A supply teacher was suspended for ‘gross misconduct’ after gave a 17-year-old pupil a lift home.

The boy had forgotten his bus fare. The teacher was going the same route and offered him a lift for a favour.

This comes in the wake of a woman reported to police for helping a boy down from a tree.

These are simple acts of human kindness. That they are punished as unprofessional or risky shows how everyday and normal caring has become contaminated.

A golf leader told me that for the first time he is seeing cases of kids left alone at the ground after practice – because nobody would take them home.

Effectively, decent adults are abandoning children because it is too risky to help them.

These proceedures encourage child negligence. In the name of child safety!