Abby Schachter on School Nannies and the Death of Common Sense

It sounds like
the opening line of a joke, “A father walked up to his kid’s school
and gets arrested…” but watch the video of Jim Howe trying to pick
up his kids from South Cumberland Elementary School in Cumberland
County, Tennessee, and you’ll sooner cry than laugh. That’s because
Howe’s alleged crime was walking into the school building
and asking to take his children now that classes were over. Howe
was supposed to wait, you see. All walking parents are supposed to
cool their heels until a long line of drivers have picked up their
kids, and only then retrieve their own children. That’s because
school authorities are convinced that making parents drive up to
school for pick-up is somehow safer than allowing choice in the
matter. Alas, writes Abby Schachter, lack of basic judgment isn’t
confined to Tennessee education officials—it’s become common
throughout schools and elsewhere, in the rigid, senseless treatment
of families and children.

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