Some of you claim that you can’t believe it, that the school year is starting again — as if you were so carried away with the mosquitoes and the pain of trying to grasp a red-hot steering wheel was so pleasing that the time just flew by this summer.
That may well be.
However, whether the summer has passed quickly or not, the summer vacation for both teachers and students is over and they are all back in school.
That means that all of us need to get back to taking our school zones more seriously.
For parents, that means that it’s time to have that talk again with Johnny and Sally, explaining that mumsy and dadsy will need to drop them off in an approved stopping area, and not in the middle of traffic.
Great Bend police did an excellent job of trying to educate parents last year, but it’s easy for us to forget over the summer.
There’s a reason that the city and the schools have worked to provide pull-off areas at the schools and it is so that you can let the kids out without making everyone else stop and watch.
Speaking of stopping, there is a responsibility for all of the rest of us drivers, too.
It’s not just mumsy and dadsy who need to be on the look out for the kids. All drivers who use school zones need to do so, as well.
It’s true, that it is difficult to get from Point A to Point B in Great Bend without driving through a school zone. And that is all the more reason that we need to pay attention to them.
First of all, it’s a matter of safety.
Secondly, it’s a matter of economy. A speeding ticket in a school zone is nothing to sneeze at.
Leave home five minutes earlier and the need to speed will be greatly diminished.
It’s also a good time to remember that we have crossing guards in harm’s way out there and we need to watch for, and respect, them as well.
Finally, this is a great time to have a talk with the kids and suggest that they learn how to be safe, too. After all, it really does take all of us to get them to and from school without an incident.
This is the week to pay attention to all this, but it’s certainly not the only week to do so. We need to watch out for the kids all of the school year, and to keep our school zones safe.
— Chuck Smith