School Children banned from public parks (MD)

[katty]

more: http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/1009/664957.html#

KENSINGTON, Md. - Public parks are usually the places where children go to have fun. But the town of Kensington just passed a new rule that bans kids over five years old from playgrounds during the daytime.

"It's like a sad children's story," said Joe McPherson, headmaster of the Brookewood School.

But it's no fable. The girls at Kensington's Brookewood School are banned from using a public park right across the street for recess. ABC 7 Talkback:
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"I don't think it's really fair because we're part of the community too and we want to play in the park," said Jill Collins, a fifth-grade student.

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. Parks are for looking pretty, not for children. The playgrounds are just there as

an architectural interest. :eyes:

[Xithras]

2. I gotta agree with the town on this one.

If the private school was using a public park next door as a playground for recess, and the private school refused to help pay for the maintenance and damage the kids were doing to the playground, then the city was right to ban them. It is not the job of the taxpayers to subsidize playgrounds for private schools.

[MineralMan]

5. And, yet, are not the parents of those children taxpaying residents

of the town? Who own's a public park?

[Xithras]

10. They are trying to use public property for private business purposes.

And it sounds like the town council tried to work with them, offering to let them use the park all they wanted in exchange for a $330 a month maintenance fee. The school didn't want to pay. $330 a month to permit all of the kids in the school unlimited use of a fully developed neighboring park property in an urban area is CHEAP.

Yeah, it sucks that the kids can't use the park, but this situation was created by the school, and not by the city.

[Chulanowa]

6. So punish the kids because the school is run by douchebags

You realize that going to a private school doesn't make the children any less part of the community that the park is for, don't you?

[katty]

8. yes, this is more encrochment/rules on public property

[Xithras]

12. The kids aren't being punished, and the school is lying if they say that can't afford it.

First, both the article and video said the kids are now doing other things for recess, so they aren't being punished.

Second, I just looked this place up. This is a $9,000 per student Catholic private school in a DC suburb, founded a couple of years ago and with an enrollment of just over 50 students. Student enrollment will grow over the next few years as the current students age and they add higher grade levels. If the parents can afford $9,000 a year, they can afford an extra $80 per kid to make sure they have a playground to frolic on. Especially since that number will drop to $30-$40 per kid once the school is built out.

[Chulanowa]

13. Yes they are, but I agree with your second point

These kids are the children of taxpayers, citizens of the town the park is in, and they are being told that they cannot use the amenities their parents are paying for, because they happen to go to a school that won't pay four grand a year. That's absolute horseshit, and were I one of those kids, I'd be parking my ass in that park anyway. What, are the cops gonna haul me off?

And yeah, four grand a year is nothing to a private school.

[billh58]

15. To take that

line of reasoning a bit further, should the "private school" also pay for the extra wear and tear on the roads and sidewalks which adjoin the school? Should "private schools" pay additional fees for responses by the Fire and Police Departments? Should students of private schools pay extra for using public libraries?

I understand that the city may have concerns about the additional "wear and tear" on a public facility, but banning a specific group of tax-paying citizens from using it, is unacceptable.

[MineralMan]

3. That's a strange story.

It's a private school with no playground, and yet...are not the kids at that school part of the community? I don't understand this one at all...

[undergroundpanther]

4. Kids are part of the PUBLICK!

Dammit,I think this shit is wrong. I think it relates to the stupidity of"loiter laws"(loiter laws existed because rich people white people were scared of the poor and immigrants having fun,living their lives in the street. and the SOLIDARITY it brings. Loiter law gives cops a green light to harass \ not just homeless people ,but anybody they think might be a "problem" or might"scare away customers" that gathers together anywhere except a few owned "approved places" that imitate public space but is OWNED .Which are places where merchants with security dominate(like the mall),where a force can control the people, where purchases are made.

Public spaces are being taken away from us.tHE TOWN SQUARE IS GONE. Benches have middle arms so no one can sleep on it.The place for public use are being eroded,bit by bit,from where kids can go hang out,where adult people with a bit of free time can be,it is being taken away by corner,bench,road,park and by street.

The Apartment complex sidewalks are for ingress and egress ONLY,
Nobody in the public park after sunset.
No kids in the public park..
Are you going to BUY something? If not, move along.
The sign says you have to have a membership card to get in..Ugh!
Sign sign everywhere a sign...
Don't SIT here...You aren't even supposed to BE here!!


If you don't OWN a piece of this carved up carcass called Earth, where can you simply BE together? Socialize freely without corporation,religion and state watching you??

[brendan120678]

7. You mean those spikes aren't to clean off your shoes...

after accidentally stepping in the dog shit that someone else failed to clean up?

[undergroundpanther]

11. no

I guess you could use it for that tho. It's an anti sit device used in cities to discourage public from gathering or resting there.

http://www.paloaltoonline.com/news_features/homeless/homeless.story1.php

[Daveparts still]

9. It Was a Group of Big Kids

on a playground designed for toddlers. A private school taking a free ride on the taxpayers dime. The park is open to all but it was the school trying to monoplize it.

[Igel]

17. The article linked to doesn't say it's for toddlers.

Just that it's rarely used, and that parents with toddlers are about the only people there from 9 until 4 M-F. One of the kids says it's 'big'. Most toddler play grounds aren't really all that big.

Having it only used by caregivers and toddlers during the hours discussed makes sense, if you think about it. Pretty much everybody else will be at work or in school this time of year.

The mayor didn't like having the additional expense of maintaining his nice pretty playgrounds, so voila. Ban the problem, even if the problem is people.

Now, this doesn't inconvenience most people. During the hours proscribed kids over 5 will be in school--if they're on the playground, they're truant.

Well, except on holidays. And school recesses. And vacations.

However, I'd agree for other reasons. If I'm sending my kid to school, the school's in loco parentis. Do they have permission to take the kids off of school property on a consistent basis wtihout permission? Do they have permission?

But unless the article got it wrong, adults not accompanied by a child they're caregiver to seem also to be banned. Now, at one time I hung out at parks quite a bit. I probably still would if I didn't live in Houston, where it's nasty outside for 9 months out of the year. I was a grad student in a one-room apt. with a stack of reading to do. I could head 3 miles to campus to read in the library, or 3 blocks in one direction or 6 blocks in the other direction to public parks. Guess which I tended to do? I'd object to being banned from parks during the day.

[thelordofhell]

14. Sounds like they can still hang at the park

They just banned big kids from using the pre-school playground. If your kid is under 5, there is no problem.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

16. What about kids who are homeschooled...

and use the parks during the day?

I can sympathize with those in need of a toddler playground. If this one is used so much by the kids at the school, it seems to me the solution is to make a bigger playground with a special "toddlers only" area.