SEEMS that there are more.

I think we hear about it more, so we think it happens more often than it really does.

I saw more penises from flashers that I would have liked.

Not just flashers, but abductions, molestations, etc.

some of the events were very traumatizing and I blame my parents for what I had to go through. There was 2 attempted abductions and many men masturbating in front of me. It made me a good runner. I'll never forget it. I have PTSD for life. Would it be good to prevent that? YES.

But as a young adult, I can not count the times men did that in front of me in Portland OR. I use the Transit system and walk a lot. Maybe that's why?

In fact, I think almost all women have experienced this.

Mom and a friend of hers encountered one walking home from school back in 1952, and I'm pretty sure my grandmother and her mother encountered them when they were young, also.
And yes, mom always made sure I would be walking home with a group, just to reduce the risk of running into jerks.
Assholes or losers who get a feeling of power preying on kids when they can't feel they're men around grown women who won't bend to their whims.
I'm sorry that you experienced that much harrassment growing up.

Haele

in that case. I do not believe, nor have I ever believed since the night 8-year-old Kyron was reported missing on the local news, that he was abducted by a stranger.

but the school still got backlash from it and it's why we now have mandatory notification when a child is absent.

with school security policies are you saying that it’s against school policy for kids to walk home unescorted by an authorized adult? My point is that I don’t believe that Kyron was randomly abducted by a pedophile.

Never the less the school was criticized heavily. Skyline had to implement new policy since Kyron. My point is even if there are not more pedophiles are abductions, the schools still have to protect themselves. This is why they are stricter than before, I believe.

Overblown media fear.

The "Stranger Danger" is bullshit.

And not allowing kids to gradually start thinking things out for themselves, rather than have adult supervision every second of heir lives is crippling to the ability to develop emotionally to be a functional adult.

(1999-2004). For younger kids (3rd grade and younger), they were only released to a preapproved (by the parents) adult (my name was on the lsit). In 4th grade and older, it didn't matter. If they were going to a friend's house or (non school sponsored) afterschool activity, it was on the parents to notify the school.

School district has no busing.

It was a six block walk, and there were about four of us. Once we were in first grade, so long as there were other kids on the block that went to our school, we walked together.
Driving to school was something kids whose parents had two cars were able to afford. The rest of us either took the bus if the school was more than a mile away, or we walked. Same with the kidlet up to the time she got out of Middle School 10 years ago.
It was pretty fun, so long as the class bully wasn't in your group.

I guess it depends on the school district.

Haele

Last edited Thu Jan 10, 2019, 03:39 PM - Edit history (1)

I walked or rode my bike to grades 2-6. Not ONCE did my mother drive me to or from school, no matter the weather. School was .3 miles (three-tenths) away.

3 miles, it just seemed that way. I googled it and it THREE-TENTHS of a mile.

I went to a swinging bridge in a park in Tennessee when I was about 5. It was the longest, most dangerous bridge ever. Revisited it as an adult and I was shocked to find how sedate it was 😉

It is not always a good idea to revisit the house you grew up in. Mine is still there, but it looks like shack. Granted it is 56 years old, but still....

.

Of course, the school was at the end of our subdivision, and my mother could sit on the back patio and watch me every step of the way. All the mothers did the same. In middle school, I took the bus, but it was the same because the bus picked us up and dropped us off at the elementary school. I walked the mile and a half to high school most days because it was safer than dealing with the crazy kids on the bus, and I could stop and pick up all my friends who lived on the way. Some of my favorite high school memories are walking to school and back with my friends, usually singing our favorite songs loudly as we walked.

Sigh..I would hate to be a kid today..

I walked everyday to kindergarten, both ways (up hill in the snow AND WAS THANKFUL!!!). I had to cross a 5 lane road to do so (at a corner with a crossing guard). Kids often walked much of the way together. There are no more pedophiles or otherwise today than there was then. We just have a different attitude about risk assessment these days.

Youngest in middle school 2007 (High school was 9 miles away, so walking not possible)

However, they only walked when they had friends etc. otherwise Mom was hauling over to the school to pick them up.

My oldest was wild and I preferred to pick him up.

I guess I started skipping the bus and walking--only about a mile and change, I think--about the 4th grade or so, and then would walk or later drive/catch a ride with friends in HS, but before then I don't remember anything besides riding the bus to school. I can't imagine how my parents could have picked us kids up, given their work schedules.

My grandchildren have to be signed out by an approved person, and I'm glad.

In 1960, I thumbed a ride in a semi that took me from Baton Rouge all the way to New Orleans. (No Harpoon, no bandana, no lover along for the ride, but that's my signature song.)

Walking to school was out of the question for me.

For those who did get to walk to school growing up, I can get feeling sad, although I don't know if it is as much a sign of the times as it is a sign of awareness. It's not as if these hazards didn't exist back then.

and back home as well, and when I first started, I was only 4! This was around 1960. School was 5 blocks away. We lived on a quiet street of 1950s ranch homes. I was a daydreamer and liked to take my time walking. They told us at school never to talk to a stranger. I never had any problems.

Now I live in a township and there are no sidewalks on my road, which has a speed limit of 40 mph and is used by large trucks as well as cars. The schools are a mile and a half away from our house. You would be taking your life in your hands walking from my house to my kids’ schools. A lot depends on where you live.

Kindergarten, 1961, 5 years old, by myself, 4-5 blocks, alone.

I'm a teacher now and it's exactly as you stated. My guess it started with lawsuits of kids who were released to non-authorized adults. When stuff like that happens, the next thing you know, a new provision is in school liability insurance where you have new rules for dismissal. When I'm a substitute, my main anxiety is releasing a kid to someone the kid knows, but isn't a parent (e.g., grandparent, aunt, older brother/sister).

I walked home with friends every day about 6-7 blocks. Now I go by that school when it is getting out and it is car after car after car. It is rather sad, but I understand it. I don't know what families with both parents working do, because school gets out a lot earlier than people typically get off work.



Peace

Grandparents!

I never had kids but my wife and I lived over 500 miles from my parents and over 900 from hers. That would of been one hell of a commute.

The older child wants to stay at her program as long as her friends are there, even though she could go home a couple hours earlier. That means my daughter gets more one on one time with the little one, so that works out fine.

There's even a national Walk to School day to encourage walking.

https://bellevuewa.gov/archived-news/transportation-archived-news/walk-to-school-day-2017

Walk to School Day: ‘It’s like a playdate’

It's like a play date ... and a parade

Students, parents, and teachers at 10 local elementary schools will come together on Wednesday, Oct. 4 for Walk to School Day. The annual event promotes safe walking, healthier students and more connected neighborhoods.

SNIP

Parent Teacher Student Association volunteers are working with city Transportation Department staff to coordinate Walk to School Day.

An important purpose of Walk to School Day is to help students and parents think of walking as a safe, active and healthy means of transportation. Other benefits include decreased traffic congestion around schools and a stronger sense of community.

Walk to School Day is part of a national event that began in 1997. Bellevue’s first participated in 2002.

Published on 09/28/2017

Kids within walking distance in the first through third grades were organized into "routes" and shepherded home by a pair of school patrollers, who in those days would be 7th-8th graders. (This was in the days before "middle school", obviously.)

We had to wear a tag pinned to our jacket or uniform to identify our "route." I was an Apple, IIRC. (Red apple-shaped tag.) The "Apple" patrollers wore a similar tag on their Sam Browne-style patroller belts, and carried flags on aluminum staffs.

When the going-home bell rang, we had to line up in the front halls based on our tags, and wait for "our" patrollers to join us, one at the front of the line, one at the back. When we'd get to a crossing, we had to wait while the lead patroller went out and used the flag to stop traffic, and the tail patroller would carry their flag staff under their arm with the flag unrolled and be the last one across.

The "routes" included about 15-20 kids per route, I think, and there were seven or eight of them. They spanned streets from adjacent to the school to about six or seven city blocks away.

Our house was about 5 blocks from the school on the "route" which always used sidewalks along proper streets.

I was thrilled when I got to fourth grade and could take the MUCH shorter way across the alleys and streets and through a vacant lot home as well as on the way to school in the morning.

I thought being a patroller was cool, but we moved away from that school to a big suburban school system between fifth and sixth grade, so I never got to be one.

reminiscently,
Bright

and it protects the wearer from the kind of serious concussion one of my friends had.

I wish they HAD been around when I was little.

You can't feel the wind in your hair and they are hot.

I want one of these:


https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.businessinsider.com/a-new-inflatable-collar-is-safer-than-the-traditional-bike-helmet-2018-8

the "good old days" when we didn't have them.

They are better than the helmets, but they are expensive.

At my children's school the children are allowed to walk home starting in 3rd grade with parental permission. I see kids walking home in groups all the time.

The concern and reaction started in my generation in the late 70's and 80's with the serial killers that were popularized in media like the Zodiac Killer and Night Stalker. After Adam Walsh was kidnapped I remember there was increased tension. Then there was Polly Klaas in the 90's which was a national story. There has been a reaction to "stranger abduction" since the late 70's. The sad reality is that most abductions occur between children and people they know, usually non-custodial parents.

I try to take a balanced approach to the issue. I certainly want to mitigate the chances of my children being abducted. Actually, in the area where I live the danger (which is still not super high) is of kids being jumped by gangs. I also want them to be able to play outside. I have worked on my wife to assuage her fears and allow my kids some independence and they have been able over the past 18 months to go out on their bikes and scooters to the local park in groups of about 4 or 5 kids. We recently got them smart watches with sim cards so that we can call them and vis versa.

People have tighter schedules, there are fewer neighborhood schools, the stranger danger myth is hard to shake, etc.

which is why some districts across the country still encourage walking to school.

choices" too often uses nostalgia as a club against "kids these days" or "indulgent parents (usually moms)," rather than against the forces really causing the problem. People generally do the best they can for their families within the choices they have access to.

Late-stage American capitalism is a straight-up garbage fire, but even the specifics I mentioned aren't necessarily "depressing."

as depressing because kids are handled by adults when they do everything these days. They never get free to just be. Play is managed, schoolwork is managed, college application is managed. I totally get the feeling of claustrophobia mentioned by the OP.

My mother grew up in Germany in the 1920s—never mind how old that makes me. She told of her parents routinely tucking four small children into bed and going out for the evening. When she started school, she rode the train to school by herself from the time she was six. Thirty years later, she came to the United States and was surprised by the idea that small children need to be supervised at all times.

As recently as the late 1980's, my husband worked with a colleague whose wife was an immigrant from Germany. She thought it was fine to leave their BABY "safe in his crib" while she ran errands.

My husband had to explain to the husband that this was NOT OKAY here, no matter what might be normal in Germany.

Amazing how differently various cultures treat children. Germany is also where they have kindergartens where they basically bundle up the kids and turn them loose to play in the woods in all kinds of weather.

In Japan I’ve routinely seen young children riding public transportation to school. But it’s a very safe country and there’s a sense that everyone is keeping an eye on them.

I walked to and from school by myself starting in 1st grade. Granted, it was less than a mile away but did involve crossing one busy street. We were only told to be in by the time the streetlights came on. For the rest of the day, there were kids outside everywhere. You made your own friends, played games of your imagination, explored the world on your own terms, and determined your own social order.

I shudder to think how stunted in their development the children you describe must be. No wonder so many suffer from ADHD and anxieties. I'd have gone stark raving mad had I been kept prisoner like that...

Most of the kids on milk cartons (do they still do that?) were abducted by a non-custodial parent or other family member. When children are sexually abused, it's usually by someone they know and trust, not a creep jumping out of the bushes. I think the Etan Patz case, and how he was abducted the very first time he walked to school alone, is what started the whole hysteria. Even in his case though, his killer was a teenager who worked at a neighborhood bodega, so Etan may have known him casually.

like this channel on Long Island where kids sent in their lame jokes, they can't do that today

After 9/11 Millennials really started trying to control their childrens' environments to a degree that is unprecedented in history. Now I see the women my age who wouldn't FORCE their kids to go to the corner store alone, encouraging them to be independent; now raising young women who are in some ways the pets of the mother. Or security blankets.

"I don't want her to leave home. She's my best friend. I make home so nice so she won't leave me."

These poor girls miss a lot of school.

High School used to be something other than a grind to get into college to get a job to pay your debts to work 80 hour weeks to..being young isn't what it was. The kids have a lot of anxiety.

tldr; I'm lucky I got in under the wire, generationally. I didn't pass on a lot of fear to my daughter. But it's environmental. It's in the air.

It was the best. I had three girlfriends and we laughed and talked. Perfect way to start the day. This meant in all weather situations. Although my mom was a stay-at-home mom, she never drove us to school. Lordy were we happy and carefree.

*also church property, but wooded land anyway.

I've learned to avoid the areas around schools in my area around school let-out time because the little dears are all over the streets on their bikes and not always paying attention. They're not doing anything wrong, just being excited about being set free - and there are a lot of them. There's also a small group of free-range kids - mostly boys - that I often see in a local park playing some sort of games concocted by themselves that involve cardboard boxes and miscellaneous sports equipment. This is a fairly dense urban area in Silicon Valley.

The chance of a child being abducted is less now than when I was a kid. We ran free and luckily some of the kids in my neighborhood do as well.

They are way more likely to get hit by a car or be involved in an auto accident than being a victim of crime.

But human fear is not rational. I can swear I would let my kids do so.

And of course there is something we have that makes up experts at raising children...a childless household! That sarcasm by the way.

The only trouble that I can remember was when my first grade girl was being harassed by a second grade boy.

Being a feisty kind of kid, she swung her metal lunch box and clocked him with it.

There was never a problem after that.

Times change. There are a LOT of young kids in my neighborhood, and I rarely see them playing outside. We are also near hundreds of acres of woods. If I had been a kid, that would have been my number one choice of a place to play. (And it was, when I was a kid)

I think back then you had to live at least two miles from school to catch a bus (not sure) , which was fine with me.

Luckily I can arrange my teaching schedule in such a way that I can do that. We live too close for the bus and too far for me to let her walk by herself, since part of the way is next to a very busy road. I think in the old days people had more children, so there were more children walking to school TOGETHER. My daughter would have to walk ALONE, for almost a mile, alongside a busy road. Call me paranoid, but there is no way I'm allowing that. The only time she walks from school is if she goes to her best friend's house after school - they walk together, and her friend lives closer to the school. She's still in elementary school. We'll see what we do when she goes to middle school.

Schools are liable for all students safety once they leave school until they get home. This shocks me too. Even high school kids, while they don't have to have pickup, are usually picked up.

when we lived in Iowa and Illinois...

Ubahn went about 12 miles then went up to the street an caught the school bus and rode that for another 6 miles then same back home. I did this alone. Believe me I was safe. Have you ever seen a train car of old German ladies getting pissed if anyone not trustworthy walked up to a young child. Back in the states when I was in 5th and 6th I walked about 6-8 blocks dependig on which route I took. In 7-11 grades I took public transportation by myself. Oh yeah, in 1st and 2nd I went to the bus stop one block away without any parent there. That all howeve was 46 years ago. When I was 17 I used to walk 6 miles from one town to the next by myself and nothing happened. What happened? I would never let a child do the the things by themselves that I did up to 7th grade.

The road most of the way between my semi-rural house and the school was a major highway, and there were no sidewalks. The kids who lived closer to the school would walk home, though. The mother of a classmate of mine was the crossing guard. Way back then, in the early to mid 80s, the drive in front of the school was always jammed with parents picking up their kids.

We walked to school.

We took the bus every single day. My mother drive us to school? Never happen. At one point we lived semi-rural but on a major highway I would have had to walk down to get to the bus stop. My father mowed me a path through a field. A big bully kid named Stan used to call me Nature Woman from the back of the bus because I walked on the grass. Bite me, Stan.

The first was in fourth and the second was when I entered sixth grade. They were both murdered.

That's when it started for our family. Not one child walked home alone after that in our school district. The teachers and parents freaked out.

No, it does not depress me one bit.

Rural? Urban?

I once attended a talk by a local police officer about child safety. I can't remember exactly what he said, but it tended toward protectionism. I asked him how many children had been abducted by non family members in our town. Answer, none.

I honestly don't remember if it was a relative that took either of them or not. It set folks on edge.

Another incident I recall was someone coming onto the school grounds during recess. The playground wasn't fenced or anything. The police were called because people were suspicious of someone they'd never seen just walking onto the playground while kids were playing. The only reason I remember it is because my mom was asking me about it and I told her that I didn't see much because we were playing tether ball.

This was in Moore, OK, a suburb of Oklahoma City.

It was a weird time. This was the mid to late seventies. Crime and drugs were coming into the area. There had been a massacre at a steak house. There was a freak out among parents with needles and razor blades in Halloween candy. It was just a lot of wild stuff piled on top of one another.

By two men. She was raped, strangled, and left for dead in a parking lot. Miraculously, she survived. This was a LONG time ago.

This kind of thing has always been going on, though not to the extent that we think it does. I say take whatever precautions you can. I don't think our mothers worried about us so much because kids tended to play or walk home in packs.

The first week of school my mother walked me to my elementary school and back in Austin, Texas. She then told me to stay on the route we took and for rest of first grade I was on my own. The distance seemed across town; but I was six and wouldn't know better. Most days I walked alone and enjoyed watching the cars and looking at the different foliage lining the sidewalk. For a few days a classmate walked with me the last few blocks. Once I was startled to see a group of laughing black kids walking towards us. I was confused because my school was in the other direction. I turned to question my companion but his face was down, staring at his feet. To my question he said the black kids had their own school. He refused to say more. I only deviated from my route a couple of times on the way home. I wanted to explore. I wound up in the alley behind a movie theater, where I found a small strip of film. All I could make out when I held it up to the light was a bullseye field behind the words, "Merrie Melodies". I kept the strip for as long as I dared; but afraid my mother would find it and question me where I got it, I eventually discarded it. I wish I had kept it.

All this was more than six decades ago. Every case is different; but I wish there was less danger and less fear now.

and walks home every day from school.

His parents drop him off in the morning and he is latch key for an hour or two in the afternoon. If the weather is bad he stays at the YMCA on his campus until he can be picked up.

???? confused by your post.

Car rider students go to one exit, bus rider students to another and walkers/bikers to yet another. Parents have a ticket they hang over the rear-view mirror with kids name/grade on it.

I also took a ride from a lady one morning when it was near 0 outside. It was cold and I still had the bridge over the river to go over. BUURRRRR!!!! (Thanks Lady by the way if you are reading this.)

I walked home from 1st through 6th grade, but in neighborhoods with good walking paths and not much traffic. In high school I also sometimes walked home 3 miles or so, but that was dicey due to the heavy traffic and lack of sidewalks. We drive our kids to school now because it's miles away, not a direct route, not enough sidewalks, terrible drivers, and several pedestrian fatalities in our small area alone, each year.

I will never forget the ass whooping I got in 3rd grade when I decided to go play at a friends house instead lol

past. while the kids is walking to / from school, parents can't count on neighbors looking out for the kids. often we don't even know are neighbors anymore. so parents feel 100% responsible for the kid's safety. a change from the past, a difference with respect to other countries.

It was rough and we always made sure to walk home with a half dozen friends.

There was a reason for that, but with buddies we never had issues.

On edit: I did get mugged a couple times in front of stores. Never poke money in your wallet while walking out of a store alone

here, they charge for bus service if you live within a certain distance from the school, even if you have to cross a highway

It was just a couple of blocks away, and I always walked with a neighbor boy the same age. I continued walking to school all through high school. Everyone in my town walked to school, unless they lived on a farm outside of town. those kids rode the bus until they were old enough to bicycle or drive to school.

Now, I live in St. Paul, MN. Some kids in my neighborhood walk to a nearby school, but the city allows children to attend any school in the city, and there are dozens of elementary schools. So, busing is a constant here. Most kids walk to the corner and catch the school bus. Some have metro passes and ride those buses to school.

However, in my working class neighborhood, when there is no school in session, kids walk and bike everywhere. We have sidewalks throughout the neighborhoods and parks everywhere in this city. Children go where they want, if their parents allow them that freedom, and most do. There's even a lake six blocks from my house, and kids walking or biking with fishing poles are a common sight in the summer months.

In many suburbs of the cities here, though, there are no sidewalks. Parents there seem more worried about their children than the parents in urban neighborhoods, and walking isn't a common thing. I know families in the suburbs and they seem far more worried about dangers to their children than the parents in the city itself. I think that's odd, really.