Walking Home Cold

Lenore Skenazy, writing for Free-Range Kids, relays the story of how a Michigan mom got in hot water for expecting her kids to walk home from the library. From the original report, written by Joni Hubred-Golden for the Farmington-Farmington Hills Patch:

A Farmington Hills Police officer picked up two children, ages 12 and 15, from the Farmington Community Library Main Library at 6:18 p.m. Saturday, after their mother told them she would not come to get them.

[…]

While the children walked to the library, neither was wearing a jacket, and library staff would not let them walk home. The report noted temperatures had fallen below freezing.

The report indicated the officer told the mother when she picked up the children that a report would be filed.

Neither story mentions either how cold it was or how far the walk would have been. However comments from readers of both stories indicates that temperatures for the day ranged in the low to mid 30s on that particular day - cold, but not overly so. And with a temperature swing of just a few degrees, these kids had already walked the exact same walk in virtually the same weather to get to the library.

The whole story seems rather outrageous, particularly that the police would feel the need to file a report. The comments on both stories are great though!