A Vancouver family is planning to launch a legal challenge after a Ministry of Children and Family Development staff person told the father that his four oldest children can’t take the public bus alone to school.
On his blog, 5 Kids 1 Condo, Adrian Crook has said that he has been teaching his four oldest kids, aged seven, eight, nine, and eleven, to ride the bus by themselves to their elementary school, 45 minutes away, for the past two years. However, someone is reported to have given the Ministry of Children and Family Development a tip.
He said that the caseworker ruled that the children could not be left unsupervised until next year, when the eldest could be deemed responsible for his siblings. Crook disagreed and has started a campaign “GoFundMe” to help with his planned legal challenge. “Our family’s freedom of mobility has been dramatically restricted for little reason beyond the complaint of an anonymous person,” he wrote on his blog.
“The freedoms my kids enjoyed for years were removed. Even simple trips like several kids crossing the street to the corner store, or walking to school on their own when they’re at their mom’s place were ruled out.”
Crook, who does not own a car and is a self-described advocate for public transit, said that he taught his children how to ride the bus by themselves because it was safer than him driving them to school.
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