This past week, we had a meeting with some parents in the low-income housing complex on Eisenhower Drive. The parents were desperate for help. For the past few years, or last year, depending on who you talk to, USD 257 has picked up children from the complex and taken them to school. Not so this year. Most of the parents there are either working one or two low-paying jobs or are disabled. Most have more than one child. Lots of them do not have transportation. If they do have a vehicle, most of those are not reliable.
They are poor.
We had our meeting and tried to figure out the best way that we could help them help themselves and ways that we could also be helpful.
When I left the meeting I turned my car around and decided to see the route that the Kindergarten students or any other student wanting to take a shuttle from McKinley to the other schools would walk. I hadnt paid attention on the way to the meeting, but when I left my eyes were wide open.
There are no sidewalks until a child gets to Lincoln street. For a large section of the walk there are ditches on either side of the road, especially where there is a dangerous hairpin turn if a child decided that they were going to take the shorter route and walk down 54 Highway to the light on Kentucky. The longer, safer route is 1.3 miles, without sidewalks until the four-way stop at Lincoln and Kentucky. From there it is a fairly safe trek until the child has to cross 54 Highway at the stop light.
I would guess that it would take a small child about 35-45 minutes to walk this. To walk this route and to get to the school in time to catch the shuttle that leaves the school at 7:15, they would have to leave at 6:30 in the morning. Remember, some of these children are 5-6 years old. If a parent is able to walk with them, they are all walking in the road. If the parent is disabled, the child walks alone.
The risk is many times greater that a child will be hit crossing at the Kentucky-U.S. 54 stoplight than at Madison and Buckeye.
I am not sure if anything can be done to change this policy, but we are asking that you take a little drive on this route and imagine a child walking this route in the early morning hours or the return walk in the late afternoon (the shuttle arrives at McKinley at 3:50). If this doesnt sit well with you, we ask that you would join us at the next school board meeting being held on Monday, Aug. 26, at 6 p.m.
I posted some photos of the route on Facebook, explained the dilemma and asked if anyone would be able to help get the kids to school or had any ideas on how to help.
What I got were a couple of great volunteers and a lot of lectures.
It is beyond my understanding as to why people have such a hard time giving to others, especially children. I look to Humboldt where every child received free school supplies and they had an evening of free haircuts for students. No one gave lectures on how those childrens parents should be ashamed, or how they should pull themselves up by their bootstraps. No one said those children would never learn how to take care of themselves if they were given everything that they needed to go to school.
Here the PTO voted not to supply K-5 with school supplies because some felt their children liked to pick out their own things. What are we teaching our children? Not the children who need the help, but the other children?
The mean-spirited comments by adults, when all a child needs is a ride to school, is to me, something to be ashamed of. They should take a step back to see that a child who is given, by their community, all that they need to go to school and get an education, is a child who sees that the people around them care about their well-being. Who in this world doesnt need that? Some of the folks in Iola need to understand that giving something doesnt take anything away from you, especially when you are giving to a child. Your world, and their world, only becomes better.
Kindness matters!
