Cycling or Walking to School Will Not Be Tolerated!

According to the Surgeon General, more than 12.5 million children -- 17.1% of children and adolescents 2 to 19 years of age -- are overweight in the U.S., up from 13 % in 1999.

So, one would expect schools to be encouraging students to exercise more. Perhaps to even walk or bicycle to school. Hey, it could save some energy ... even reduce CO2 emissions a bit.

One would be sadly mistaken.

I first noted this a few years ago when our neighborhood school removed the bike parking. Then I stumbled upon this gem.

In Saratoga Springs, New York students are banned from walking or cycling to the Maple Avenue Middle School.

Recently Seventh-grader Adam Marino and his mother, Janette Kaddo Marino decided to challenge this policy by biking to Maple Avenue Middle School on Route 9.

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.

Odds are good that the lunchroom's got a soda machine with the local beverage distributor kicking back funds to the school.

Getting people out of their cars and into public transit, or on bikes, makes them less fat, according to research from Rutgers University urban planning professor John Puche.

Amazing isn't it?

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Comments

[William Volk - Huffpost Blogger]

UPDATE:

Faced with national criticism over not allowing students to bike to some schools, the Saratoga Springs school district approved a revised bicycle policy Tuesday that some said raised even more questions.

The new rule permits elementary school students and children attending Maple Avenue Middle School to ride bikes on school properties if they are accompanied by a parent/guardian and register in a note, "providing due diligence by the administration and individual school planning committees has determined that the conditions exist under which bikes may safely access school property."

The new policy, recommended to the board by a committee, also says school administrators "will develop regulations to specify locations, conditions and requirements for such access and modify them as circumstances change."

The former rule had disallowed all elementary school students and children attending Maple Avenue Middle School from riding bikes to classes over safety concerns.

The new policy is "jargon," said Janette Kaddo Marino, who had defied the no biking rule with her son, Adam, 12. They pedaled together four miles each way to Maple Avenue Middle School on Route 9 because, Kaddo Marino said, the old rule encroached on her parental rights and didn't make sense in an age of growing child obesity.

"They are still involving themselves in something they have no right to be involved with," Kaddo Marino said at the meeting at Dorothy Nolan Elementary...

Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=852670#ixzz0VoigC1IW

[William Volk - Huffpost Blogger]

An estimated one in three Americans born in the year 2000 will develop diabetes at some point in their lives, according to an article in the Oct. 8 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

http://articles.latimes.com/2003/jun/15/nation/na-diabetes15

[daveatkins]

There must be more to this story--I hope this is not simply controversy-baiting. Tomorrow is International Walk to School Day. In our community, all 5 elementary schools have joined the Safe Routes to Schools program...bike racks are full at my daughter's elementary school and the town is in the process of procuring additional bike racks. The main concern here is how to make walking and biking safer and more desirable--I cannot imagine anyone prohibiting it.

[William Volk - Huffpost Blogger]

The Newspaper that reported this has a follow up editorial:

http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=848532&category=OPINION

"It's been some time since we so eagerly awaited a school board meeting like the one that's coming up in Saratoga Springs on Oct. 13. What an ideal chance for parents, teachers, kids and anyone else interested in promoting good health and common sense to speak up on behalf of bicycling to school."

I've also heard from cyclists in the community that this is a real situation.

[sunnybunny]

This should be a no-brainer huh? When my older kids were little, walking or riding bikes was the norm. But somewhere around the turn of the 21st century kids not only think you're out of line to suggest they walk or bike to school, but also think they need a ride to the bus stop and pretty soon riding the bus even isn't cool? I don't want to spoil my kids in such a stupid way, but when everyone else does what can you do?Traffic is a consideration and very scary - something I noticed in the pictures someone posted here. That is the main obstacle for most people who would prefer to be pedestrians. What can we do about it?

[William Volk - Huffpost Blogger]

According to the article there have not been any cycling accidents on this road over the last three years.

[William Volk - Huffpost Blogger]

Oh, and here is a picture of the road in question:

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y290/neilcooper/Misc/MapleAve.jpg

[William Volk - Huffpost Blogger]

Another picture, this time of the cyclists in question:

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y290/neilcooper/Misc/ADV_bike_4_.jpg