To the Editor:
I believe that kids should be getting more exercise and that walking is a great way to get it but there’s a time and place for everything. The current Milford policy calls for 5- and 6-year-olds to be walking up to 20 minutes to school. If a parent sent their 5-year-old on a 20 minute walk, there’s a good chance they’d get a visit from Child Protective Services.
Older kids are expected to walk up to 40 minutes. Not bad if you’re not carrying a backpack loaded with books, a band instrument and sports equipment and the temperature is 85+ like we recently experienced. If you are, 40 minutes is entering basic training range.
There’s inevitably going to be at least one person on the board who is going to talk about how when he was young he walked 10 miles to school every day in the snow, uphill both ways. I recently went back to clock my own school walk and guess what, it wasn’t anywhere near as far as I remembered. The earth must be shrinking.
Kids shouldn’t be arriving at school ready for a nap or absent because the weather makes walking impractical. Parents shouldn’t have to be concerned about their kids’ safety.
It’s time for the Board of Education to update this policy.
Tom Jagodzinski
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