A few months ago, in Silver Spring, Md., a white family who lives a few meaningful miles away from the school where I teach in Southeast D.C. was scorned for allowing their 10 and six-year-old children to walk home from school by themselves. The story made national news. Parents everywhere were outraged. Child neglect! Carelessness! These were national headlines.

A few days ago, my co-worker was leaving work later than others and noticed that three of our eight-year-old girls were still waiting at the bus stop. They were alone. “We were playing and we missed it,” they laughed. These girls, like a lot of my kids, go home by themselves every day, traveling through much tougher terrain than Silver Spring.