Posted on 10/23/2009 8:25:12 AM PDT by La Lydia
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...The girls at Kensington's Brookewood School are banned from using a public park right across the street for recess.
"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.
The town council unanimously passed a resolution this week saying only caretakers with children five years old and younger can be in Reinhardt Park from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. Since that resolution passed, Brookewood students have gone elsewhere for recess. "We like to use the park because it's big and we like to run around and play games," said Basia Syski...
The town manager says students using the park for recess created maintenance issues and damage. The town council asked the school to pay $4,000 a year to help with upkeep but never heard back.
"Do a clean through trash pickup, lay mulch around the swings -- we could do that," said McPherson. "But pay $4,000? We just don't have it. We just don't have it in our budget."
Brookewood's headmaster tells ABC 7 News it's a public park for all to use but Kensington's mayor disagrees. He said the park is for taxpaying citizens -- not abuse by a private non-profit school.
Tracy Wagner brings her toddler to the park -- a park she describes as rarely used...
The girls at Brookewood say they brought life to the park, a park they now watch sit empty...
(Excerpt) Read more at wjla.com ...
uhhhh...dont their parents pay property tax....that supports the park?
That’s just mean-spirited.
I wonder if there are baseball fields in these parks?
Yes, they do.
The parents pay property taxes, and SCHOOL TAXES for schools their kids don’t even use. This is just the gubment spiting those who won’t put their kids in their indoctrination centers, nothing more.
They should also ban people from driving on roads, that will save them some maintenance cost for public resources.
So let the kids play at city hall.
Snort. The prohibitively high cost of mulch!
Those kids will see firsthand the power of government in their lives and will resent it for the rest of it.................
This wouldn’t stand the test in court.
Obviously bureaucracy but I don’t know of any school that lets the kids off school grounds for recess. Most schools nowadays don’t allow kids off school grounds even for lunch break.
There aren’t any school grounds. They are in the middle of Kensington.
No campus at all??
There is a small patch of lawn in front of one of the buildings. There is no school yard.
I saw a segment about this on the local news last night. Apparently one of the complaints from residents was that the schoolkids weren’t being supervised and were “running roughshod” over the preschoolers already there in the park.
It could just be snitty spitefulness by Montgomery County re private schools, but I’d be willing to bet most of the parents sending their kids to this school are as liberal as they come.
Sure, it’s a public park and is paid for by tax dollars but it wasn’t put there to provide a playground for the school. If the school wants a playground, they should build their own. Imagine the law suits if a student gets hurt. Or what if a car hits a student crossing the road to the park. I can see the headlines now if some sicko grabs a kid at the park when the kid should have been on “safer” school property. No, there’s too many problems. Little kids shouldn’t leave school grounds during the day.
it kinda sucks, but hard lessons will be remembered.
Given your concerns, no one should be allowed to use the park.
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