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School Puts Down Bike Ban, Parent Ignore It
A school district in upstate New York has laid down the law over kids riding their bikes to school. But one family has decided to ignore it.
The Marinos told their local paper they ride regularly for exercise and recreation – and as far as they’re concerned, it’s up to them how their son gets to school. So they’re riding anyway.
The back-and-forth this past week between parents and school district has made for an interesting debate among other parents. Is biking better because it’s exercise in light of a childhood obesity crisis? Is it better because it’s greener than a school bus?
Or is the school district right – there are inherent dangers in children using a means other than a bus or car to get to school?
There are certainly dangers – U.S. Department of Transportation statistics show bicycle accidents account for two percent of traffic fatalities and two percent of traffic injuries.
No wonder no one’s letting their kid be a paper boy anymore. And as I discovered in my review of the dangers for kids walking to school this week, the sharp increase in the number of vehicles on the road today vs. when we or our parents made their way to school via a means other than a vehicle presents certain dangers.
But by riding to school with their son, the Marinos cast this debate in a different light. A child riding a bicycle alone to school can easily be caught up in his or her own thoughts and miss a stop sign, can be driven either via peer pressure or sheer childishness to add a little risk to the ride, can be caught up in listening to the iPod and miss the car behind them. Add a parent to the equation, and their level adult head shaves away a high portion of those problems. Not to mention an incident that happens on Mom or Dad’s watch no longer falls on the shoulders of the school district in today’s litigious society.
The district is debating how best to remedy the situation. Here’s our suggestion: add the word “unattended” to the policy. As in “no unattended child shall bicycle to school . . .”
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0 Comments
GP commented on Sep 15 09 at 1:18 pmGo Marinos!
snarky mama commented on Sep 15 09 at 1:36 pmInteresting. In our city, there is a group called “Safer Routes to School” (or something like that), which advocates walking and biking to school. Beyond sponsoring “Walk and Bike” to school day twice a year (the school with the most participants wins some sort of prize, like a new bike rack), they also publish maps with the safest routes to school. One of their more interesting campaigns is asking parents who drive to school to park 2 or 3 blocks away from school (instead of in the school parking lot) and walk the rest of the way. This cuts down on cars driving near the school, creating a safer zone for walkers and bikers, not to mention, it reduces the emissions the kids are inhaling on their walk into the building.
I am obviously big on the walking/biking to school idea–we do it everyday, rain or shine (and accompanied by a parent).
Samsmomma commented on Sep 15 09 at 2:08 pmLet the parents decide. Some children can’t handle the responsibility of biking to school, but many can. And the more children who do bike or walk to school, the fewer cars there will be on the road to make biking risky.
Bec commented on Sep 15 09 at 2:30 pmU.S. Department of Transportation statistics show bicycle accidents account for two percent of traffic fatalities and two percent of traffic injuries, eh? I wonder how many of traffic fatalities involve cars.
Seriously, it shouldn’t be the school’s prerogative how the children get there. And the sentence about “inherent dangers” in travelling by any means other than the car or bus sounds an awful lot like something someone in the oil and auto industries would say… are they sponsoring the school or something?
April commented on Sep 16 09 at 7:25 amHere is another case of schools trying to be more important than parents. It is their kid and it is up to them how they get their child to school. Good for them for exercising and being thrifty. I plan on walking my kids to and from school everyday myself.
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