This is beyond pathetic. As someone else said different times (but bad stuff still happened), BUT my friends and I roamed far and wide from home when we were his age (and younger) and the only rule was be home by dark. Where were these people when kids were very obviously being abused in their own homes but no-one cared?

*Confused European shrug* What? Why? In Switzerland, 4-5 years old kids walk to Kindergarten on their own and her area is apparently safe as well

My 8 year old walks to school and has done so for two years now. How are kids supposed to learn?

If his school was a mile from his home and the road was safe, there would be no bus service to and from school for him leaving him to walk. This is an absolute overreach! I don't blame this mother for refusing to sign the "safety plan."

Hahaha, my 6y old daughter walks about 2 miles to her grandmother's place in summer when the weather is nice. But off course I don't live in the land of the free...

at that age I walked the main road 2-3 km to school every day...what the heck.

And yet parents are allowed to deny their children an education, use corporeal punishment aka beat their child, marry them off as young as 13 in some states, and leave them unprotected against deadly disease by not vaccinating because...'freedom' and 'parents right' FFS

Maybe the police should make sure that it is safe to walk instead of arresting people who let their kids walk.

Me and my friends used to bike over 10 miles out of the city to the local mountain bike park, nobody cared, we would bike to the gas station and buy food, nobody cared, we went to creeks, nobody cared, so long as our phones were on us.

These are small town cops with not enough to do. Get him a scooter.

I love how Republicans keep on complaining that the Democrats are the ones who are running a "Nanny State" and "snowflakes". This is a deep red part of Georgia, and is as conservative as any place in the USA.

At that age I walked alone to school, which was 1.2 km away. Sometimes with friends from the neighborhood who went to the same school. I never had any problems

And once again ........ only in America.....

This is beyond insane. My child walked to and from school every day. He came home for lunch alone at 11 years old and retuned to school . Nothing ever happened. People need to mind their own business. There are children who died from child abuse where no one in the community spoke up. But a kid decided to walk to a store and some idiot makes the families life hell.

Are you kidding?! In my country in the EU, it's normal for kids this old to be out on their own. They go out together, to the cinema, to a friend's house... we know their routines and their friends, but there's no need for them to have an adult on their a*s all the time. And even much younger kids walk to and from school by themselves, even on public transportation to another town (we don't have special school buses, public transportation works great).

Kids would be much safer e.g. with sensible gun laws or sufficient driving lesson requirements but obviously we don't have time for reasonable solutions. And it is not government overreach, while the police work here seems suboptimal they don't make the laws or the mindsets, it is a cultural issue.

I had a key to the house when I was 10. I would get off the bus, go home, and even get a simple dinner started. Usually turning the oven on and putting a chicken in. Then came cartoons, play, and homework. No wonder college kids don't know how to turn a washing machine on. They're being babied and coddled. Children are capable and intelligent, they can do so much more than what the government idiots nowadays think. I'm glad I chose not to have any, I'd get arrested or CPS called for daring to let my child chop broccoli, GASP, with a REAL knife.

I used to wander around in the African bush looking for bird feathers and pretty stones. Back here in England we used to roam far and wide on the downs in Wiltshire.

FFS! When I was 11 or 12, I used to cycle MILES every day during summer vacation. We lived in the middle of nowhere (rural Michigan) and we didn't have mobile phones back then, so our parents never knew where we were. When my girls were growing up, once they hit secondary school, they walked to and from school themselves (a huge city of around 3 million people). How much of a busy-body do you need to be to report this to police?? My god woman, get a fücking life!

I have to wonder if there's more to this story. Maybe it's like the "free-range" kid story from years back. I know the kids that were involved in that, and though I never saw it in any reports, I can say that the boy was a real a-hole. The kids weren't simply walking alone nicely, they were running in the streets, acting up, and causing lots of trouble with the neighbors.

No one knows what a mother would know about her child. The woman who reported her should be arrested. She created the unnecessary drama by overreacting. Tht stupid woman should have minded her own business… crazy woman

Absolute USA, b******t!

If these were a law in our county, then every parent of a child living within a 2 miles radius from school would be arrested. No bussing to school if children live 2 or less miles from school.

The way we roamed around when we were little, as long as we got home when the street lights turned on

Why not just arm 10 year olds with guns if it's so unsafe to walk to the store 🙄

This whole story is ridiculous. She left him at home with his Grandad, 10year olds are perfectly capable of walking to the shop on their own, surely arresting the mum left both kids on their own for a prolonged amount of time, but also what is the money gonna do? Why throw a go fund me at this. She just needs a pro bono lawyer.

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There's a few key points to take into consideration. How fast is the traffic travelling? Is there a pavement/sidewalk? Is it common for pedestrians to use walking this street? Are there safe places to cross the road? If it's common for people to be out walking on a pavement, and the traffic is below 25-30 miles per hour, then the action the police have taken is ridiculous. If the traffic is fast, and pedestrians are uncommon, then yes, it is dangerous.