Child Protection Zealots Gone Wild
Posted: Thursday, March 19, 2009
by Terry Mitchell
http://commenterry.blogs.com
No criminal charge seems to be too excessive or ridiculous these days when it's brought in the
name of protecting children. Case in point is an incident that occurred in a rural part of Virginia a few months ago.
A six-year-old boy who had missed his bus decided to get to school in his mother's car – by driving himself. He got several miles down the road before the vehicle hit a tree. Fortunately, no one was hurt.
However, his parents are being charged with felony neglect and child endangerment. When the child decided to become his own chauffer, his mother was sleeping and his father was at work. The mother had apparently been convicted at least once in the past for leaving her son home alone. Accordingly, his father had been ordered by the courts to never leave him in the sole supervision of his mother.
Still, these charges seem a bit extreme. How could the boy's parents have predicted that he would decide to drive himself to school? I doubt that even the most prudent of persons would have thought of that. It's not like there's been a recent epidemic of six-year-olds taking automobiles out for a spin.
As it is, a mother's sleeping too long and a father's going to work could result in long prison terms for both of them when misdemeanor charges would have been more appropriate. Chalk up two more potentially ruined lives to the tireless efforts of child protection zealots gone wild. I think it's high time we rein them in.
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