This fall, just as Keith Kaplan was finishing up his first term as a town councilman in the New York suburb of Teaneck, New Jersey, he proposed a Reasonable Childhood Independence bill. It states that when parents allow kids to perform age-old independent activities, like walking or playing outside, they are not committing negligence unless the the kids are in obvious, serious, and likely danger.
For Kaplan, the bill is especially important. That's because of an incidence he witnessed involving his friends, their daughter, and the police.