ELIZABETHTON, Tennessee - August 29, 2011 - Could you be arrested for allowing your 5th grade child to ride her bicycle one mile to school? That certainly seems crazy as we try to encourage active lifestyles for our children, as we try to promote safe routes to school programs, and when we speak of an obesity epidemic amongst our youth.
But that is exactly what police in the town of Elizabethton, Tennessee, are threatening to do.
Teresa Tryon said, "On August 25 my 10-year-old daughter arrived home with a police officer, who requested to speak to me on the front porch of my home. The officer told me that in his judgment it was unsafe for my daughter to ride her bicycle to school."
Tryon called the mayor's office and the chief of police in order to determine what laws she was breaking by allowing her daughter to ride her bicycle to school. Her daughter's route to school was reasonably safe.
Major Verran of the police department returned her call. Tryon said, “He told me he had spoken with the District Attorney's office, which advised that until the officer can speak with Child Protective Services, if I allow my daughter to walk or ride to school then I will be breaking the law and will be treated accordingly.”
When Tryon asked what law she would be breaking she was told “child neglect”.
Tryon confirmed with Major Verran that her daughter was indeed breaking no laws at any level, but it was Tryon who was breaking the law by allowing her daughter to walk or ride to school. Even though it only takes her daughter 7-9 minutes to bicycle to school, she is expected to ride the bus.