http://jacksonville.com/opinion/editorials/2009-11-07/story/predators_keeping_kids_safe
How do we keep our children safe?
Those eternal fears of all parents were brought to the surface recently when Somer Renee Thompson was killed in Orange Park.
In some neighborhoods, children aren't allowed outside alone, as if they are on house arrest.
Yet, as parents, you can't and shouldn't do everything for your child.
That balancing act is the subject of today's comments from members of our E-Mail Interactive Group. To join, send an e-mail to:
carol.boone@jacksonville.com.
Seven steps to safety
As a mother of a 10-year-old boy, my anxieties are high and nerves are on edge.
I think some of the most important things to stress are:
1. Stay in groups.
2. Never approach anyone in a car unless you clearly know the person.
3. Always stay on main, well-traveled roads. Avoid shortcuts.
4. Cross roads where there are crossing guards if possible.
5. Take a self-defense class.
6. Be aware of your surroundings and who is around you.
7. Be purposeful and show confidence. Predators look for the weak. - MARIA MARK, Jacksonville.
More patrols
One community I lived in, Iowa City, used school patrols at intersections along the way. - ALLEN TILLEY, Jacksonville.
More carpools
We have a 12-year-old who is dropped off and picked up each day via car by one of us.
If we can't do it, she will only ride with a parent she knows. We are lucky that there are six other households in the immediate neighborhood that carpool with us.
We have a 9-year-old who rides his bike to school with his buddies each day. My wife tails them on a bike to make sure they get to school and home safely.
If my wife can't accompany them, she makes arrangements for me or another parent to be the escort. They voluntarily stick closer than they used to. - GEOFF BEARDALL, Jacksonville.
No playing in yard
We don't allow our children in our front yard unless one of us parents are out there with them, much less allow them to walk to school.
They never have and never will walk to school by themselves. The key is to never let them out of your sight. If that's too much, then you needn't be parents.
Every school should have an early drop-off where the kids could be checked in while the parents go off to work.
We hate to live in fear, but we have to watch over our children at all times. - WAYNE MOORE, Orange Park.
Start 'walk pools'
Maybe we need "walk pools" like we have "car pools" with designated parents, known to law enforcement, that walk the routes with the children. At the end of the day, we cannot let these predators keep us from living our lives; we cannot let them teach our children to be afraid of simply walking home from school. - ART PECK, Jacksonville.
Helping each other
I always took my children to school. I would do so especially these days; times have changed drastically. As the parents and neighbors are doing in Orange Park, they are standing along the route to school where these children walk. What a great idea. - SALLY BOGGS, Jacksonville.
Determination is key
I have never let my daughter walk to school and never will. She has never even walked from the bus stop. I work seven days a week, but one way or the other, I always have her taken to school and picked up.
If it means that I have to leave work early, I have always done whatever it took to ensure she is not out there for these demons to stalk. I have never shielded her from the fact that there is evil in this world. She is vigilant and safety conscious. I want her to be a child, but I also want to see her grow up. - REGINA BLAKER, Marietta.
Meeting the bus
I hate that it is not safe for a child to walk home from school (or from the bus) alone, but that is the reality in virtually all parts of Jacksonville. In my neighborhood, families take turns walking all the kids from a bus to their respective houses.
Other parents meet the bus in automobiles. High schoolers sometimes walk from the bus to their homes, but seldom from school. - AL WEIGAND, Jacksonville.
Walking school bus
I like the idea of the "walking school bus," where kids gather in one location and walk to school as a group with adult supervision. At no time, should small children be unaccompanied by a responsible adult, from the moment they leave the front door of the home until the time they walk into the school. I know that parental supervision at all times is hard to do in some cases, but that shouldn't prevent it. - KEITH SCHNIER, Orang Park.
Even in gated community ...
We live in a gated community. Our children are picked up by a school bus one block from our home. They walk together as a group to the bus stop. Even in our gated community, I would not allow our 7-year-old daughter to walk alone to the bus stop. - CAYCE RUMSEY, Ponte Vedra Beach.
Don't overprotect them
My 12-year-old stepdaughter still walks to school. Is it worrisome, yes, but we must approach life from the perspective that there have always been danger and bad people in our world and to overprotect is detrimental to the children, too.
Kids need to be protected, but not overprotected. They need to know about danger and what they can do to protect themselves but, unfortunately, you hardly ever see kids riding bikes and playing ballgames with each other like I did when I was a kid. Truth is, we probably had as many pedophiles in the neighborhood I grew up in as we do today; we just didn't know it. - MICHAEL TARRANCE, Jacksonville.