So we can avoid hiring anyone from those schools in the future.

of the nanny state they accuse dems of?

Hopefully the jury here will tell the prosecutor to go jump in a lake.

Geesh! We walked to and from school every day by ourselves... a whole 10 blocks! (LOL) Until I had earned enough money to buy a bicycle, I walked everywhere in town.. from one end to the other. And I didn't have a phone in my hand the whole time, either!

Coming home from piano lessons one afternoon, I DID get hit by a car when I crossed the street to address the person (my mother's friend) who had stopped her car in the middle of the road to what? talk to me? tell me to get in? Hell... it was too long ago to remember! When I was hit, I was less than 1/2 block from my house.

I agree that today's world is a hell of a lot worse than anything we grew up in... we had a lot more freedom and were allowed to grow up in our own way, for the most part... a lot more than anyone today. The only thing I really had to worry about once I hit my teens was my Mom on the CB radio to everyone who had one in town. Between those who knew her, and those who knew my grandmother, I didn't dare step out of line, knowing it *would* get back to them!

Truly tragic story...why make it worse when there was no real negligence involved. Now the older brother has to carry this with him for the rest of his life. So sad.

Kids in my suburban neighborhood walked everywhere. In those days (late '50s-early '60s) most families had only one car, and Dad drove it to work. So we walked to school or to the store or to play at the playground or skating rink. Since Mom didn't have the car during the day, I would be sent to the bakery four blocks away to buy a loaf of bread when I was about 8 or 9. All of our parents would have been in jail.

Charge the damn driver and let the courts figure it out.

... are the people torturing the grieving family.

Our kids used to walk together up the road to the store or their friends' house when they were 3 and 5. The 5-year-old always held her sister's hand and looked both ways until there were no cars coming before she stepped off the curb. They walked together to the bus stop across the road every day. The first day of kindergarten, we walked the 5-year-old to the bus stop and she asked us never to do that again. I walked alone to kindergarten when I was 4 and continued until 6th grade when we had to take the bus, in all different settings.

Sometimes shit happens. A boy in our neighborhood was killed crossing the road, coming out of school in the 7th grade, within sight of his dad's car. I was also in 7th grade at the time and it stuck with me. Not once did I think his dad was at fault.

the parents would be scott-free -- "just one of those accidents nobody could have predicted."
Of course I'm saddened by the death of a ten year old kid. But blaming the parents for this accident is senseless.

Brother dead, parents in jail. Kid will end up blaming himself for both situations. How does that help anybody? Hope those parents have a good lawyer.

So suspicious they are being charged and not the driver.

The kids were crossing a four lane road but it had a crosswalk and traffic lights. A 7 AND A 10 YEAR OLD crossing a four lane city road.
Seven is too young, and ten is just barely old enough. Really bad decision. Now one child is dead, and the other has been deeply traumatized.

Editing to add that I think it's a bit extreme to charge the parents, even if I agree that they're culpable; they have given themselves a lifetime of guilt and their surviving child needs them.

Listen to the rest of us who grew up walking and biking everywhere in big cities, at even younger ages.We did just fine without the nanny state. And even so, the parents should not be charged.

I grew up in Tampa Florida, and I am now 65 years old. I grew up walking and biking everywhere I went, without much supervision given or needed. But this is not the 60's or the 70's, or 80's for that matter. West Hudson Blvd, where this happened, is a four lane highway divided by a grassy, tree (crepe myrtles IIRC) lined median strip. A very busy road, that in rush hour and lunch time gets pretty congested. And you think it's okay to let a 10 year old supervise a 7 year old in that? Not me, not in today's world where drivers are so damn distracted all the time. And then, exactly what one should anticipate to happen when small children are involved did actually happen - the small child darted away from the brother, out into traffic and got hit by a car. The 10 year old apparently did not even know to cross in the crosswalk!

Finally, if you had read my entire post you would see that I literally said that they should not be charged.

and I still disagree with you. Not about the parents being not charged---that I fully agree with---but about the kids not being allowed to walk home. It's not the 10 year old's fault either. He was trying to stop his brother. I almost committed a similar stupidity myself when I was 5. I was stopped by a 7 year old who knew better. It happens. But definitely, parents should not be charged, not at all.

Just because the kid wasn't using a sidewalk? I mean, FFS, he was on the phone while driving and obviously not paying close attention to his surroundings. Going after the parents is BULLSHIT.

One white, one Black parent. The driver is white. Does that answer your question.