Do you know what the purple paint law is?

[Sigarms]

I guess you needed to be there. He was basically saying that, yeah, he read the sign and understood it, but that for his purposes of hunting, in his mind, the sign said, or might have well said "Pigs for sale".

Thanks, explains it. Kind of like my FIL's reply if you asked him a dumb question (that there was no way he'd know the answer) "did a squirrel just fart?"

 

[MossRoad]

I guess what I don't understand is why parents don't want teachers laying a hand on their kids who are legitimately in the wrong and causing a disruption in school.

Because spanking them doesn't change the cause of the behavior. It might put a quick stop to the immediate misbehavior, but it doesn't resolve it in the long run.

Think about it. Smart kids get whacked once and learn to never get caught again. Not so smart kids get whacked a lot. We all knew "that kid" in grade school. Little Johnny. (there's a bunch of jokes about that kid, google them). The teacher was constantly paddling that kid. Did it ever resolve anything? Apparently not, because he's getting whacked again and again.

 

[Sigarms]

Because spanking them doesn't change the cause of the behavior. It might put a quick stop to the immediate misbehavior, but it doesn't resolve it in the long run.

I understand that, and agree to a certain point. That said, when kids know you can't do anything, it makes the worse ones act up even more

 

[2LaneCruzer]

When I was in grade school, rumor had it that they had an electric paddle in the Principal's office, but they rarely used it because it paddled so hard that that it broke one kid's back. Consequently, they didn't use it except for the worst offenders.

 

[Tinhack]

I guess what I don't understand is why parents don't want teachers laying a hand on their kids who are legitimately in the wrong and causing a disruption in school.

Because some teachers can go overboard on punishment. It's classified as child abuse by many states.

 

[bigtiller]

Back in the 60's my grade school teacher slapped a 5th grade boy. Everyone of us kids thought the slap was well earned. But the parents were shocked to hear that their little angle was abused. The teacher took the rest of the year off and the angle learned more about kids rights than responsibility.

 

[jaxs]

I guess what I don't understand is why parents don't want teachers laying a hand on their kids who are legitimately in the wrong and causing a disruption in school.

I was spanked and I spanked my kids but I decided it was wrong to spank kids while the law forebid whipping adults for misbehavior.

 

[plowhog]

There's a 50 acre lot abutting mine which has been visited once by the owners in the 20 years I've lived here. ... What does it hurt for me to take a walk through it with my dog?

Consulting a calendar has nothing to do with you using private property owned by others. If your name is not on the deed-- you don't own it-- and you stay off of it unless you have permission. That's a basic as it gets with respect for other people's property.

What does it hurt? First, you are a liability while on their land. If you, or someone with you, gets hit by a falling tree branch or struck by lightning, the land owner is likely to get sued.

Next, your "dog walks" may be noticed by others. Even if you don't invite others to join, once they see you doing it, it encourages them to engage the same behavior. Now suppose a parent with a child is walking their dog, the child looks up just in time to be hit in the eye by a falling branch. The owner gets sued.

So what's the harm in walking across their land even if no accident happens? Simple-- establish a pattern of using that property over five years (in many jurisdictions) and you have just acquired a legal right to the walking trail you have been using. Called a prescriptive easement. Once that is established you have just harmed the owner by devaluing their land since they cannot any longer order you to leave.

A prescriptive easement exists on my land (acquired many decades ago.) It is a constant headache. In the interior of my private property, I have vehicles, dirtbikes with no mufflers, ATV's spinning tires, dogs, dust, you name it. It's my land but I can't legally force them off of the area where the easement exists. It started long ago with people believing there was no harm in taking a shortcut through the property I now own.

 

[Jstpssng]

Consulting a calendar has nothing to do with you using private property owned by others. If your name is not on the deed-- you don't own it-- and you stay off of it unless you have permission. That's a basic as it gets with respect for other people's property.

What does it hurt? First, you are a liability while on their land. If you, or someone with you, gets hit by a falling tree branch or struck by lightning, the land owner is likely to get sued.

Next, your "dog walks" may be noticed by others. Even if you don't invite others to join, once they see you doing it, it encourages them to engage the same behavior. Now suppose a parent with a child is walking their dog, the child looks up just in time to be hit in the eye by a falling branch. The owner gets sued.

So what's the harm in walking across their land even if no accident happens? Simple-- establish a pattern of using that property over five years (in many jurisdictions) and you have just acquired a legal right to the walking trail you have been using. Called a prescriptive easement. Once that is established you have just harmed the owner by devaluing their land since they cannot any longer order you to leave.

A prescriptive easement exists on my land (acquired many decades ago.) It is a constant headache. In the interior of my private property, I have vehicles, dirtbikes with no mufflers, ATV's spinning tires, dogs, dust, you name it. It's my land but I can't legally force them off of the area where the easement exists. It started long ago with people believing there was no harm in taking a shortcut through the property I now own.

None of the above is true. As I've pointed out many times, we have very strong laws protecting the landowner from the situation which you describe.

Maine has a strong law to protect landowners, known as the "landowner liability" law (or the recreational use statute), Title 14, M.R.S.A. Section159-A.

Per the statute, if someone uses or passes through your land or passes for outdoor recreation or harvesting, with your permission or not, you assume no responsibility and incur no liability for that person's injuries or damage to their property. And similarly, if you allow volunteers to maintain or improve your land for recreation or harvesting, you are protected from liability for their injuries.

Useful definitions taken from the landowner liability law
Premises means improved and unimproved lands, any private ways, roads, buildings, or structures on those lands, and waters standing on, flowing through, or adjacent to them, and it also includes railroad property, railroad rights-of-way, and utility corridors to which public access is permitted.

Recreational or harvesting activities are recreational activities conducted outdoors, including but not limited to hunting, fishing, trapping, camping, environmental education and research, hiking, rock climbing, ice climbing, bouldering, rappelling, recreational caving, sight-seeing, operating snow-traveling and all-terrain vehicles, skiing, hang-gliding, noncommercial aviation activities, dog sledding, equine activities, boating, sailing, canoeing, rafting, biking, picnicking, swimming, and activities involving the harvest or gathering of forest, field, and marine products. It includes entry of, volunteer maintenance and improvement of, use of, and passage over premises to pursue these activities, but does not include commercial agricultural or timber harvesting.

Occupant includes but is not limited to an individual, corporation, partnership, association, or other legal entity that constructs or maintains trails or other improvements for public recreational use.

Supporting Maine’s Landowners

Outdoor Partners, MDIFW's Landowner Relations Program, works to preserve Maine’s unique history of public access to private land.

www.maine.gov

If you sue and lose, the court can award legal costs, including but not limited to lawyer's fees.
Since it was implemented over 40 years ago, there has not been a successful lawsuit in court; ambulance chasers just aren't interested in taking on a case.

Many states have similar laws.

Prescriptive easement has to last continuously for more than 20 years; the person would then need to petition the courts to claim said R/W. It also would have to be more than just occasional, casual use. I don't know your situation, but it sounds like it was fairly public use.

 

[Hay Dude]

There's a 50 acre lot abutting mine which has been visited once by the owners in the 20 years I've lived here. My neighbors have been here for 30 years and never seen them. What does it hurt for me to take a walk through it with my dog?

Oh gosh, where do you start to answer a question like that???
That sounds like some people in my area. They literally sing “this land is your land, this land is my land, from Kalifornia to the New York Islands“ while they build deer hunting tree stands in the trees, throw bottles on the ground, leave trash, even grow whacky weed! Then comes the dirt bikes, then ATVs, heck I’ve even seen kids build off road trails with jumps lol
Once they start cutting across your land, and nobody stops them, it’s over. It’s like the flood gates open to everyone.
I am paid by a company based 200 miles away that owns land to run off clowns that think it’s their ATV trail, bark park and deer hunting ground. I hate being ”that guy”, but I have had some interesting chest to chest shouting matches and have had some guns not pointed at me, but shown to me.
I have pulled down and sold quite a few portable tree stands after attempting to leave notes at base of tree to “cease & desist and remove hunting stand”