Having a teen ride to school - endangerment?

Austin, thanks for authenticating 'Claire'. I'll quietly retreat back to
lurking now. Harris

No endangerment, but the parents are insane. The kid wasn't in any real
danger, the parents were trying to make a point that he missed his
transportation and needed to get to school on his own. Taxis are good... so
are friends who drive. Riding a bike 20 miles to school in good weather is
kind of bizarre...kids need to shower when they get to school or else they
would reek all day long. A few miles, sure. 20 miles...the parents need some
advice, but nope, not endangerment.

Claire wrote:

So, what do you think? Endangerment?

Not in my opinion. I think it was a good idea, and either the kid will
stop oversleeping or get in real good shape. All positives.

When I was 16, I ran away from home and hitchhiked across the country. I ran
into several life threatening situations. A lot of kids are more capable
than adults on many levels. Look at how many posters to this thread think
20 miles is too far to ride a bike for an 18 year old! That 18 year old is
possibly more capable than they are. When I was 18, I could do anything I
could now, and moreso.



"Claire" wrote in message
oups.com...
From a parenting list I'm on -- comments? (Names changed to protect
privacy...)

---
Someone was talking about kids walking or riding their bikes to school.
I would never let my kids ride to the high school. For one thing, it
is 20 miles away, and for another, over half of that is on two lane
busy roads with no shoulder, and usually high embankments on either
side. A few weeks ago, Ron took the day off and happened to be heading
along that road at about 9 am, on a day when we had a monsoon. (We had
4 3/4 inches of rain in less than 12 hours!) He came across one of his
older boy scouts (actually
no longer a scout, but an Asst. Scoutmaster, because he is 18), on his
bike, along that road. Ron stopped, turned around and went back for
him. Luckily he was driving the truck, and could take Len to school
then take his bike home for him so he could ride the bus home. Len was
soaked, thoroughly chilled, and terrified, from all the drivers who had
buzzed past him, splashed water all over him, etc. (And this is a kid
who does regularly ride his bike to school for various things, so it
was the conditions and not the road that terrified him.) He had
overslept, and his mother told him to get
himself to school. Ron said if Len hadn't been over 18, he would have
thought about reporting his mother for endangerment.
---

So, what do you think? Endangerment?

Warm Regards,


Claire Petersky
Personal page: http://www.geocities.com/cpetersky/
See the books I've set free at:
http://bookcrossing.com/referr*al/Cpetersky

2 Jun 2005 18:22:48 -0700,
.com, "Fritz M"
wrote:

Twenty miles sounds like an exaggeration.

That's what I thought, too. Is this to a private or charter school
perhaps?

Possibly as a 20 mile radius would represent a huge catchment area for
a secondary school except maybe in the boonies of Montana or Wyoming.
--
zk

Claire wrote:
From a parenting list I'm on -- comments? (Names changed to protect
privacy...)

---
Someone was talking about kids walking or riding their bikes to school.
I would never let my kids ride to the high school. For one thing, it
is 20 miles away, and for another, over half of that is on two lane
busy roads with no shoulder, and usually high embankments on either
side. A few weeks ago, Ron took the day off and happened to be heading
along that road at about 9 am, on a day when we had a monsoon. (We had
4 3/4 inches of rain in less than 12 hours!) He came across one of his
older boy scouts (actually
no longer a scout, but an Asst. Scoutmaster, because he is 18), on his
bike, along that road. Ron stopped, turned around and went back for
him. Luckily he was driving the truck, and could take Len to school
then take his bike home for him so he could ride the bus home. Len was
soaked, thoroughly chilled, and terrified, from all the drivers who had
buzzed past him, splashed water all over him, etc. (And this is a kid
who does regularly ride his bike to school for various things, so it
was the conditions and not the road that terrified him.) He had
overslept, and his mother told him to get
himself to school. Ron said if Len hadn't been over 18, he would have
thought about reporting his mother for endangerment.
---

So, what do you think? Endangerment?

I presume Ron meant child endangerment so if someone in these exact
circumstances called me in an official capacity I'd have to ask them,
"Endangerment of who and how? He may not be your idea of an adult but
at 18 the law says Len is an adult. That he decided to ride a lousy
route to school and got caught out by a violent rainstorm doesn't make
him a child. Hopefully it will just encourage him to not oversleep and
maybe make him a better route planner."
In an unofficial capacity I'd probably laugh and tell them to buy the
kid an alarm clock and some raingear.

Regards,
Bob Hunt

"Claire" wrote in message
oups.com...

So, what do you think? Endangerment?

In that case I'm a seriously bad mother. My teenage son regularly cycles a
26-mile round trip to college & back. His previous school which was an
11-mile round trip he used to regularly cycle to. Before he did it himself,
his Dad and/or I used to cycle with him. Of course, I do happen to have a
teenager who is fit, healthy, confident, outgoing and learning to deal with
the risks life throws at him. He's caring (just watch how he relates to
animals and takes an active part in the medicating of our cat with a chronic
illness), and I can take him anywhere and know he won't let me down. But
what the heck, I must obviously be a bad mother....

Cheers, helen s

In article .com,
"Claire" wrote:

From a parenting list I'm on -- comments? (Names changed to protect
privacy...)

---
Someone was talking about kids walking or riding their bikes to school.
I would never let my kids ride to the high school. For one thing, it
is 20 miles away, and for another, over half of that is on two lane
busy roads with no shoulder, and usually high embankments on either
side. A few weeks ago, Ron took the day off and happened to be heading
along that road at about 9 am, on a day when we had a monsoon. (We had
4 3/4 inches of rain in less than 12 hours!) He came across one of his
older boy scouts (actually
no longer a scout, but an Asst. Scoutmaster, because he is 18), on his
bike, along that road. Ron stopped, turned around and went back for
him. Luckily he was driving the truck, and could take Len to school
then take his bike home for him so he could ride the bus home. Len was
soaked, thoroughly chilled, and terrified, from all the drivers who had
buzzed past him, splashed water all over him, etc. (And this is a kid
who does regularly ride his bike to school for various things, so it
was the conditions and not the road that terrified him.) He had
overslept, and his mother told him to get
himself to school. Ron said if Len hadn't been over 18, he would have
thought about reporting his mother for endangerment.
---

So, what do you think? Endangerment?

Warm Regards,


Claire Petersky
Personal page: http://www.geocities.com/cpetersky/
See the books I've set free at:
http://bookcrossing.com/referr*al/Cpetersky


Nope.

We don't know how often Len oversleeps so he misses the bus -- but it
strikes me as reasonable to expect an 18 yo to get up early or get
himself to school.

It sounds harsh, and not something I would do if missing the bus was a
once-in-a-while thing (and possibly not in bad weather -- but I'm a
pushover), but assuming that this was the standard in that house -- get
out of bed on time to catch the bus or get yourself to school -- I'm not
so sure this was unreasonable, even if he had been 16 or 17.
--
Children won't care how much you know until they know how much you care

In article ,
(Tom Keats) wrote:

2) are we talking about high school? If so, 18+ is rather
old, but not extremely so (Len may have been born late
in the year and so started later, or failed a grade, or
had to miss a year for medical reasons.)

Very few kids graduate from high school before their 18th birthday.
Graduating after their 19th birthday is not terribly uncommon, either.
This time of year, most seniors are 18, so there is nothing at all
unusual about an 18 year old being in high school.
--
Children won't care how much you know until they know how much you care

dragonlady wrote:


We don't know how often Len oversleeps so he misses the bus -- but it
strikes me as reasonable to expect an 18 yo to get up early or get
himself to school.

It sounds harsh, and not something I would do if missing the bus was a
once-in-a-while thing (and possibly not in bad weather -- but I'm a
pushover), but assuming that this was the standard in that house -- get
out of bed on time to catch the bus or get yourself to school -- I'm not
so sure this was unreasonable, even if he had been 16 or 17.

Hmmm...I rather disagree, I think (assuming the details
are accurate in the story). I don't think it's endangerment,
particularly given the age. However, if the riding conditions
are unsafe (and riding along a busy road in terrible weather
doesn't sound particularly safe for anyone at any age), and
the child had no other way to get to school other than the bike,
then I would have looked for another consequence to oversleeping.
There are a zillion and one ways to enforce some sort of consequence
for missing the bus that don't have the huge potential downside of
riding in truly unsafe conditions. If the conditions were not as
unsafe as they seem to be, I might change my mind, but they surely
don't sound like conditions I would consider a reasonable choice.
I'm sure I wouldn't have to stress my creative abilities too hard
to come up with a consequence that got him to school safely while
still making him regret not taking responsibility for getting up
on time.

Best wishes,
Ericka