By Adam Swift
Superintendent of Schools Lisa Howard is asking parents to make sure students remain safe and helmet up if they ride traditional or electric bikes to school.
Howard noted that the issue of scooter and electric bike safety recently came up before the town council, and that the school department would be sharing a safety flyer on social media and with parents that was distributed by the police department.
“We are encouraging our parents to really read through it and see where helmets are required,” said Howard at Monday night’s school committee meeting. “We are experiencing a lot of bikes at the schools, e-bikes as well, so talking to parents about making sure students have helmets on, we’re going to do a little more discussion on that.”
The superintendent said that there have been students riding the e-bikes to school without wearing helmets and leaving the electric bikes on school property.
“The school property piece, we can have some discussion over,” said Howard. “You can’t force the parents to enforce the helmets, but we are going to have further discussion about that and perhaps only allow e-bikes or any type of electric bike or electric scooter (if) the student has a helmet on their head on school property.”
Students who ride regular, non-motorized bikes and scooters will also be encouraged to wear helmets.
“Parents are being notified … they will get a copy of that flyer in the next principal notification,” Howard said.
The schools will also continue to work with the police department to inform students and families about the importance of helmets and other safety measures and rules of the road.
In other school traffic-related updates, Howard said staff at the Arthur T. Cummings school is emphasizing school safety during the drop off and pick up for students. Howard noted that some parents have created their own traffic loop at the school that has created some safety concerns.
“It’s about slowing down and paying attention with so many little ones so excited about coming into school that they are not often looking when they are coming up from the basketball courts and going into the school,” said Howard. “Parents, if you can please be patient … and try to be careful out there.”