Parents may get arrested for walking their children to school

[wolfie]

From what I gather from somewhat less screechy sources than Fox/MSN, the bulk of the complaints seem to have more to do with how slow and ponderous the pick up process has become. With people having to sit for an hour or more in a car line to pick up their kids.

So, if we're to take the school at their word, it is so hazardous for pedestrians to even think of leaving the school grounds while kids are being picked up that they have enlisted local law enforcement to ensure that no student simply walks off the school property until all automobiles are gone.

I can't imagine any reason to hold students who will be walking off the property while cars line up. None. Not as long as there are sidewalks and crosswalks available.

So the "solution" to traffic jams at letting-out time is that, if a kid lives close to the school and the parents decide to walk them to/from school rather than participate in the traffic jam, the kid gets an hour-long detention (after all, the parents aren't allowed to collect them until all the cars in the hour-long line are gone) EVERY DAY?

[s_stabeler]

I hate to say it, Wolfie, but while it's obviously not a perfect solution, I can see the logic.The big issue is how litigation-happy america can be. If a kid gets hit by a car, some numbskull could well sue the school, claiming that the school failed to take reasonable care to keep the kids from getting run over. Yeah, the numbskull would probably lose, but how much would the legal fees be? In the UK, it's loser pays, so the numbskull would need to pay the school's legal fees. in the US, it's each side pays their own legal bills, so the school could be stuck with a legal bill of several thousand dollars.

The ideal option would, of course, probably be to create a crossing on the highway for the kids to use to cross the thing- however, that's down to the city- and I doubt they will.(I'm thinking of either an over- or under- pass so as not to disrupt the flow of traffic on the highway any more than the school already does)

[mjr]

I wouldn't say "only in Texas"...the parents are fighting back. One of those articles has said that some parents are pulling their kids from that particular school. It seems to me like the principal made a unilateral decision.

I wonder what's behind this, though. Seems like there might be something beyond the safety of the kids.