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Danielle Meitiv, the Free-Range mom investigated by Child Protective Services twice for the unconscionable crime of letting her kids walk home from the park in Silver Spring, Maryland, has a new paranoid entity to deal with:
The Montgomery County School District.
Starting this year, every parent who wants to volunteer, even for a one-shot deal like a party, must undergo mandatory training in child abuse recognition.
I guess that way, when they’re handing out cupcakes they can also quickly and accurately identify all those terrible parents who deserve a knock on the door from CPS.
As Danielle wrote in an email (boldface mine):
Hi Lenore
You’re going to love this. We have a new policy in Montgomery County Public Schools. All schools volunteers, including those who come in for 45 minutes to help with parties or the classroom, etc., must complete mandatory online training in identifying child neglect and abuse. I can only imagine how the # of completely unfounded calls is going to skyrocket after this! (Kid’s hair isn’t combed? Doesn’t have the right clothes? Hungry because s/he skipped breakfast? Call CPS!).But the best part is that anyone who might have “unsupervised access” to kids – including in the hallways – must undergo fingerprinting and background checks. Has there been a rash of abuse by unsupervised adults in the recent past? Of course not, but you can NEVER BE TOO SAFE..
Needless to say, my volunteering days are OVER.
Another one bites the dust. I’d be curious to hear if any of you have quite volunteering due to onerous, insulting “safety” requirements, too.
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This normalization of background checks for any and every adult interacting with kids is based on the assumption that everyone is a child molester until proven otherwise. And yet, what is that “proving” worth? The vast majority of the 850,000 people on the Sex Offender List will not commit a new sex crime (and many didn’t even commit one in the first place, but that’s another story). At the same time, Jerry Sandusky would have passed any background check with flying colors.
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Remember this story? A mom wrote to say that HER mom — the kid’s grandma — wasn’t allowed in to a Read Aloud morning when grandma was visiting from out of state because, of course, she didn’t have a background check. And then there was this one: No, Ma’am, You May Not Chaperone Your Son’s Field Trip Without a Background Check , which happened to my very own speaking agent!
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We all share the desire to keep kids safe from predatory adults. Treating all adults as predators is not the answer. – L
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More Meitiv family distrust.
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