Re: An expensive lesson for kids: Bicyclists not buckled in at the chin get tickets, Oct. 1.
The story about children being fined going to school on their bicycles and not wearing their helmets interested me since I had been hit by a car while on my bike a couple of years ago and banged my head on the windshield. Fortunately, I was wearing my helmet, as I always do, so no real damage was done except for some bruises and a broken bike.
I often see adults on the Pinellas Trail riding their bikes without helmets. They sometimes have their young ones riding on the kiddie-seat behind them wearing a helmet, and I keep wondering who is going to take care of that young one if the adult gets his or her head bashed in.
I can sympathize with the children being fined $26 for not wearing their helmets, but it is a small price to pay if it saves their lives at a future time. I just wish more adults set a good example by wearing their helmets for their own safety as well as their children's.
-- Bob Cooper, Seminole
Give the kids an explanation
Re: An expensive lesson for kids: Bicyclists not buckled in at the chin get tickets.
Great article by Monique Fields on helmets for kids. My 11-year-old grandson flipped while riding his bike. His helmet was severely dented on the front. Too bad it did not cover his front teeth, which were knocked out.
I hope the police, when issuing a citation, will take time to explain why. As a retired New York Police Department sergeant, I want to keep the attitude that the policeman really is their friend.
-- Ed Conroy, South Pasadena
Priorities are out of order
Re: An expensive lesson for kids.
Normally when I scan your publication and find articles that rub me wrong I just double my meds and try to make it through the day. However, after reading the article on kids getting fined for not wearing helmets. I have to respond.
It is impossible to drive on a major road in this city at the posted speed limit. Obey the posted limit and you become a target. When is the last time you saw a speeder pulled over? Yet we have the resources to ticket kids without helmets.
Let's get our priorities in order!
-- Mark Nixon, St. Petersburg
Education goes a long way
Re: An expensive lesson for kids.
I was very surprised to see that the St. Petersburg Police Department was issuing citations to children for riding a bike without a helmet on. I am a supporter of bicycle helmets and believe in the safety they provide for our children. In April I donated $100 to the St. Petersburg Youth Council for bicycle helmets. The Police Department has much larger issues to deal with than rogue 12-year-olds not wearing their helmets.
If parents tell their children to wear their helmets repeatedly every morning as they head out the door, and the children defy them (children still do defy their parents, don't they?) and don't wear the helmet, or don't button the chin strap, or take it off on the way to school, are those parents still responsible for paying a $26 fine?
Education goes a long way and so does fear. Last time I checked, children didn't have to take a competence test to ride a bike.
My resolve: Issue your citations, SPPD, and then three weeks later hold a bike safety rally that the child and a parent must attend to have the $26 fine scored from their record. If not, the fine must be paid.
Ask your neighborhood community police officer about the statistics regarding bicyclists who are hit by a vehicle. For every 10 mph increase in speed, the bicyclists chance for survival drop by 50 percent, with or without a helmet.
I have to go now. I need to call the cops to get this 12-year-old who just rode past my house without a helmet.
-- Kyle Nelson, St. Petersburg
Focus on highway safety
I find it interesting that the St. Petersburg Police Department has enough officers to chase kids around and write them tickets for not wearing helmets when we have the distinction of having one of the 10 most dangerous highways in the United States, (U.S. 19). Wouldn't the officers' time be better spent on the speeders, tailgaters, dangerous lane changers and red light runners on U.S. 19 and the other major roads?
But it is easier to catch kids, I guess.
-- Terry E. Hobt, Tarpon Springs
Make time on the bus useful
Re: The new commute: Wake up, brush teeth, shower . . . ride, ride, ride, Oct. 1
I read with interest the article on how much time the children spend on the school bus. The last paragraph asked, "What are they going to do about it?"
How about being creative: Put TV on all the buses, with special programs, for example, public announcements, the Discovery Channel, teaching communication skills, etc. No advertisements.
This is a time the children could be learning something, not just sleeping or riding or looking out the window.
-- Ramona Updegraff, Redington Beach
A culture of violence in our schools
Re: Bullied or not, Alexa's fear is all too familiar to many kids, Sept. 28.
Tonja Nasel of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development states that a creative learning environment "can't happen when someone doesn't feel safe." This is true for students as well as teachers.
I am a third-year teacher at a south Pinellas County school. So far this year, I have been the victim of assault and battery, two separate incidents. I know of two teachers who have been sexually harassed by students. In my teaching experience I have been cussed out, intimidated, mocked and blatantly ignored. Recently I was called filthy names by a seventh-grader and had something thrown at my face.
So was I surprised to read about Alexa's situation in your paper? No. The students do not hesitate to bully teachers - why would they think twice about harassing their peers? We have created a culture of violence in our schools, by failing to truly discipline our students. They receive what amounts to a slap on the wrist for the most grievous offenses, because school boards are terrified of parents. Students do and say things with impunity simply because they know they can.
I know how Alexa feels: abused, tired, at her wit's end. I feel that way, too. Unfortunately, though, nothing is going to change for bullied students and beleaguered teachers until school boards start putting the onus where it really belongs - on the parents. Sadly, too many of my pupils are being raised by parents with attitudes similar to that of the parent who refused to comment on your article and said, "They're only 13." This is exactly the point. Why should 13-year-olds be permitted to behave like this, and when is it going to Marie I. Singleton, St. Petersburg
-- A lesson for all in animal rights
Re: Bullied or not, Alexa's fear is all too familiar to many kids.
As a retired educator, I was haunted by this story about a 13-year-old child, taunted by other kids, while parents and educators turned a blind eye.
When I first became involved in animal rights, many people questioned why I wasn't devoting time to helping children instead. My answer is that I am.
Recently, I was reading where one of the leaders in the animal rights movement had gone fishing as a child with his father and some of his dad's friends. When the first fish was caught, Dan (Mathews) felt the suffering of the fish as it lay writhing/suffocating in the bottom of the boat, while his father and the others laughed at how funny it looked.
Dan, who had also been taunted by other kids, wrote that at that moment, the only being in the boat that he could identify with was the fish.
My fervent belief is that if children were taught from birth to empathize with all other beings, there would be no stories like the one on Alexa. I work for animal rights because I believe that the birth of empathy for all will stop the mentality that allows kids (and their heartless parents) to cause such psychological harm to other children.
Animal rights is for the birds all right . . . for the fishes, for the dogs and ultimately for each and every one of us.
-- Jayn Meinhardt, M.Ed., Redington Beach
Perpetuating a Mideast myth
Re: Hope survives despite distrust, Sept. 28.
This article was insulting to all who have been following the ongoing crisis in Israel and the "occupied territories." It perpetuates the myth that the intifada was a spontaneous uprising "incited" (the word used in the caption for the picture accompanying the article) by the visit of Ariel Sharon to "a hotly contested Jerusalem shrine." This is despite the evidence to the contrary, written and testimonial, that Yasser Arafat had plotted this insurrection for months with the intent of forcing Israel into even greater concessions than had been made by Israel at Camp David, where the Palestinians rejected what President Clinton described as a most generous peace overture.
Also, the Dome of the Rock and the Al Aqsa Mosque, despite their placement on the site of the Temple Mount, have never been disturbed by Israel, despite the "dispute" over precedence. However, whether it is Ariel Sharon or me or you, Israel honors the right to visit the Mount as long as behavior is respectable and proper. In Sharon's case, his visit was cleared by the Palestinian Authority in advance. How does your story ignore this except out of convenience to demonize Sharon and Israel?
Finally, Israel "responded to Palestinian violence by sending troops, tanks and helicopters into large portions of the West Bank . . ." only after the homicide bombings had commenced in force, and it was clear that they could not be stopped if their sources were not addressed, a fact the article ignores.
Despite the misrepresentations, distortion and outright lies, Jews, whether American, Israeli, or citizens of other nations, will not commit suicide to assuage the conscience of the world for its callousness toward peoples in desperate situations, whether, Jews in Arab countries, Christians in Somalia, Arabs held in camps in Lebanon for decades, whites threatened and pushed off their lands in Zimbabwe, or Africans murdered in Rwanda. A standard of objectivity must be adhered to by any news source worthy of calling itself a newspaper. The Cox News Service article does not live up to this standard.
-- Martin Altner, Safety Harbor
It should be called murder
Re: 2 shot during Jewish New Year celebration, Sept. 27.
The Associated Press story reported that "a Palestinian gunman" broke into a Jewish settlement on the West Bank and opened fire in a home where a family was celebrating the Jewish New Year. He killed a man and a baby girl. My dictionary defines a gunman as an armed man skilled using that gun. The time has come to call it what it is: murder. The media should finally call these Palestinians killers of innocent civilians.
-- Sol Cohen, Palm Harbor
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