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March 28, 2024 5:10 pm
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OPEN FORUM: Do You Know Who Is Running Over Your Children?

by Esther Ramos


Do you know who’s running your children over, on their way to school? You say they know how to ride their bicycles and their skates to school safely? And they all wear their little helmets? And they all know road and street ettiquette? Well, just let me interject: NO! No they don’t. Not at all. I’m amazed everyday that I don’t see at least one child, on the side, somewhere between ruffled and splattered, with a smashed bike.

So maybe your particular ray of sunshine knows proper safety protocol. Wonderful. But let’s face it, when your door shuts, and that small copy of yourself is out of eyeshot and earshot, all of their training and knowledge is, quite frankly, out the window, my dear, and all of the students are just following whatever their worst example is doing. Trust me, honey, I have no reason to lie.

Better yet, don’t trust me. Go out one day. Hide and watch me and other drivers trying to go down the road without clipping somebody’s child. In places, a driver has to do inventive evasive manuevers to avoid them. In real life, if they would just collectively pick a side, any side, we would all be fine. But they don’t. They are either on both sides, or they’re trotting right down the middle of the road.

So I come along and they scatter. But not scattered enough that a minivan can safely pass between them. So the minivan ends up stopping to let them regroup. This is not good. And when two vehicles meet at a group of your little bundles of joy, at least one of them has to stop one hundred percent of the time. Again, this is not good.

We’re getting increasing noise from higher numbers of kids mixed with increasing numbers of cars that make less noise, and it’s going to happen.

Somebody’s child will be hurt or worse. Wouldn’t it be easier for ALL parents whose children take themselves to school to mandate a protocol for safely getting there? Now? When I stop and address a group of them they’re usually just rude to me, like I was wrong. Well, in this instance, I am not wrong. And I can’t just call you and tell you that your specific little shining light wishes someone would run them over, because I don’t know these kids. They seem like smart enough people, just maybe a little too carefree, and with a strong quest to have me believe that I should somehow get out of their way. I do wind up getting out of their way, because I am the adult here. But just put a teenager in the driver’s seat, in my place, with an urgent text message in their hands and on their minds, and this would just not mix well.

Parents! I am talking to you!! Do you know me? And do you know who is running over your children?

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