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The Spectacle Blog

Fathers against having their kids seized

By Conor Friedersdorf on 5.2.08 @ 5:39PM

Perhaps you've seen this story about Michigan authorities seizing a 7-year-old boy from his father -- he took the kid to a baseball game, bought him a Mike's Hard Lemonade without realizing it contained alcohol and watched in horror as every authority figure around him demonstrated an appalling lack of common sense:

A vendor noticed the boy with the drink; the boy had no symptoms of inebriation but said he was nauseated; and stadium officials, in a prime example of defensive overreaction, summoned an ambulance, which found Leo fine with no trace of alcohol in his system. Silly enough so far, no harm, no foul, but Michigan Child Protective Services intervened, held Leo in foster care for two days (refusing to release him to the custody of his aunts, who drove from New England on short notice for just such a possibility), and forced Ratte to move out of the house until a second hearing okayed his return.

Thoughts:

1) Were Leo a comic book character this youthful trauma would surely result in his maturation into a masked avenger of Americans wronged by an overreaching bureaucracy.

2) I fear for Gretchen Roberts, who admits in print to deliberately allowing her 5-year-old to sip wine. Anyone want to bet her kids grow up to be healthier drinkers than their peers?

3) Social norms sure do change! It used to be that the state gave kids alcohol and people got angry if it was taken away:

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Law