Let your kids get 600 yards away from you? CPS will take them.

[vaskidmark]

"Home leave" for a few months, staying with relatives in Chicago before the family hit the road again.  I was 9 or 10 and had almost no idea of what/where was safe in the city.

Rode my cousin's bicycle from 100th & Yates on the Southside up to Jackson Park where I picked up the Outer Drive and continued on to the Museum of Science and Industry.  Left the bike in the cloak room (got charged 10 cents - double the posted rate for coats/jackets or bags) and managed not to get abducted while roaming about.  (Traveling to various & sundry cities in Europe had taught me street smarts which apply pretty much wherever you are.)  Rode "home" via Stoney Grove Ave. (now MLK, Jr. Blvd.) and did not get shot, beaten or worse.

Except for wanting to hear about my route "home" neither my parents nor my aunt & uncle though much of what I had done.  Can you imagine the hissy fits that would have been had if a 9-year old did that today?

stay safe.

[vaskidmark]

Parents of free-range kids lawyer up and file lawuit.

http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Parents-of-Free-Range-Kids-to-File-Lawsuit-299721601.html

Also more specific info about this incident:

Matthew Dowd, an attorney with the Wiley Rein law firm, said in a release Tuesday that 10-year-old Rafi Meitiv and his 6-year-old sister, Dvora, were held in a police car for almost three hours, went more than six hours without being fed, and weren't returned to their parents until nearly midnight.
The suit stems from an incident Sunday, the second time police got involved with Danielle and Alexander Meitiv and their kids.
In the latest incident, a man called 911 to report two unaccompanied children at Ellsworth Park in Silver Spring around 5 p.m. Sunday. The man said he was walking his dog when the children asked to pet it. He said their clothes were dirty and they were walking around alone for about 20 minutes.

Dear sweet shivering Shiva - the little urchins' clothes were "dirty"!  What kind of parent lets their childen play in anything less than a velvet Little Lord Fontleroy costume?

stay safe.

[French G.]

I wandered parts of monkey county freely as a 12 year old, frequently as an older teen. To my parent's dismay I came back.

[wmenorr67]

The stories I could tell if I could remember them of all my (miss)adventures at that age.

[charby]

I wandered parts of monkey county freely as a 12 year old, frequently as an older teen. To my parent's dismay I came back.

I think my parents were more concerned what my brothers and I would do to a danger stranger, than the other way around.

[Scout26]

What no gun?

We had BB/air guns.  We also used to shoot each other with them.  There was a 40 acre tree nursery and a several hundred acre diary farm behind our neighborhood.  Baseball/football in the pastures when not filled with cows, dirt bikes (pedal kind) and BB-gun wars in the nursery.

F'ing up and getting your ass beat by both someone else's parents and then your own parents latter.  Priceless...

[Perd Hapley]

Funny that the state doesn't seem to care if you kill them prior to birth.   

[Cliffh]

We had BB/air guns.  We also used to shoot each other with them.  There was a 40 acre tree nursery and diary farm behind our neighborhood.  Baseball/football in the pastures when not filled with cows, dirt bikes (pedal kind) and BB-gun wars in the nursery.

F'ing up and getting your ass beat by both someone else's parents and then your own parents latter.  Priceless...

Ah yes, BB gun wars in the woods.  No shooting above the shoulders, anything else goes.  Learned a bit about sneaking around.

Four of us used to wander the fields & woods; youngest brother (~10yr) with a .410, neighbor (~12) & middle bro (~13) with 20ga and me (old man @ ~14) with a 16ga.  Bunnies, birds, gophers, squirrels etc. - we kept their numbers down. 

Good times.

[Balog]

Funny that the state doesn't seem to care if you kill them prior to birth.   

More to the point, the state of MD doesn't care if the feral inner city chirren are wandering miles from home selling crack and hunting polar bears.

This case has zero to do with any possible danger to children, and everything to do with using the force of .gov to punish people who are not like you but have the temerity to live in your neighborhood.

[Balog]

there are always going to be extreme cases, used to push an agenda.  How about the mom that dangled her two year old over the Cheetah cage?  Should CPS get involved there?

So, just to be clear, you consider children playing a few hundred yards from their home to be an "extreme case" on par with a mother suspending her toddler over a {potentially fatal drop} into a cage full of {potentially lethal} animals? Am I reading this correctly?

[Hawkmoon]

The man said he was walking his dog when the children asked to pet it. He said their clothes were dirty and they were walking around alone for about 20 minutes.

TWENTY MINUTES!

The times, they are a changin'. My bother, my cousin and I would be gone for hours at a time -- and we didn't have cell phones in those days. As long as we were back by dinner time -- no harm, no foul.

[brimic]

I wandered parts of monkey county freely as a 12 year old, frequently as an older teen. To my parent's dismay I came back.

The only time my parents got dismayed with my free-ranging was the time both the fire department and police department had to get involved with one of my activities.  

[wmenorr67]

I remember the days when my summer curfew was when the street lights came on.

[roo_ster]

I remember the days when my summer curfew was when the street lights came on.

That is the standard I gave my kids last summer.  "I better see you home soon after the street lights come on."  They already have more than enough structured activities.  Let.  Them.  Go.  Outside.  And.  Play.

[dogmush]

I remember the days when my summer curfew was when the street lights came on.

Me too, and I grew up in Alaska. 

[MechAg94]

We didn't have street lights, but my Dad was okay as long as we were close enough we could hear him yelling for us.  Any further and we had to tell them where we were going.

[T.O.M.]

I used to prosecute CPS cases here in Ohio.  CPS cases are a part of my docket these days.  I've seen things that still break my heart to think about to this day.  I've attended a couple of autopsies related to this work, including a little girl whose face will never fade from my mind, and the little gold earrings she was wearing.  And, I've also said no to CPS.  Told them I would not file for a removal order in cases that didn't warrant it.  And I've denied some requests since I took the bench.

I don't know Maryland law.  But, here in Ohio, CPS cannot take possession of a child (custody is a legal term I'm avoiding on purpose) without a specific court order authorizing that action.  CPS does not have authority to simply take a child.  Interestingly enough, there is an antiquated provision of Ohio law which authorizes an LEO to take possession of a child upon reasonable belief that the child is in imminent risk of harm, and deliver the child to juvenile court or the CPS agency.  So, I guess in theory this could have happened here as it did in the OP.  That said, the Court would still need to issue an order to keep the child in the custody of CPS once the police handed off.  Unless the children were returned, as happened in the OP.

Now, with all of this said, I have written an order for unsupervised children out on their own.  Big difference being their age of the kids (younger than six) and other factors (like a toddler walking down the street naked, a four year old out in the snow barefoot without a coat, etc.)  

CPS is not the evil entity many people think they are.  Right now, our stats from 2014 show that 80% of the CPS cases we had involved severe substance abuse by parents, 40% involved domestic violence,  35% involved physical abuse, 10% involved sexual abuse.  None involved kids playing down the street from home.  Cases like the OP get lots of attention, and everyone yells and screams about how awful CPS is, and we get legislators sticking their noses into court to see how we can reign in these people who are out destroying families for no good reason, only to have them see that (1) there's more to the story than they thought, or (2) the system actually worked as it should, and if there was no reason for CPS to be involved, the court sent the kids home.  

Is this case bad.  Yes.  Are there others like it.  Sure.  Are these a sign of a broken system that needs fixed and/or removed.  No.  Not yet.  And not if the guys and gals wearing the robes keep doing their jobs right.

[T.O.M.]

Oh, and for what it's worth, my kids are allowed to play in our cul de sac even after the street lights turn on.  Kick the can is more fun in the dark.

[wmenorr67]

Is this case bad.  Yes.  Are there others like it.  Sure.  Are these a sign of a broken system that needs fixed and/or removed.  No.  Not yet.  And not if the guys and gals wearing the robes keep doing their jobs right.

That is the key take away in all of this.  The problem is you don't hear about the times those that wear the robes have slapped down CPS/DHS/or whatever your state calls it.  Too many times it is swept under the rug as a personnel issue.  I call BS.

[Strings]

Someone PLEASE explain this one to me:

Then, in March, Child Protective Services found the parents were guilty of "unsubstantiated" child neglect.

How can you be found guilty of an unsubstantiated crime?

[T.O.M.]

Someone PLEASE explain this one to me:

How can you be found guilty of an unsubstantiated crime?

Chalk that up to bad journalism.  CPS cant charge or convict anyone of a crime.  They investigate allegations of abuse/neglect/dependency.   The results of their investigations are classified as:

Unsubstantiated,  meaning insufficient evidence to proceed with any case

Indicated, meaning there is some supporting evidence to support the allegations, but insufficient to initiate a case. This is often where you see voluntary services and safety plans.  No formal court involvement.

Substantiated, meaning enough evidence to support a court case, and maybe criminal charges.

Looks like the reporter got it messed up.

[Strings]

Thanks for explaining Chris. Was suddenly seeing someone found guilty of unsubstantiated murder, and my brain went into vaporlock

[bedlamite]

and my brain went into vaporlock

So, typical day for you.

[Strings]

Don;t you have a treestand to fall out of or something?

[MechAg94]

The worst cases I have heard about were cases where it was the judge that was creating the problem, not necessarily CPS.  Usually involving a parent who can't afford to fight the case properly.