That’s a perfectly good reason. When people start talking about how the world is different and it’s just not safe to let your kids walk around, I get suspicious, because evidence does not support that even if that’s the general impression.
Everyone learns this sooner or later, and if anything I’d say more kids need to know this. Some rules have to be followed, some can be ignored, and there are a lot of shades in between.
Agreed, but that’s not what I suggested. What to teach the kid is to question the rules, and learn the process for getting the rules changed, or getting an authorized exemption (which is what IATL actually wants anyway).
Ah, darnit, THespos posted the link I came in to post. I highly recommend it to the posters in this thread, and the OP may be particularly interested in this and this and this and know they aren’t alone (if this thread wasn’t proof enough). The last link might work for your community, if you have faith that he won’t dally and be late on the way to school. On page 4 there’s a link and discussion on an article about walking to school, and you may find it helpful in making your case for policy change.
Be forewarned however that if you do succeed in getting permission for your child to walk home, you still might have to deal with cops and media attention. It’s a crazy world.
Since when are they responsible until the kid gets home? Is it like that everywhere these days?
A fine theory, and it might work very well in this situation. But sometimes you don’t have enough time to waste minutes or hours pointing out the error of every petty administrator. They outnumber you. 
So here’s the thing. In Maryland, where I live, state law says it’s neglectful to leave a child under the age of 8 home alone. I’m not actually sure what that means for a child under 8 walking to and from school, but I do know that I am supposed to show up at the walker door every day to pick my kid up. However, there’s no requirement for a parent to show up in the morning, so my 7 year old walks to school alone. I’m almost positive he’s the only one in the neighborhood who does so. I asked his teacher to let me know if he’s tardy on a regular basis (a bit of a problem last year), and I was almost scared to tell her that he walks alone. Sigh. Hopefully she was still busy being annoyed at the parent who asked repeatedly if her son was on track for calculus by 12th grade…
In California at least, it’s always been that way. At least it has been since I was in school thirty to forty years ago. I remember very clearly being told this several times
by school authorities. They are legally responsible until the little rugrat steps foot on his or her own property.
Maybe if your kid were more of a doofus they’d be less protective of him too. (Seems to me doofuses need more protection, not less.)
That’s very odd, because when I went to school in California 30 or 40 years ago,* I walked about two miles each way, unsupervised. That doesn’t seem very responsible of them to me!
I disagree. It’s the school principal telling her that her kid can’t walk himself home. The impetus may come from other parents, but the authority is with the school.
Exactly. The way the AP sees it, suppose she allows KidLorax to walk home from school, and then something happens. Not even an abduction or getting hit by a car, but he trips over a curb and breaks his wrist. The AP would fully expect Lorax to come flying into her office like a banshee, demanding to know how the school could let this happen. The AP’s stance seems unreasonable, until you remember that it doesn’t start with her.
I’ll second this thought. Removing monkey bars and not allowing kids to play “tag” anymore wasn’t something that came out of nowhere. It starts with one school getting sued over something marginal, thus moving the line of marginality. Then another school is sued over something just over the new margin, and the line moves again. In other words, slippery slope.
Having said that, my wife works with challenged kids at the local school and at least around here, she isn’t allowed to touch them at all. If the kids decides to head out the door and start wandering the neighborhood, all she can do is follow them and try to convince them to head back.
In other words, I’m not sure the school has the authority to keep you or your kid hostage until you sign him out. Even if you don’t want to break the rules and just allow him to walk, you can just as likely simply skip the signing out part.
Yeah, I understand your point, and generally agree and can totally get behind this philosophy. I’m pretty old fashioned, and am all about rule of law, and I’ve always been particularly anal about making sure my kids understand and respect the same sort of attitude toward rules, especially schools and teachers’ authority. (And challenging questionable rules in a mature, upfront way if you’re going to fight something unjust).
In this case, however, it just strikes me as too much of a pain in the ass to fight the petty, short-sighted, “I’m a good parent because I’m very protective”, type of mentality that brought this whole situation about, its poor implementation, and so on; I just have very very little patience for such a nanny-state attitude. So I’d still just tell my kid to walk home; but I wouldn’t flaunt it or anything.
I remember my parents being in somewhat the same situation; they both worked, and generally could not be called at work (my dad travelled a lot, and my mom worked as a surgical nurse) – this parental situation was pretty much an exception at my school, where there was typically either a parent at home or at a job where they could be called. It was instilled in us that the school rules were to be respected; but from an early age it was also understood that due to their unavailability during the school day, we got ourselves ready in the morning, walked ourselves to and from school, took care of our own problems quietly, and generally avoided situations where the school would need to call one of the 'rents and bother them at work. If faced with something similar, I know my mom would not have been able to be bothered with taking the time off work to see the principal and plead her case; she would have just told me to just walk; I know in my heart that that’s what she would have done – so I guess I’m picking up my cues from her. It just strikes me as the simplest and most practical solution.
When I was 4, I cracked my head open on a shelf at daycare, because I was horsing around.I got many stitches. The daycare workers kissed my mom’s ass because they expected to get sued. She told them, basically, “She’s a kid, shit happens, whatever.” I am much the same as my mom. Shit happens, and I don’t go looking for someone to blame. I understand way too many people do, hence the CYA, but I’d happily sign a waiver proving I’m not one of those.
Yes, it was the AP herself that gave me the tongue lashing and laid down the law. But the law is what it is because of all of these PTA moms who are wound tighter than an eight day clock. And the funny thing is, they’re getting their fancy panties in a wad about pretty much nothing. They won’t let their children out of their sight for a friggin’ second, but poor Jaycee Dugard was snatched while her step-father was watching! A kid can fall and impale his hand on a rusty nail if you let him walk home alone, but it could just as easily happen right in front of your eyes.
And as others upthread pointed out, crime is no worse, better even, than when we were kids. 24 hour news channels need to fill their slots with something, so what bad stuff does happen gets overexposed and blown way out of proportion. Then the helicopter parents freak out, demand something be done about it, and try to impose their fucking neuroses on me. I’m glad I don’t have cable.
I Am the Lorax I’m curious: living as close as you do, what would the school’s policy be if you weren’t a SAHM and weren’t available to come and walk your child home? Would a bus be provided for such a short distance because of his age or what?
No bussing is provided for anyone living less than a mile from school. If I weren’t a SAHM, I suppose they would expect me to arrange childcare that would come pick him up, or if it’s more than a mile to the YMCA or wherever, they would bus him. I am a stay at home mom because childcare would eat my whole fucking paycheck, but that’s a rant for another thread. I see lots of grandparents picking kids up, too.
Sorry if I’m being pedantic, but I didn’t gather all of that from your initial post:
I am pretty much on board with your second phrasing, tho I will add teaching your kids the available option of breaking rules, provided you are willing to assume the risk of whatever punishment might result.
IMO it is never too early to teach the kids that just because someone who is ostensibly in authority proclaims something to be a rule or policy does not mean that you must sheepishly follow it - especially if it imposes some cost on you. But to properly evaluate the situation you have to determine the exact extent of the individual/institution’s authority, and the implications of disobedience. Same way the kid needs to know that the teacher/boss is not always right, but they are always the teacher/boss. Or that learning the material and getting the grade can be entirely different things.
Heck, I think the process of sussing out and obtaining relief from this ridiculous policy might end up being as valuable if not moreso than most of what he will learn inside the 1st grade classroom. But - of course - I’m kinda proud at having raised a gaggle of free thinking rational heathens! 
Jeez, next thing you know they will start charging a bear tax and then when people start getting upset about the bear tax they will blame the problems on illegal aliens.
I always walked to school from first grade on.
When I was in 5th grade I WAS a crossing guard.
Yep, they let 5th and 6th graders wear these sashes with little badges on them and stand on the street corners near the school and help the younger kids cross.
I did it because:
We got to be late for class every single day
We got to hang out in the cafeteria for a little bit before we went to the first class and we would get hot chocolate in the winter and cold lemonade in the summer and sometimes cake or cookies.
And they let 16 year olds drive school buses. One of my bus drivers was a total stoner and was always wacked.
No, it was correct to pit the impetus instead of the assistant principal.
Oooh, tales of walking to school in the 70’s?
My half mile route, which I walked alone daily from the second day of grade 1 (the first day I had to walk with my sister. She was in grade 2):
[ul]
[li]Cross semi-major road[/li][li]Cut through parking lot of the funeral home[/li][li]Past the pile of broken tombstones behind funeral home, into the woods[/li][li]Past the hobo’s shack (we never saw him)[/li][li]Jumped a couple of ditches[/li][/ul]
Which led to the back of the school soccer field. Only really scary thing that happened to anyone in my elementary career was a girl in my sister’s class who fell through the ice into a particularly deep ditch. Frosty, but recovered.
I can understand the school not allowing the really young kids to walk home alone. What I don’t understand is the signing out process. When I was a young child, and when my children were young the teacher brought the lower grades to the schoolyard and made sure the children left with whoever was taking them home - often an older sibling. If there was bad weather, they were dismissed from the auditorium, but each teacher still brought her own class down and there was no signing out.