One Windermere parent speaks out about the school bus 2-mile rule when writing a letter to the Orlando Sentinel.
Speaking for thousands of parents, I am thankful that, as we enter the stretch run of the academic year, we have had so few students massacred by vehicles as they walked to school. Also, there seems to have been remarkably few abductions and assaults of our children on foot.
We should count our blessings and attempt to overlook the horrific gridlock surrounding most elementary and middle schools — virtual parking lots that clearly have their genesis, in part, in Orange County’s moronic insistence to adhere to the state’s recommendation of a 2-mile bus perimeter, thereby excluding children from taxpayer-funded transportation. This naturally impels parents to drive their child 1.8 miles to school to avoid inclement weather, hazards and crime. Unfortunately, not every child has a parent who can make the round trip, twice a day, five days a week, nine months a year. Then again, some adults fail to comprehend the sheer stupidity of this policy. No, you did not walk 2 miles to school when you were a kid. And even if you did, you did not do it with the entire contents of your locker strapped to your back, which today’s children do. And so, the child trudges along, naive to the lunacy of the county’s transportation policy, but nevertheless cognizant of the fact that no fewer than a dozen buses will pass him or her by, but are forbidden to give the child a ride the remaining mile and a half to school.
Chris Forrest. Windermere
