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Strollerderby
The Real Reason She Can’t Walk to School
We’re a nation of terrified parents. Scared of the Philip Garridos of the world, the faceless man who will come to steal our children right out from under our noses. That’s why the New York Times says we don’t let our kids walk to school anymore.
True enough, but there’s another story out here in the wilderness. Parents aren’t afraid their child is going to be touched by a stranger. They’re afraid he’s going to run them over.
The Times weekend piece “Why Can’t She Walk to School” blames helicopter parents for putting more cars on the road, parents intent on protecting their kids by driving them to school. But the increase in traffic on the roads isn’t just Amber Alert-wary moms and dads. It’s a mom AND a dad who both work out of the home. It’s a stay-at-home mom who thirty years ago might not have had her own car now using the daylight hours to run errands.
It’s the pursuit of the American dream – specifically the “car in every garage” mantra.
In 1960, the U.S. Bureau of Transportation statistics show there were sixty-one million passenger cars on the road. In 2007, that number had ballooned to almost one hundred thirty-six million. Likewise increasing are the numbers of trucks, buses, etc.
Accidents involving pedestrians make up about twelve percent of all fatal motor vehicle accidents in the United States, and according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, one fifth of kids between the ages of five and nine who were killed in an auto accident were pedestrians. Overall, kids make up almost a quarter of pedestrians injured in traffic crashes.
It’s that fear that drove the Sullivan West School District in upstate New York to reverse a cost-cutting measure that would have required children living within one mile of its high school to make the walk. When parents protested the kids were at undue risk to being hurt by a driver, the school forewent the savings and opted to pick up every child within a mile of the school building.
So how scared are parents of Chester Molester? Not as scared as you’d thing: in a study cited in the Times article, only thirty percent of the parents who wouldn’t let their teens walk to school said it was fear of strangers. And another statistic pulled out points out only one hundred fifteen kids per year are grabbed by a stranger. . . a quarter of a million are injured in auto accidents.
And some of those were walking.
Do you let your kids walk to school?
Image: Daily Green
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8 Comments
Sabrina commented on Sep 14 09 at 11:53 amI definitely would if we lived within walking distance.
Chiken commented on Sep 14 09 at 2:35 pmThank you! This point is so obvious, but you don’t hear it in the “free range kids”-type debate. I’m not scared of a kidnapper, but I am scared of a texting SUV driver.
Andrea commented on Sep 14 09 at 3:23 pmI’m so sick of people quoting statistics about how “the world is as safe now as it was 50 years ago! Your kid isn’t going to get snatched!” when they find out I don’t let him walk to school– my in laws are the worst; their comments come complete with “in my day, we walked 8 miles both ways through blizzards and broken glass carrying 3 gallon buckets of water” stories. There are two 4 lane streets between our home and the school with short crossing times and 45 mph traffic going through, on top of the fact that the crossings are out of the way and it’s way too tempting to try to dash across. I’d let my son walk to school in a heartbeat if strangers were the only worry.
STRONG Fathers commented on Sep 14 09 at 4:00 pmSTRONGMom & the kids walk to school everyday. She works in the high school next to their elementary school. I joined them on the first day, and pick them up when I have the chance ( I park at home and walk there & back). Someday they will walk on their own. Part of why we live where we do is that it is ped friendly.
DCMama commented on Sep 14 09 at 5:28 pmI’m terrified my kids will be hit by a speeding SUV or some other idiot on a cell phone. Or, someone else teenager driving an SUV. I’m not worried about snatching, I’m worried about cars.
Laure68 commented on Sep 14 09 at 8:50 pmThank you so much for this post. Living in the city, I do worry about my son getting hit by a car, while I don’t fret that he will get snatched by a stranger.
As well-respected as the NYTimes is, I find they have a lot of stories like this. They come to a conclusion based on a few anecdotal stories. I have seen this happen so often that I have stopped reading this paper.
Remember helping hands? commented on Oct 07 09 at 11:25 pmWhen I was a child we walked home from school. We also had lots of parents who didn’t work and a program where parents had red helping hand signs in the windows. You knew that if you ever felt like you were in trouble, you could go to a sign with the hand in the window. I never actually used one, but I knew they were there. We don’t have helping hands anymore—not enough money to screen particiapnts and too much liability. Parents work. Other kids aren’t walking home too. Yes, it would be great if we could go back then, but things are different. It’s not about molesters; it’s about having nobody around for them if something did happen.
Canuckmom commented on Aug 02 11 at 12:15 pmI find the other parents driving to be the biggest problem here. Speeding through the school zones, pull in u-turns, texting, distracted, hurried… My kids’ school is just out of the city limits so we have to drive, but I’ll be early enough that I will hopefully get a close enough spot to avoid the parking lot craziness.
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