Lenore Skenazy, president of the childhood independence advocacy group Let Grow, elaborated on the circumstances of the arrest in a Jan. 23 article for Reason magazine. The incident happened back in February 2019, when Killingly, Connecticut resident Cynthia Rivers (a pseudonym for the children's mother) and her husband decided to reward their two children. Their children aged seven and nine were entitled to walk to a nearby Dunkin' Donuts after cleaning their room, which they did.

Minutes after their children left, however, the Rivers parents heard a knock at their front door.

They answered the door and were greeted by officers from the Killingly Police Department (KPD). One of the cops sent Cynthia's husband to retrieve the children, who had only made it about two blocks. When the children were recovered, the rest of the officers peppered the family with a barrage of questions.