It's illegal to make your kids walk to school, even if you are watching them.

[DesMoinesDem]

Marion County mother charged with neglect for making children walk to school

A 32-year-old Marion County, Tenn., mother faces an April court date on child neglect charges after deputies found her driving ahead of her young daughters as she made them walk miles to school on Valley View Highway.

The charges are linked to an investigation launched March 1 after Marion County sheriff's deputy Chris Ladd and another deputy responded to a call about the situation and spotted two girls with a dog "walking the fog line just south of Ketner Mill Road and a gold Cadillac parked on the shoulder, engine running, just north of Ketner Mill Road," Ladd's report states.

The mother, Lisa Marie Palmer of Chicken Dave Road near Whitwell, told deputies her daughters were being punished for missing the bus, Marion County Sheriff Ronnie "Bo" Burnett said.

...

When they got to the area where the girls were walking, Ladd and the other officer observed Palmer and the children about 50 yards — 150 feet — apart with Palmer in the car ahead of them, the report states.

It "appeared as if she was driving ahead of the children and allowing them to walk and catch up to her vehicle and to proceed with that action until the children reached the school," Ladd states in the report.

Ladd estimated the girls already had walked about a mile and a half and still had about two more miles to go.

"Temperatures were cold, and traffic was beginning to become heavy with citizens heading to work," Ladd states. "Mrs. Palmer was in no position to reach her children safely in the event of an emergency."

http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/local/story/2016/apr/01/mother-charged-neglect-making-children-walk-s/358210/

Apparently if you ever let your kid out of arms reach it is child neglect. WTF has happened to this country?

[Press Virginia]

1. I agree with her intent BUT

I think it's a little extreme to make them walk 3 miles.

[HuckleB]

4. I don't think distance is the issue.

When our boy was three, he would hike 7, 8 plus miles in the backcountry, up several thousand feet of elevation gain. No big deal.

In this case, she may have had them walking roads that were possibly not safe. She didn't have a license. And it does appear that the parents may have other issues, from the story. Of course, we don't know the reality.

[Press Virginia]

9. well there's that too

I used to walk a little less than a mile to school until 5th grade. Of course those were the days of latch key kids too

[HuckleB]

11. Luckily, latch-key kids are now allowed again, in our neighborhood.

Albeit, they have to be ten to be able to do it.

We walked and rode bike everywhere for miles from age five onward.

[Press Virginia]

20. without helmets too

I had a neighbor ask me if I wanted to set up a play date with her kid and mine....I told her they play outside together every single day of the week.
You'd have thought I said I wanted to boil her toes and eat them with butter the way she looked at me

[jberryhill]

2. What court has decided that is illegal?

[whatthehey]

3. How old?

Most kids should be able to handle the distance, but much depends on conditions like sidewalks and traffic.

As an aside the family does seem to have some interesting personality issues. There is more than simple parenting choices going on here methinks.

[drm604]

5. It was 3 1/2 miles, apparently in traffic.

She didn't have a driver's license, and their grandfather may have tried to pull a knife on the police. It's not as simple as "It's illegal to make your kids walk to school".

[gratuitous]

13. The facts are inconvenient to the poutrage

Next thing you know, they're going to say it's illegal to hold your baby!

[DesMoinesDem]

19. Those issues have nothing to do with the child neglect charge.

If the lady didn't have a license then charge her for that. The kids weren't in the car with her so it is irrelevant to the child neglect charge. The men weren't charged with child neglect, so again, that is irrelevant. She was charged with child neglect because the officer thought the distance was too far, it was too cold, and she wasn't in arms reach of the kids.

[drm604]

21. The distance was one of the issues I mentioned

so it's not true that "those issues have nothing to do with the child neglect charge."

[surrealAmerican]

6. This is not a simple "kids walking to school" story.

It doesn't mention the ages of the children, but they were walking by the side of the road while their mother, who didn't have a driver's license, drove ahead and periodically waited for them to catch up.

[yellowcanine]

7. She forced her kids to walk on the shoulder of a highway during rush hour.

You see nothing wrong with that?

[Thor_MN]

22. Highway is a generous term in this case...

It's a two lane road with virtually no shoulders.

http://tinyurl.com/zod88ac

[IdaBriggs]

8. Three and a half mile walk in the cold and fog because they missed the bus?

The fog alone scares me - what if a car hit them?

I know that final morning push can be frustrating, but she sounds like a nut to me. Poor kids.

[hfojvt]

10. the safety gestapo

is eager to run everybody else's life.

Any time they see an activity and think "I would not do that. It's not safe." then they think it should be illegal for everybody else.

Big Brother is watching you - and he demands that you conform and obey.

Big Brother knows best.

[LanternWaste]

15. No doubt, this "big brother" boogeyman is remiss in thinking an unlicensed driver

No doubt, this "big brother" boogeyman is remiss in thinking the unlicensed driver should not be, well... driving, as well...

"Any time they see an activity and think "I would not do that..."
Anytime they see an driver driving without a license, they also think it should be legal for everyone else to dive regardless of circumstance (six of one, half a dozen of the other-- and each as irrational and melodramatic as the other)

"Big Brother knows best..."
I imagine many idiots and half-wits, such as the unlicensed driver driving, pretends to know best as well-- that being a defining characteristic of idiots and half-wits..

[Oneironaut]

24. Not the case in this story.

The parents seemed a little nuts. We didn't get the whole story, but this seems to be a bizarre punishment for missing the bus. We also don't know how young the kids were - I'm guessing very young. Finally, the father flipped out and attacked the responding officer.

These aren't parent of the year candidates.

[JI7]

12. there is a lot more to it than that. i wonder what other punishments

They have recieved in the past.

[Warpy]

14. This is a lot more complicated than "failure to helicopter parent"

She couldn't legally have the girls in her car, she was an unlicensed driver. Her only alternative was to let the kids miss school, something they were likely angling for, anyway.

It doesn't say how old the kids were, and that also makes a difference. I could walk 3.5 miles when I was ten and only be a little tired but it would have flattened me at five.

It doesn't help that hubby and father in law showed up and were belligerent. FIL is now in the pokey on drug charges.

CPS does need to look at this family. She needs a driver's license, at the very least. They all need a reality check.

[noamnety]

16. A few weird things about the story.

"Temperatures were cold" - When I read cold temps in a child abuse case - I assume it's near freezing or below.

I looked up the archives for March 1, It got up to almost 70 degrees that day, and would have been at least 45-50 degrees when they were out walking.

Then I googled the highway - in rural areas a highway is nothing like it is in urban areas. I am questioning how heavy a rush hour this area has - and in particular this road, when the main road seems to be 28, parallel and to the east of it:
https://www.google.com/maps/place/7760+Valley+View+Hwy,+Whitwell,+TN+37397/@35.1514824,-85.5503574,1155m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x8860ff733d363169:0x31b29592218f2cf9

Then I looked at the strava heat map - and from that I can see this is a route that people regularly are jogging and biking: http://labs.strava.com/heatmap/#14/-85.57710/35.13841/blue/run

[Person 2713]

17. Thanks for adding to the story

[oberliner]

18. No, it's not

The title of this OP is a lie and does not comport with the content of the article.

[Oneironaut]

23. The husband also tried to stab the responding officer, if I remember correctly.

This seems more like child abuse. The mother was taunting her kids with the car and was making them walk 3 miles in the cold. This was not just kids walking to school - the intent was malicious.