Google “car stolen with kids”.
Some people have been charged with child endangerment, whether or not the car was left running.
From a police department website:
“Never leave your child alone in a public place, stroller or car. Not even for a minute.”
I read the actual laws. Most have qualifiers that only make it illegal if there is immediate risk or danger, if you leave the chlidd for a longer period, car is running, if the child is 6 or younger and/or if there isn’t anyone of a certain age such as 9-12 there. ONe only makes it illegal if the unattended child causes a motor vehicle accident.
I count only 3 states that dont have any qualifiers where what I asked is actually illegal.
My state has no law.
Not that I’m advocating people abandon their kids of course. 
But I don’t really think its awful to leave a kid for 1-2 minutes.
So? So do/would you.
Wow, couldn’t get even halfway through this thread - it started becoming repetitive. If something is happening for months and you don’t realize it, I’d consider it in the “not a problem” category. And then starting to use words like “congregating”, “reckless” etc for kids waiting for the school bus is showing a desperate attempt to make this into an issue. Try to find something more benign to concentrate your efforts and forget about this. Also, for the sake of your neighbors, don’t get into an HOA board…
You’re late to the party. We don’t have an HOA. The S neighbors act like we do though. 
FYI everyone, putting the issue on the back burner. Thanks again! 
Enjoy your day.
For anyone following, I added tl;dr at the beginning of the OP as follows:
tl;dr - Saga in which OP became highly upset for reasons that seem foolish now, vented, had a question or two, engaged in some thought-provoking discussion, eventually began to see some humor in the situation, and learned how to make crude renderings of a school bus, not necessarily to scale.
OP is somewhat embarrassed and regrets the anger shown at times and strives to do better in future. All posts by the OP will remain for posterity, education, and general entertainment purposes. Anyone entering this thread for the first time is strongly advised to prepare a healthy snack and do a bathroom run, not necessarily in that order.
Please don’t be embarrassed. I cannot speak for everyone, but I am proud of you. Everyone has times when they get angry but you’ve handled it well in the end. You should see the crusade a neighbor of mine has against our mailman. It’s to the point I’ve thought about calling the police to report physical threats.
And you may have singlehandedly saved fraigledeal,
so everyone is in your debt. Be strong.
Nice job, OP. Some things certainly aren’t worth fighting about, and I don’t think this is one of them. I can be the same as you sometimes. At my old house there used to be dog walkers letting their dogs poop all over our yard. (cue “get off my lawn”). I spent wayyy too much time staring out of the window to try and catch the perpetrator when I could have been relaxing or doing something productive instead.
Also, as the father of a 5 year old autist, I can relate with you on that front as well. It sounds like things are under control for you, and I’m happy for you.
Life is short, and depending on your beliefs you may never come back.
Many thanks to you, @WakesInc and @t60. 
I’ve done a lot of thinking today. I’ve come to the conclusion that I’ve become an extremely nervous person since living in this neighborhood.
Between the woman to the South of us who calls the authorities on people, and a man 2 houses to the North of us who confronts people - who I just saw get in someone’s face about something in front of my house - I feel like I’m living under a microscope and had better watch my step. 
No more!
It would be highly entertaining to have a topic about neighborhood antics. I’m interested in hearing about the crusade against the mailman and dog walkers and their dog poop. If you combine those, interesting pictures come to mind. 
Has anyone suggested a fence? It wouldn’t solve the liability problem of kids on the easement/sidewalk portion, but you wouldn’t have to look at them every morning.
I’m not looking at them every morning. I’ve stopped recording. I don’t want a fence. Only a tall privacy fence installed in the front yard would block the view of the NW corner - and only from a 1st floor perspective - and that’s not allowed.
I’m trying not to be such a Nervous Nellie about it. I’ve informed myself as best I can about our state’s liability laws. They’re actually pretty generous in favor of the homeowner.
Thank you for your thoughts. 
Once temperatures get below freezing just set your sprinklers to go on at 6:55AM monday - friday.
If they use the private driveway, if something happen like they fell on the private driveway or property & injury. homeowner insurance will increase if injuries on private driveway or property. that is concern if injuries on the private property.
Hey, it’s always better to ask before something happens, than ignore it and be blindsided after it happens.
I understand the concern about liability, but think about it like this-
Every school district has hundreds (thousands?) of bus stops. Each is used twice a day for the entire school year. Pretty much every one of them is on someones private property, most times on some other than the students. And yet in my entire life I’ve heard of a total of zero liability payments for bus stop injuries. I’m not a lawyer, but common sense seems to indicate they’ve figured out how to protect property rights somehow given the millions of bus pickups a year.
Just because you haven’t heard about doesn’t mean it’s not happening. I personally know a girl who slipped on ice in a parking lot and broke her leg, and a guy who slipped on ice and hit his head, luckily it only resulted in a mild concussion, and those were just in December.
Given the horseplay schoolchildren are frequently involved in, I’d say they’re more prone to falling than adults walking to their cars.
All it would take is one kid to slip on the ice, fall backwards, smack their head, split it open, brain swelling, major surgery, life or death, big big money, large liability.
Even in a scenario where the injury isn’t major or life-threatening, some people can be vindictive, and you just never know.
My late grandfather was found liable for personal injuries sustained by the other driver in a car accident. She had a broken foot. His insurance company made the woman whole (her car, her medical bills, plus lost wages) and offered her an amount for pain and suffering. She thought it wasn’t enough and filed suit against my grandfather for $250,000.
I was once accused of karate-kicking an exterior bathroom door in on a co-worker. (Details upon request.) This was a gross exaggeration of what really happened. My co-worker and I were friends, we parted that day as friends, but the next day, she treated me like her enemy based on an eyewitness account that was false. She tried to elicit sympathy from everyone and made believe that I’d deliberately tried to hurt her.
Stuff happens and people can become vindictive if they think they have something to gain. Money, revenge, even sympathy, the latter of which is about all my former co-worker friend got. No action was brought against me by either her or my employer. The work atmosphere was a bit chilly for awhile, but it eventually blew over. I think she tried to milk it for too long and her credibility suffered.
I got umbrella policy and I think everyone with certain amount of asset in the US should consider it.
That’s solid general advice, as they can be quite inexpensive, but ignores the point that gwraigty should not be liable for individuals who should not consistently be on her property in the first place.
How has no one asked about this yet?
Details please…