Father wins appeal to allow children to ride bus alone
A Vancouver father who took the Ministry of Children and Family Development to court over the right to choose when to supervise his school-age children, including letting them ride the bus alone, is celebrating a win in the B.C. Court of Appeal.
Adrian Crook was visited by social workers after the ministry got a call saying he was allowing his five children, ages five to 11, to ride the bus alone from his downtown condo to their North Vancouver school.
His objection to the ministry’s order to supervise them on transit ended up in court, and three years later, the B.C. Court of Appeal has ruled the ministry doesn’t have the right under the Child, Family and Community Service Act to direct parents to supervise their children at any age.
“This is exactly what I wanted, that this wasn’t the decision (social workers) had the authority to make,” said Crook, whose children are now between the ages of eight and 14 and cannot be identified by court order.
“There is no age limit (for unsupervised children) and there never has been an age limit, but the ministry created one for my family outside the judicial system,” he said.
The ministry’s order was made in 2017, when Crook’s eldest was 11. Crook rode the bus with them until that child was 12 and was allowed to supervise his younger siblings.
He said the order “completely changed everything” for the family because it meant the children couldn’t cross the street to go to the corner store alone. The only person in the family who could legally take out the garbage was his 11-year-old because Crook couldn’t leave children under 10 unsupervised.
Children and Family Development Minister Katrine Conroy didn’t respond to a request for an interview, and it is unclear how or if this will affect other ministry interventions with families.
The ministry respects the ruling, is reviewing the ruling and is “determining next steps and practical implications of the decision,” a ministry spokeswoman, who didn’t want to be named, said in an email.
“When the ministry receives a child protection concern, we are legislatively obligated to assess it and respond in the best interests of the child(ren),” she wrote.
Crook said when ministry staff determine children may be unsafe in a home, they speak with the parents, and social workers provide recommendations and enter into a collaborative agreement with the parents on what to do next.
But he said parents have no real option with regards to the recommendations because of the “power imbalance” between social workers and parents. “Parents agree because they don’t want to lose their kids,” he said.
Crook said he received “explicit threats” when he was ordered to supervise his children on transit, and a lower court judge agreed there was a possibility he could lose custody if he didn’t comply.
He said he recognizes he was privileged to challenge the order because he documented everything, had a lot of support, and was able to raise $55,000 of his $70,000 legal bill through gofundme.com.
He said there are many parents “who are way less privileged” when dealing with social workers, but he hopes now “they might be emboldened to speak up” against what he called “backroom bullying.”
Crook said he was frustrated by social workers “projecting their own fears and biases on the process,” including one who said, “I wouldn’t let my children ride the bus alone.”
He said they dismissed data that shows riding a bus is statistically safer than other forms of transportation, or that the statistical probability of kidnapping is low.