Connecticut Parents Arrested for Letting Kids, Ages 7 and 9, Walk to Dunkin' Donuts

[ItsjustMe]

Connecticut Parents Arrested for Letting Kids, Ages 7 and 9, Walk to Dunkin' Donuts

"I have never felt threatened by a single person in this town until meeting those officers and the social worker."

It was Super Bowl Sunday in February 2019. Cynthia Rivers and her husband decided that their kids, ages seven and nine, deserved a long-promised treat for cleaning their rooms: the right to walk to Dunkin' Donuts by themselves. (Reason has changed her name to protect the family's anonymity.)

This was in Killingly, Connecticut, a suburban town in the northeast part of the state. The Rivers' lived near an elementary school, library, state police barracks, sidewalks, crosswalks, many Victorian-style homes, and the aforementioned donut shop. The kids gathered $7, and off they went.

[jimfields33]

1. Wow. I agree with the parents. This was not neglect.

We walked to the pool in the neighborhood streets over from the house. A little overreach in this situation.

[mysteryowl]

28. I walked to and from elementary school when in the 1st grade!

[wnylib]

39. Same here. In kindergarten, my older brother

walked with me, but by first grade, I was allowed to walk on my own. Usually there were other kids in the neighborhood that I met up with on the way and we walked together. Same for on the way home. And we went home for lunch and then back to school, so we made that walk a couple times a day.

I lived 6 blocks from the school. Some of my classmates lived a couple blocks farther away.

[mysteryowl]

43. We also walked to get ice cream at the store.

[wnylib]

45. The mom and pop grocery store on

the corner of my street, same side of the street that we lived on, made it easy for us to get candy or ice cream. I had a small allowance of 25 cents a week when I was in the early grades (which got larger as I grew older). Most of it went to 2 for a penny candy, or a splurge of 5 cents for a whole candy bar. We had to pass the mom and pop store on the way to school. During the summer, it was where we went for popsicles and Nutty Buddy ice cream cones.

[Walleye]

2. I love to think of all the places we were allowed to roam around when we were kids. This is a shame

[sl8]

8. It sure sounds like it, but I'd still like to hear the other side.

The author of the article is the president of Let Grow, a nonprofit promoting childhood independence and resilience, and founder of the Free-Range Kids movement.

Doesn't mean she's wrong, but she may not be completely unbiased. Also, it doesn't look like she tried to get the police or DCF story. At least, she didn't mention it.

[BadgerMom]

19. Agreed, sl8.

Everything you posted aligns with what I was thinking.

A quick google search shows that Reason is funded by the Kochs and Scaifes. It’s considered libertarian. It may be accurate but I bet there’s some info missing.

https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/reason/

[sl8]

21. Thanks.

I knew that Reason was libertarian, but didn't know how they were funded.

[Ocelot II]

3. Every parent in my neighborhood when I was a kid would have been in jail

if cops and social workers had that attitude at the time. Of course there have always been child molesters, and of course people shouldn't let small children just walk all over town, but this was just unreasonable.

[Rebl2]

23. My thought too

My husband grew up in Colorado and the tales he has told me-oh my. This was the 60’s though. In today’s world his parents would be in jail along with many other parents from that era. As for my parents, I was not allowed to be out of their sight. We lived on a circle-dead end and that’s where I played with neighborhood kids.

[bottomofthehill]

4. So they let 7 and 9 year olds walk to school in Killingly

On the face this seems quite silly to me. Unless they had to cross a superhighway and cut through a prison courtyard, let the kids walk to Dunks.

[bottomofthehill]

7. From citydata.com

According to our research of Connecticut and other state lists, there were 5 registered sex offenders living in Killingly as of February 01, 2023. The ratio of all residents to sex offenders in Killingly is 3,474 to 1. The ratio of registered sex offenders to all residents in this city is much lower than the state average.

Read more: https://www.city-data.com/so/so-Killingly-Connecticut.html

[Hugh_Lebowski]

10. And by no means do all sex offenses requiring registration

relate to child sexual abuse.

When I was 9 I was riding all over town on my bike, unsupervised.

Though by 14 I was hanging out in pool halls in shady parts of Hong Kong, smoking cigs and drinking rum and cokes, so maybe the freedom wasn't such a great idea

[LakeArenal]

5. Kids can't walk to school anymore I guess.

This is crazy. So lazy. Arrest parents not predators.

[usaf-vet]

27. Times have changed. When we were kids we lived on a dead end street only one house beyond us.

That house was occupied by three: a mom, a dad, and a daughter in our age group. I was 7 in 1954.

When the dad went to work, he drove an oil delivery truck; we could lay in the street, play in the street ride bikes in the street until the dad came home around 5:00 P.M.

Now the TIMES have changed all the land which was once vacant is now two extensive housing development. Probably 50+ homes.

We could hardly get out of our driveway because of the two-way traffic. Still on a single-lane country road 68 years later.

We need a traffic light at the end of our driveway to safely come and go.

[LakeArenal]

35. I still think not allowing kids alone in public without parents is ridiculous.

Sure times are different.

I still think a short walk during the day is not abuse or neglect.

Hope the complainant is watching as close for perps.

[CanonRay]

6. My brother and I walked to the neighborhood tavern when we were 5 and 8

to pick up pizzas. My folks never gave it a second thought.

[Hope22]

9. Hehehe...

We bought cigarettes for my dad with a note from him!😂😂

[2naSalit]

13. +1

[Freddie]

15. Dad sent me to the corner store for a pack of Kents

And added a quarter for candy for me, good deal.

[Hope22]

42. You made out like a bandit!😂n/t

[wnylib]

40. I didn't need a note to buy them for my father.

There was a mom and pop grocery store at one end of the block where I lived. The couple who owned it lived upstairs of the store. They knew all of the kids and parents in the neighborhood. Never questioned me when I bought candy for myself and cigarettes for my father.

[Hope22]

41. Times have certainly changed.

When I was four I asked my dad if I could try his cigarette. He gave it to me and I took a puff and coughed my brains out. It was an effective deterrent. Never ever tried that again. Although… my sisters and I spent many hours smoking candy cigarettes. 😂🤣😂

[wnylib]

44. Imagine if someone tried to sell candy cigarettes today.

Times have definitely changed.

[BillyBobBrilliant]

11. I wasn't much older than that

When I would walk over to the Air Force base and catch the bus for downtown San Antonio. I also roamed freely throughout the woods near my house all summer when I was the age of the oldest in that story. And I walked a mile to elementary school (uphill, but not in the snow )

[niyad]

12. That story at the link set off every alarm bell in my head. The kids had gone FOUR

houses, and a DOZEN 911 calls?? Something very strange going on. And why are we hearing about this four years later?

[intheflow]

16. I wonder about the race or religion of the kids.

Is the family Black, Asian, or Latino? Are they Muslim and one of their neighbors is Islamaphobic, or was one of the children female and wearing a hijab? Are they Jewish and the kids were wearing yarmulkes? Probably, no one even called the cops. They saw the two kids walking and decided to harass the parents. That alone makes me think the cops identified the kids as "other" and thought this would be the way to run the family out of town.

[Ocelot II]

18. A small town in Connecticut is going to be majority White.

In fact, this particular town is 93% White. So it's doubtful there's a racial/ethnic issue. It's just authorities overreaching.

[IbogaProject]

14. Ugh

I'm glad New York is more permissive and is required to consider context first in these situations. They are also required to consider if it is reasonable to consider the child or children's ability to handle themselves in the specific context. Leave kid to grab food at deli likely ok. Leave kids while you go to bar late likely not ok. We signed a release to let out second grader off the bus without us, as the stop was on our block w no streets to cross. At first we had him wait w another's nanny or to blend in at the food spot. The bus driver was astounded she had never seen the release, which was a formal BOE doc. You have to train them to gradually be independent. And there were big hassles if adult not there and kid had to stay on bus. The main thing we taught the kid was 'no adult will ever reasonably need your help' and who could reasonably help them in a crisis. We are fortunate we live in a classic neighborhood our downstairs neighbors run several businesses on our block so our kid had places to go in crisis. I couldn't find it but I saw an article claim 1930-80 as the Golden Age of independent childhood. After child chores and labor and before all the modern overscheduled kid activities and hyper protection of kids to absolute absurdity.

[friend of a friend]

17. I walked to first grade with friends, no parents.

[Abigail_Adams]

20. Same

At least ten kids from our neighborhood walked to the same school. Some were first or second grade, others were middle school or junior high age, so the older kids looked out for the younger ones. It worked fine. We even had a potential molester who occasionally drove down our side street offering money or candy to girls to get in his car. But because the older kids had warned us about him, no one ever got in. The system worked.

[BonnieJW]

22. When I grew up in the 50s and 60s

we went everywhere on our bikes. We didn't even tell our parents where we were going; they knew we'd be back when we got hungry. Even on Halloween, we'd go out by ourselves and my parents didn't even blink. My friends and I went downtown on the bus when we were 10 to go to the movies.

[judesedit]

24. I walked to school when 6 and 7 through the streets of Camden, NJ

Many of the kids did. I still remember the smell of the tar being mixed to repair the potholes in the road. We had no cell phones or laptops. Just ourselves and our judgement. After school, hsd to do our homework, then we were outside til 6, then home for dinner. Everyone looked out for everyone's kids and didn't hesitate to hollar at us if we were on their lawns or doing something they didn't like.

Thw cable television and internet influence in this world nowadays make it hard for anyone to live normally. Always sensationalizing everything. The number of guns on the street's not helping matters, either.

How far was the Dunkin Donuts? Not mentioned. I doubt they got a bunch of 911 calls, either, cause people were busy prepping for tbe game. Can the parents do anything? File a complaint against the cop? Probably not the first infraction.

[vercetti2021]

25. I walked to the convenience store all the time when I was 10

There was a local convenience store just down the road from my grandparents house and I would always go alone and yes I would cross a busy street too in the process. But they knew I wasn't some stupid kid. I would go straight there after school everyday. Use my allowance money and buy a drink and snack and walk right back home. But this was the 90s, early 2000's. Things were different then.

[OMGWTF]

26. At five, I walked a mile by myself each way to go to kindergarten and had to cross two arterials.

I knew I had to turn left at the pink house but one weekend they painted the house and that next Monday I got terribly lost so my mother had my older brother go looking for me.

[TygrBright]

29. I used to take the bus downtown to go to CYC swim class alone at the age of nine. n/t

[Oneironaut]

30. Nothing about this makes sense.

The police received 12 911 calls after walking two blocks?

Also, the idea that sex offenders are worse now is nonsense.

This is the quiet corner of CT. I’m guessing this is either missing context, or, the cops were bored.

[Ziggysmom]

31. I wonder if the complaint was started by a "Karen" type who wanted to cause trouble for the

parents? I knew people like that when my daughter was in grade school. Nasty, underhanded types who enjoy starting shit.

[ificandream]

32. This sounds like Tucker Carlson paranoia.

[FirstLight]

33. You know, sometimes the cops and CPS services get it SOOO wrong...

And then they do nothing about the parent who's obviously doing *something* to their kid.(Believe me, I had to make a report just recently and the worker literally said..."That's IT?" when further investigation would show the kid has a history of sexual references that were NOT ok for a 7 year old to know)
It's freaking ridiculous. I am a mandatory reporter working at a daycare/after school care and I was also a single mom of 3. I never trusted them, they never really HELPED even when my youngest was in & out of juvey and I was begging for some services. When I said I was going to refuse to get him when he was released to let him sit there for a week and get scared...they threatened me with criminal charges. Bullshit.

In this case, they were totally overreaching and the cops sound like they harassed the parents as well. I had the Sheriff do that too. He literally talked shit to my daughter about her brother, called him a retard. Totally unprofessional.

~ ~ ~

That said, in the early 80's in OAKLAND, Ca... I rode my bike 4 blocks to the am/pm for candy once in a while. I never told my mom cuz she didn't want me crossing Mountain Blvd (under the freeway..) to Seminary Blvd. ...I always rode with a friend or 2, but it was always a stealth operation, LoL
Honestly, I wouldn't walk that street now as an adult, but in 1980 it wasn't nearly that bad.

[PurgedVoter]

34. If this is a libertarian source, odds are quite good there is no story here.

Early in the story it said, &quot Reason has changed her name to protect the family's anonymity.)" Or maybe this is so that no one can prove this story was made up.

Outrage against "Liberal" policies is how this is going to be read by their target audience. This sort of "The State" taking away kids is their counter in a game that ends up leaving abused women defenseless. We can cite real stores where women were forced to give access to kids and then killed by the abusive husband, ex-husband or soon to be ex-husband. But those stories don't meet the goals of the libertarian source. Odd are this is shading to maintain the Conservative policies intended to reduce the rights of women. The vaunted libertarian goal of nonviolence is very selectively applied and never to protect women.

[BadgerMom]

36. My antennae were abuzz reading it.

The source is libertarian. The event was in 2019. This is prime bait to “make America great again,” the way it was when we grew up when, in fact, the story is false or missing info. Kids can still take walks, explore, have friends. Something can be misrepresented and knickers get twisted pretty quickly. Consider the source.

[Cheezoholic]

37. Free-Range Kids

So this is a thing now?

https://www.freerangekids.com/

[niyad]

38. I just learned about this term and concept several years ago. . About the same

time that I learned about helicopter parents. Is there no sensible middle ground?