Police and CPS Detain Kids (Again) for Walking Home from Park without Parents

The Meitiv family's two children were picked up by police in Maryland this past weekend, again for the "crime" of walking home from the park without their parents. From Danielle Meitiv's Facebook page: "THE KIDS ARE HOME! CPS finally let us see them at 10:30 and after making us sign a "safety plan" let us bring them home. The police coerced our children into the back of a patrol car, telling them they would drive them home. They kept the kids trapped there for three hours, without notifying us, before dropping them at the Crisis Center, and holding them there without dinner for another two and a half hours. We finally got home at 11pm and the kids slept in our room because we were all exhausted and terrified." The Meitiv family has one thing in their favor that most of the other parents in our stories do not have: the support of the mainstream media who seem to be outraged over this story. Why are they outraged over this happening to the Meitivs, but not other families? Is it because both parents are well-educated scientists, and more accurately represent families among the national mainstream media elite? Do they realize that if this can happen to the Meitivs it can probably happen to them too? In the meantime, Danielle Meitiv said she won't leave her children unsupervised until she and her husband are cleared. "Child Protective Services has succeeded in making me terrified of letting my children out," she said. "Nothing that has happened so far has convinced me that children don't need independence and freedom, except that they'll be harassed by police and CPS."

CPS Threatens to Take Children Away from Parents for Letting Them Walk to the Park

Danielle and Alexander Meitiv say they are being investigated for neglect.... in a case they say reflects a clash of ideas about how safe the world is and whether parents are free to make their own choices about raising their children. On Dec. 20, Alexander agreed to let the children, Rafi and Dvora (ages 10 and 6), walk from Woodside Park to their home, a mile south, in an area the family says the children know well. The children made it about halfway. Police picked up the children near the Discovery building, the family said, after someone reported seeing them. Danielle said she and her husband give parenting a lot of thought. “Parenthood is an exercise in risk management,” she said. “Every day, we decide: Are we going to let our kids play football? Are we going to let them do a sleep­over? Are we going to let them climb a tree? We’re not saying parents should abandon all caution. We’re saying parents should pay attention to risks that are dangerous and likely to happen.” She added: “Abductions are extremely rare. Car accidents are not. The number one cause of death for children of their age is a car accident.” Danielle is a climate-science consultant, and Alexander is a physicist at the National Institutes of Health. The Meitivs say that on Dec. 20, a CPS worker required Alexander to sign a safety plan pledging he would not leave his children unsupervised until the following Monday, when CPS would follow up. At first he refused, saying he needed to talk to a lawyer, his wife said, but changed his mind when he was told his children would be removed if he did not comply.