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Thousands of Parents Protest HCPSS requiring young children to walk extra miles to school
Emails, testimony and letters continue to urge the Howard 'county Board of education to scrap the implementation of new, longer walking distances particularly for younger children. Parents, including a certified Pediatrician, testify at Board meetings about the dangers of requiring children to walk along routes where there are often no sidewalks, hills, and dangerous intersections.
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One such thoughtful letter lays out specific concerns, as follows: "Young children (ages 5-12) have unique abilities and needs and tend to be:
- Impulsive and unpredictable
- Limited in their peripheral vision (a sound source is not easily located)
- Limited in training/lacking in experience
- Thrilled or excited bt close calls
- Short and hard to see by drivers
- Susceptible to darting or dashing out into the intersection
Therefore, unattended walking poses several severe risks to young children:
- Children will be at a greater risk to injury of death from vehicles, which are speeding on roadways on a much more frequent basis since Covid. Additionally, law enforcement is much less frequently enforcing speeding that they have been in the past.
- Children will be at a greater risk to predators
- Children will be at risk to injury or illness due to weather, which includes extreme heat or cold, rain snow etc. This would be exacerbated on longer walking routes
| The HCPSS POLICY on Transportation is 5200. To read it, click here. | |
LGBTQ+: Maryland Teaching Standards | |
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The State Board of Education has set the following standards to be added to the Health curriculum for the different grade levels:
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Pre-K-"Recognize that there are different types of families (e.g., single-parent, same-gender, intergenerational, blended, interracial, adoptive, foster, etc.) 1c.P.3"
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Kindergarten-"Identify different types of families (e.g., single-parent, same-gender, intergenerational, blended, interracial, adoptive, foster, etc.) 1c.K.3"
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1st Grade- "Describe differences in families (e.g., single-parent, same-gender, intergenerational, blended, interracial, adoptive, foster, etc.) 1c.1.1"
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Can I Opt Out?
Controversy over the addition of LGBTQ+ studies to the Health curriculum of children in prekindergarten through third grade has occasioned numerous opt out requests, particularly in Montgomery County where a coalition of Muslims and Christians have held several protests over the county's refusal to honor these opt out requests. . . .because, according to the County, there were just too many such requests! READ MORE
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What is the Policy in Howard County?
The Board of Education has not specifically addressed this issue as Montgomery County has. However, the following is an email response from Howard County to a parent requesting to have her child opt out of LGBTQ+ teachings. Here is the relevant portion of that email:
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"Maryland State Board of Education Regulation 13A.04.18.03 allows students to opt out of health education curriculum units in Family Life and Human Sexuality. However there are no such allowable exceptions for times when and issue related to LGBTQ+ and/opr gender may arise outside of those health lessons. For example, these types of situations could include exposure to a character in a book or an age-appropriate discussion in a social studies class." | |
You are cordially invited to the forum on Gender Ideology sponsored by the Howard County Moms for Liberty. What is true and what is not? Learn how to talk with your kids about this sensitive subject. The event is free of charge. Click here to register. | | | | |
