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Comment by smabie | Hacker News Reader

What if you get kidnapped and don't have enough money? I highly doubt there is no world in which you would ever need money. When you make blanket statements such as "X cannot ever happen" you're asking to be wrong.

A better approach would be to establish a set of preshared keywords that convey information about what's going on.

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That's why they gave their parent's a password that could be used in case they ever actually need money. I remember growing up, my mom told me a password that would be used if an adult I didn't know was trying to pick me up from school or was in some way trying to get me to come with them. I think it was only used once when my mom's coworker picked me up after school because my mom was stuck at work. Nowadays, you need multiple signatures, a letter from your congressman, and a notary to let anyone that isn't the parent pick up a kid from school but this was before all of that.

Parent here: in Massachusetts, you just file a form with the school authorizing specific people to pick up your kid. Those people have to come in to the office and present their driver's license or similar. That's all the bureaucracy.

Which for the situation of "something unexpected comes up and someone else needs to pick up the kids" is just as blocking.

Or can you have that person bring the form and show ID?

No, you can't have someone bring a form with them and show ID. Too easy to abuse.

However, you can list as many people as you like and change it at any time by visiting the school. So we have four or five neighbors listed and my sisters who live in other states.

Kidnapping is a real, albeit unlikely threat in many of the places I end up in. That's why I have lawyers and insurance. There is no scenario in which I want my grandparents or parents involved in a kidnapping situation in any capacity.

These people are in their 70s. Preshared list of words? You are lucky they even accept a password.

The most basic solution. People age 70+ keep paper books of hand written names and phone numbers next to their home POTS phone. Have them write down the "password" next to your name in the book.

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