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Kids PROHIBITED from walking/biking to school


NeoConMan

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When does your school overstep its bounds?

When do your children finally just live with the school board 24/7?

 

Check this out...

 

School district could backpedal on policy

Saratoga Springs board to consider modifying ban on riding bikes to schools

 

By DENNIS YUSKO, Staff writer

September 29, 2009

 

 

SARATOGA SPRINGS -- Seventh-grader Adam Marino is getting a firsthand lesson in civil disobedience.

 

The 12-year-old and his mother, Janette Kaddo Marino, are defying Saratoga Springs school policy by biking to Maple Avenue Middle School on Route 9. The Jackson Street residents pedal more than four miles together each way to the middle school on nice days despite being told not to by school officials and police.

 

"I guess you can say that we continue to do what we feel is our right," Kaddo Marino said recently. "We feel strongly we have a right to get to school by a mode of transportation we deem appropriate."

 

Their methods may be unconventional, but the Marinos are part of a growing number of Americans challenging the sedentary habits of today's youths and what they view as overanxious "helicopter" parenting. As fewer children walk and bike to school nationwide, parents have started groups like the "Walking School Bus," which promotes physical activity and fitness in youth by having them walk to school with adults.

 

Parents and teachers at Niskayuna's Hillside Elementary School implemented the state's first Walking School Bus program. Separately, this week marks the end of the first "Children and Nature: Saratoga -- Come Out and Play," a week of outdoor events in Saratoga Springs coordinated by the local chapter of a national organization that seeks to "reconnect" children and their families to the outdoors.

 

Riding his 21-speed Giant mountain bike to school benefits Adam Marino's health and the environment, his mother says, and Adam believes it makes him a better student. "It would be really nice if it got changed," he said of the school policy.

 

The youngster may get his way.

 

While the school district does not allow elementary school or Maple Avenue students to ride bikes to school, that could change in the coming weeks, Superintendent Janice White said. The Board of Education could vote to amend the policy on Oct. 13, when it is scheduled to discuss a recommendation from a district-formed committee.

 

"Supervised, parent/guardian bike riding may be permitted at specific sites in the future," White said in an interview Friday. The school has no legal responsibility over what occurs on Route 9, she added.

 

The biking debate started last spring, when school district officials told Kaddo Marino that Adam was violating school rules by biking to class. Walking to the school also is not permitted.

 

Kaddo Marino challenged the policy and asked the school board to change it. The district charged a committee to review the rule, which was instituted in 1994.

 

At the start of school in September, Kaddo Marino thought that she had a nonverbal agreement with school officials to allow her son to ride his bike until a new policy was resolved. But on the night before classes started, school authorities called parents to say that walking and biking to school would not be tolerated.

 

When the pair stuck with their plan, they were met by school administrators and a state trooper, who emphasized that biking was prohibited, Kaddo Marino said.

 

In response, members of an advocacy group, Saratoga Healthy Transportation Network, rallied around the mother and son by accompanying them on their rides to school. They go an average of twice a week. Mom rides to the school to join her son coming home.

Route 9 is a state road also called Maple Avenue. The suburban thoroughfare is busy with cars and businesses. It has crosswalks and wide shoulders, but no bike lanes.

 

The accident rate on the road near the school is less than the statewide average for similar streets, and no bike accidents have been reported in the last three years ending Feb. 1, according to Mark Kennedy, regional traffic engineer at the state Department of Transportation.

 

At Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake schools, officials allow elementary and middle school students to ride their bikes to school if they bring in notes from their parents, spokeswoman Christy Multer said. About six to 10 middle school students ride on nice days, Multer said. They park their bikes in racks, and leave after buses depart.

 

 

www.timesunion.com

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Stories like this amaze me.

 

A few years back here in SC DSS removed a couple of sisters from their parents because the parents were handcuffing the daughters to their bed at night. This was being done to prevent the girls from sneaking out during the night and seeing adult men and it was the only thing that the parents had found that worked.

 

About three months after they were placed in DSS custody the daughters turned up pregnant. DSS wanted the parents to pay for the medical expenses. The parents took it to court and won. DSS was admonished by the judge but I'm sure it didn't change anything.

 

The politicians think they has all the answers and can do it all better than the citizens. =D>

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The fact that these girls had to be cuffed to their beds pretty much indicates that the parents may not have done a good job of raising them. Parents like that always make up some kind of excuse for their kids bad behavior and don't accept any responsibility.

But as far as biking to school, for the school to ban that is totally insane and stupid. This is an example of good parenting.

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In my school they banned everyone from wearing band t-shits...i really dont know why either...it sucks i mean i understand if im weaing the t-**** that looks like my avatar but a ****ing led zep t-**** you cant wear?

They banned s-hirts from the website?

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No no see, it's all a ploy to turn all of america in to morbidly obese fatty McFat fats, the powers that be won't have the younger generation staying in shape at all. So how do we keep america fat and needing fake diets and drugs? Attack the younger generation, which knows no better! Indoctrinate, and stuff them full of grease, and for the love of god MAKE SURE they don't use any form of transportation that involves them moving their legs. Otherwise they won't be supporting the oil industry, the FDA, and will be thinking for themselves!!

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Parents like that always make up some kind of excuse for their kids bad behavior and don't accept any responsibility.

Doesn't matter who did what right or wrong yesterday.

When a problem pops up, it has to dealt with no matter what.

 

Children are surprisingly capable of following their own impulses despite our best influence.

Comes a point in time they must be accountable themselves if they choose to break the rules - or the law.

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Here is my suggestion - build a bike path on Route 9. Problem solved.

 

They should encourage physical activity as much as possible. Anyone whom has been to bike friendly cities like Montreal can see how it is done. Hell, my middle-of-nowhere home town in Michigan had a bike path that ran parallel to the major highway. Thing went right past the jr. high and high school.

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Why do you think so many kids look like they just left the Goodyear blimp factory?

If we took a look at that schools lunch menu we would probably find deep fried cheese served with a butter chaser!

Cancel PE from school, serve them tons of fat and sugar, and prohibit them from walking or biking to school? =P~

Just when did a school district get the power to decide what form of transportation a family uses?

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Why do you think so many kids look like they just left the Goodyear blimp factory?

If we took a look at that schools lunch menu we would probably find deep fried cheese served with a butter chaser!

Cancel PE from school' date=' serve them tons of fat and sugar, and prohibit them from walking or biking to school? =P~

Just when did a school district get the power to decide what form of transportation a family uses?

[/quote']

At my school the lunch is horrible the french fries are half burned half not cooked...im serious. The roast beef has little green spots on it and the meat is fake.

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Huh?

 

You don't?

 

:-

 

Hmmmm.....

 

:-/

 

 

Nope, been riding a bike my whole life. Sure it's hard to get around sometimes, but I take comfort in the fact I'm not contributing to the most evil corporations that exist today, nor am I polluting. And as a consequence I'm in great shape. It's a win win situation for me I guess, just wish everybody would wake up to the fact that we are conditioned to rely on gas guzzling cars...

 

On that note, Texaco took the patent for the electric car back in 2000...

 

(Or rather Chevron did, they bought Texaco in 2001 or something)

 

Turns out Panasonic was developing some really awesome batteries for electric cars that, if they had continued to createmodify them, would actually outlast the car itself.

 

Needless to say, big Chevron seeing its oil profits being threatened by this patent, did not like this one bit and actually sued Panasonic. There was a $30,000,000 lawsuit, and Panasonic handed over the patents for the batteries...

 

Goodbye clean energy...

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Hey - This Saturday is "Take a Kid Mountain Biking Day", sponsored by the International Mountain Biking Associattion. Local clubs around the country are sponsoring clinics and rides and stuff like that for kids to get them interested in mountain biking. Help a kid get interested in a great activity. Sorry for spamming your thread, Neo, but it's good spam.

 

See here:

http://imba.com/news/news_releases/09_09/09_30_TKMBD.html

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While I agree that riding a bike to school is not only a right of passage, it is healthy. However, if the state police were there to enforce a STATE LAW, not a school edict, then they really should follow the state law.

 

Her time, talent and treasure would be better spent, lobbying the village for bike paths.

 

The school has no responsibility for the child until he gets to the school property. Why they even care how the kid gets to school is beyond the scope of their responsibility and ability to enforce.

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