Mother Of 'Free-Range Kids' To Run For Montgomery County Council

SILVER SPRING, MD — Danielle Luttenberg Meitiv of Silver Spring, the mother of the "free-range kids" who battled officials over her family's practice of letting their children explore the neighborhood on their own, will run for one of the four Montgomery County Council at-large seats.

In 2015, Danielle and her husband, Alexander Meitiv, were threatened with the loss of their children after they allowed the kids to walk home alone from a park. The couple's disagreements with Child Protective Services drew international attention after the children were picked up on a walk and held by police. Now, Meitiv is running for the government position over concerns for her children's education, the economy and the environment.

“I know from my personal experience, we can win and get the kind of changes that are good for our families and our kids,” Meitiv, a Democrat, told Montgomery Community Media.

RELATED STORIES:

• ICYMI: Neglect Finding Dropped Against Free-Range Parents
• County Council Wants Details on Unattended Child Policies
• Readers Call Actions Against Family ‘Troubling,’ ‘Harassing’ and ‘Abuse of Power’
• ‘Walk Heard Around the World’: Parents Face 5 Years of Legal Purgatory
• Parents Nationwide Urged to Take Kids to Park, Leave Them
• Parents Who Let Kids Walk Home Alone Face Inquiry

Meitiv is no stranger to the public eye. In early 2015 someone called police to report the Meitiv children (Rafi, 10 at the time and Dvora, 6 at the time) were alone just a couple of blocks from home. The siblings were picked up by Montgomery County Police about 5 p.m. and turned over to the Child Protective Services at 10:30 that night.

The Meitivs believe kids living in a city must be given the tools and confidence to safely navigate their neighborhood without their parents. That philosophy, known as free-range parenting, put the couple at odds with Montgomery County’s Child Protective Services.

The couple faced scrutiny from the public and the county agency. Although they were ultimately cleared, the Meitivs' case sparked intense debate across the country.

“We’ve presented this as a natural part of childhood. By protecting kids from really remote risks we expose them to greater risks, like car accidents, or obesity by not being active outdoors,” Meitiv said back in 2015. “We’re raising children who are terrified of the world we’re giving them.”

Meitiv is a former climate scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. She will run using the public election fund, an $11 million fund that candidates can use to leverage their contributions, according to Montgomery Community Media.

Meitiv said she wants to see Montgomery County exploring the option of free community college education. She hopes to increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour and believes Montgomery County focuses too much on larger companies, like Marriott International.

“We fought back to raise our kids in what we think was the right and responsible way, and we fought back so no one would face the same,” Meitiv told Montgomery Community Media. “We fought back so no families would find themselves in the position that we were in. And we won.”

The primary election day is June 26, 2018.

Photo: Montgomery Community Media