Walk To School

A plan to discontinue school bus service to some 70 students at Waterloo Elementary School has raised safety concerns among the parents of those children.Parents in Columbia's Kendall Ridge neighborhood fear for the safety of students who will have to walk the less than one-mile route across a secluded, wooded area to get to school, saying there is little visibility and many animals that roam the area. Some parents say even if they were to accompany their children to school, they would be afraid to walk home alone.

A second grader at Sandy Plains Elementary School in Dundalk was seriously injured on his morning walk to school Monday when he was struck by a car, according to Baltimore County officials. Emergency personnel responded to the scene near the school, located in the 8300 block of Kavanagh Road, about 8:30 a.m. and found the injured boy, who is 8 years old, according to Lt. Jay Ringgold, the spokesman. The boy was transported to the pediatric trauma center at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Ringgold said.

COLUMBIA - The crunch of leaves beneath their feet was muffled by the children's voices as they paraded to school, carrying signs to let drivers know that it was International Walk to School Day at Swansfield Elementary and around the world. "Walk don't pollute," read one of the handmade signs on display during the event Wednesday. "Be cool, walk to school," said another. 50 schools take part Swansfield was one of 50 schools in Maryland that took part in the ninth annual event, and the school's 500 pupils were among an estimated 3 million people who walked to their schools in more than 35 countries on six continents Shannon Toole and his children, fifth-grader Gideon and third-grader Mary Kate, were joined by others in their neighborhood for the trek to Swansfield.

On Wednesday, Baltimore schoolchildren will join students from around the world by participating in International Walk to School Day. Now in its 15th year, this global initiative aims not only to help keep students healthy but also to improve air quality (fewer motor vehicles, less pollution) and decrease traffic congestion (nationally, as much as 20 percent to 30 percent of morning traffic is generated by parents driving their children to school). To many readers, walking to school may not seem like news.

Assistant Principal David Lewis has worked at William Paca Elementary School for seven years. Not one of those years has passed without a student being hit by a car. Lewis joined police officers, city officials and 250 elementary school students yesterday to help promote pedestrian safety as part of Baltimore's 10th annual Walk to School Day. The event marked International Walk to School Month, a global program from the National Center for Safe Routes...

Fearing that their children might have to walk to classes in rush-hour traffic, a group of Catonsville parents who live near Hillcrest Elementary School has mobilized to get bus service when school opens Wednesday.The 34 students were redistricted to Hillcrest Elementary from Catonsville Elementary School this year when boundaries were drawn for the area's new school, Westchester Elementary, on Old Frederick Road near Oella.Under school policy, no bus service is offered to students who live within a one-mile radius of their school, said John M. Markowski, the Baltimore County school system's chief financial officer.

A 13-year-old Old Mill Middle School-North pupil told police that a stranger grabbed her, carried her into the woods and tried to sexually assault her yesterday morning, prompting school officials to issue a warning to parents of other young walkers. The incident shook parents and children in the neighborhood, where another Old Mill teen-ager, Lisa Kathleen Haenel, was stabbed to death a decade ago during her morning walk to school. That crime is unsolved. "These things are few and far between, but it only takes one time to end up like little Lisa," said parent Debbie Long, adding that she has never let either of her daughters walk to or from the campus of Old Mill middle and high schools in Millersville.

Despite protests from parents in the Greenridge II community, children living just east of Fountain Green Elementary will walk to their school when it opens Aug. 30.At a meeting Monday night, the school board voted unanimously to uphold the 30-year-old one-mile rule, which says that elementary children can walk up to one mile to school. Secondary children can be required to walk about 1 1/2 miles.Parents in the community had vigorously campaigned for an exception, saying that speeding cars and construction equipment used to build new homes near the school created a dangerous environment for the 240 or so children who will attend the new school.

When Laura and Chris Furbay found their dream home, three groundhogs were already living in it. The groundhogs, however, had an excuse. "The house had been vacant for eight months," she said. But when the Furbays were able to focus on the Taneytown home, Laura Furbay, who has a degree in art, saw immense potential. Her husband, on the other hand, saw a wreck. "I didn't like it at first," he said. "I thought it was a mess." But the house at 332 E. Baltimore St. - Taneytown's main street - met nearly all of the couple's criteria for a perfect home.

A group of Bollman Bridge Elementary School parents is asking Howard County school officials to reinstate school bus service because they say that nearby construction poses a danger to their children's safety.The parents are concerned about a walking route on the 9000 block of Vollmerhausen Road, where private contractors are clearing an area to build the future home of Bethel Assembly of God. Parents are afraid that trucks entering and leaving the site are an accident waiting to happen."They've taken a part of the children's walking path and turned it into a right of way for construction," said Denise Wolford, Bollman Bridge's PTA vice president.

A 13-year-old boy was struck by an SUV while walking to his school bus in Crofton Thursday morning, according to Anne Arundel County fire officials. Fire crews responded to John Hopkins Road and Lowell Court after a 7:37 a.m. 911 call, said Lt. Cliff Kooser of the Anne Arundel County Fire Department. The boy was taken to the pediatric intensive care unit at Johns Hopkins Hospital with serious injuries that did not appear to be life-threatening, Kooser said. No one else was injured, he said.

At Stoneleigh Elementary School in Baltimore County, so many of the 624 students walk to school these days that by the end of one year, the PTA calculated, its kids had trekked a combined 14,000 miles - the equivalent of a trip halfway around the world. But at Mills-Parole School in Annapolis, where sidewalks were recently installed to encourage walking, most students still arrive on wheels. Trying to make kids fitter and more independent while saving the environment, advocates and some parents are promoting a return to the days when walking to school was the norm.

Paul Carpenetti received a welcome shock last week. The fifth-grade teacher at Laurel Woods Elementary School was surprised Wednesday with the news that his class would receive $1,000 worth of much-needed school supplies. Carpenetti was one of four Maryland public school teachers, and more than 1,000 nationwide, selected as part of "A Day Made Better," a program sponsored by OfficeMax. In all, the Illinois-based office supplies retailer donated more than $1 million worth of supplies. Teachers were selected by their principals after their schools were identified for need.

Assistant Principal David Lewis has worked at William Paca Elementary School for seven years. Not one of those years has passed without a student being hit by a car. Lewis joined police officers, city officials and 250 elementary school students yesterday to help promote pedestrian safety as part of Baltimore's 10th annual Walk to School Day. The event marked International Walk to School Month, a global program from the National Center for Safe Routes...

.. In seven years, seven children have been injured while walking to class at William Paca Elementary-Middle School in East Baltimore. One died of his injuries. But now the daily commute will be safer for children at William Paca and six city school campuses, as well as other schools statewide. Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown, Mayor Sheila Dixon and other state officials met at William Paca yesterday afternoon to announce $3.67 million in federal grants for the Maryland Safe Routes to School program.

PTAs to receive fitness grants The Nutrition and Physical Activity Coalition of Howard County has partnered with the county's PTA Council and Swansfield Elementary School PTA to announce a $3,000 grant, to be awarded to 10 elementary school PTAs to initiate walking programs at their schools. The grant is aimed at promoting wellness, and reducing obesity by increasing physical activity. The grants are to be used to support programs that incorporate walking during the school day and to encourage families to walk to and from school on a regular basis.

The following is excerpted from an essay by Marla Bennett, one of the five Americans killed July 31 in the bombing of Hebrew University. It originally appeared in the weekly San Diego Jewish Press-Heritage on May 10. EACH MORNING when I leave my apartment building, I have an important question to contemplate: Should I turn left or should I turn right? This question may seem inconsequential, but the events of the past few months in Israel have led me to believe that each small decision I make - by which route to walk to school, whether to go out to dinner - may have life-threatening consequences.

The Howard County school board refused yesterday to give bus service to about 25 Laurel Woods Elementary School students, saying their walking route to school along a hilly section of North Laurel Road poses no danger.Board members voted 4-0, with one member absent, to accept Superintendent Michael E. Hickey's decision not to provide bus service to the North Laurel Park area students.Members said the path that the students take to school -- a narrow, dirt pathway along North Laurel Road, north of Cissell Avenue -- is safe enough for the students to use."

Sheriff's office to do school-bus patrols The Carroll County Sheriff's Office reminds residents that tomorrow is the first day of the school year. To promote student safety and community awareness, deputies will be conducting additional patrols as part of the state-administered School Bus Safety Enforcement Fund. Tomorrow, deputies will be alert for drivers illegally passing school buses, while concentrating on school bus stops, bus routes and traffic at local schools. Maryland vehicle law states that when a school bus activates its alternately flashing red lights "the driver of any other vehicle meeting or overtaking the school vehicle shall stop at least 20 feet from the rear of the school vehicle ... or at least 20 feet from the front of the school vehicle ... and may not proceed until the school vehicle resumes motion or the alternately flashing red lights are deactivated."

COLUMBIA - The crunch of leaves beneath their feet was muffled by the children's voices as they paraded to school, carrying signs to let drivers know that it was International Walk to School Day at Swansfield Elementary and around the world. "Walk don't pollute," read one of the handmade signs on display during the event Wednesday. "Be cool, walk to school," said another. 50 schools take part Swansfield was one of 50 schools in Maryland that took part in the ninth annual event, and the school's 500 pupils were among an estimated 3 million people who walked to their schools in more than 35 countries on six continents Shannon Toole and his children, fifth-grader Gideon and third-grader Mary Kate, were joined by others in their neighborhood for the trek to Swansfield.