For all the parents who wonder why schools closed, or should have closed on Feb. 19 please look around. Yes, the road was dry so send the kids to school; after all, we have had them home for four days already. To the school administrators who are so worried about make-up days, what does safety matter?
How did you expect the students to walk safely to school? I know in Freehold Borough it is a town ordinance that sidewalks be shoveled 12 to 24 hours after the snow stops falling. However, the snow stopped Monday morning and Wednesday there were many sidewalks not shoveled.
Who is responsible for issuing a summons to the landlords of the buildings that have not complied with the ordinance? I would believe it would be the police department.
Freehold Borough police are in their new location at the Rug Mill Towers, which, by the way, was not shoveled Wednesday at 10 a.m. when a very young boy was walking waist-deep in the snow trying to get to school at the Freehold Learning Center.
This is a major route for students who are not provided bus transportation by the borough to get to school. Should the superintendent have any responsibility in seeing that the students in her care can get to school safely?
Another direct route to the learning center is Broadway, also state Route 79, in front of Freehold Borough High School. The sidewalk in front of the softball field, as of today, Feb. 20 at 9 a.m., three days after the snow stopped falling, is still not plowed and students are either forced to cross the state highway without a crossing guard or walk in the highway to the traffic light to get to the learning center.
Where were the bus students to wait for a bus? Most intersections were plowed enough for one car to pass safely through. How did they expect a bus to make the turn and safely pick up students (waiting behind 6-foot tall snow banks).
For the districts that took safety first I applaud you. For the district superintendents who thought a two-hour delay would make things safer, I think you should have driven, no, walked, to the bus stops or walked the routes your students would walk before you made the decision to open school. As superintendents you should be on the phone to your police departments insisting that the snow removal ordinances be upheld. If a law is not enforced, the same people will continue to ignore them. I wonder where the liability would fall if a child were injured trying to get to your school.
Linda Scanlon
Freehold Borough