Schools becoming dangerous driving zones

Re Stressed, busy and driven to distraction, Jan. 21 Despite the best efforts of the schools, the number of parents who drive their children to and from school creates chaos at most elementary schools in Toronto and other urban areas.

These schools were designed for a time when there were fewer cars and most children walked or biked to their nearby school. The surrounding streets are narrow, the parking is limited and it’s hard to find a place to stop safely.

This problem is made worse when the province pressures a school board to close schools with fewer than 300 students, even if the school is full. When the local neighbourhood school disappears, the distance to school for most students becomes more than a kilometre, too far for little legs to walk. This creates a vicious cycle of more driving, which makes the area around the school more dangerous, which leads more parents to drive due to safety concerns.

Closing elementary schools does save a little bit of money in the short term, but it comes with the significant long-term costs of decreased health and learning for children, and lower property values and quality of life for the community.

This study should give the province reason to reverse this misguided policy and provide the funds needed to keep intact the dense network of community schools that children can walk to. Howard Goodman, Toronto

I live near the Courtice High School. Both sides of the street in this area are posted “no stopping.” It’s amazing how many parents don’t understand what that means. Not only do they stop to drop their kids off but they come back later and park in this same area waiting to pick them up. Meanwhile, the parking lot at the end of the school sits threequarters empty.

Kids learn their life lessons from their parents. These parents are teaching their kids that they can pick and choose which laws to obey or disobey. So sometime down the road when their little angel gets busted, they can take great pride in knowing that their child learned this valuable lesson from them. Patrick Drumm, Courtice, Ont.