Policing parents and children in 2019

Policing Parents and Kids: The Year’s 8 Most Paranoid Moments – Reason.com - Lenore Skenazy:

December 31, 2019 - "[2019] wasn't all bad —but a lot of it was, so ... here are eight times that authority figures went to crazy lengths to deprive kids of autonomy in the name of nebulous safety concerns....

• Hard-boiled lawyers made sure no kids could participate in the University of California–Berkeley's campus Easter egg hunt without parents first signing a waiver acknowledging the potential risk of 'catastrophic injuries including paralysis and death'....
• Teachers at Meadowlawn Elementary in Monticello, Indiana, were taken into a room, told to crouch down, and shot execution style. Then the next group was sent in. Then the next. But hey — it was just a drill ... something the terrified teachers didn't know....
• Don't even park near a white van, the mayor of Baltimore warned his constituents. 'We're getting reports of somebody in a white van trying to snatch up young girls for human trafficking and for selling body parts'....The stories were on Facebook. The police ... said there had been no such crimes....
• "Holly Curry, a Kentucky mom who let her six children wait in the car for 10 minutes while she ran into a café to get them muffins, found herself reported to child protective services. The authorities came to her home and proceeded to make each child strip naked so they could look for signs of abuse.... Now the mom is pursuing a lawsuit....
• Santana Adams of Milton, West Virginia, accused a man of grabbing her 5-year-old daughter and dragging her by the hair at an Old Navy.... The man was quickly found and hauled off to jail, until mall footage showed the two shoppers calmly leaving the store, going in opposite directions. The mom has been charged with making a false accusation....
• Dozens of parents, including several celebrities, paid a fixer to help their kids cheat their way into their dream colleges. The fixer hired test takers, bribed coaches, and photoshopped the kids into water polo and crew team pictures....
• Christina Behar posted a 'mother's helper available' note on behalf of her spunky almost-10-year-old Sarah, who was looking for a part-time gig helping local moms with dishes, laundry, and such. Six hours later, the sheriff showed up at Behar's door. 'Apparently the ad generated multiple phone calls from paranoid neighbors thinking I was using my child as a slave,' said Christina....
• A kindergartener who hurt her arm on the slide during recess ... was awarded $170,000. Her lawyer said the girl was hurtling downward at an 'excessive speed' because the slide was at a 35 degree angle, while federal standards say kindergarten slides should be no steeper than 30 degrees."

Read more: https://reason.com/2019/12/31/paranoid-parenting-helicopter-top-2019-list/
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