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November 21, 2005
High School Bans Students From Driving Cars?
With few exceptions, what if students couldn't drive a car to high school?
We know that grades fall when a high school student gets a car, right? We know they are at a greater risk for death or serious injury when they drive. We know parents are more likely to get sued when their kids drive, so what is it about our car-crazy culture that says it's OK for a child to drive a car to school, especially when we have every statistical reason to believe otherwise?
You've seen the parking lots at the local high schools, those costly parking lots, taking up valuable classroom space are now filled to overflowing with everything from seriously impaired junkers that you or I wouldn't drive around the block, to those newer cars, cars that you and I probably couldn't afford!
Too many well meaning, but clueless parents needlessly risk their child's future by sending them off to school lacking the driver skills and the maturity to get there safely. It's a fact that young drivers, kids between 16 and 19 have the highest accident rate of any other group and nearly 1 in 7 will be involved in a serious accident.
This practice of sending a kid off to school in his own car is not good for the student, parents pocket book or for the environment. At the risk of sounding too much like a liberal, it does seems...er, "fuelish"? Well, it's true. We're burning up our limited resources at an alarming rate and this is one of the little niche areas where we could conserve.
Think about it, our streets would be less crowded and therefore safer, if students didn't drive to and from school. It can't be financially good for the family and we know from decades of research that it's not good for the student's education, so why do we allow it and accept it almost as a God-given, American right?
I think it's part of our uniquely American tradition of having a love affair with the automobile and partly because we can afford to do it because we are such an affluent society.
If I am wrong, please tell me the downside here because I'm not seeing it? And no, you can't say the kids need to drive because the bus doesn't go there or they have a part-time job or other serious need. Those are reasonable exceptions. Just tell me why high school kids in general ought to be allowed to skip the bus and drive a potentially lethal weapon (Cars, Trucks and SUV's) to school, that's likely going to hurt them or someone else or at the very least, adversely impact their grades?
Posted by Post Scripts at November 21, 2005 10:34 AM