KALAMAZOO, MI (WKZO AM/FM) – It’s an old joke for parents to tell their kids that they had to walk uphill both ways to and from school when they were young.
Something like that is happening in Kalamazoo, but it’s no joke.
Morgan Stevenson challenged rules that force students from the Interfaith Homes Complex on Kalamazoo’s Northside to hike well over a mile to Hillside Middle School.
She says it’s a long way uphill on some dangerous streets in the dark most mornings, and when the weather is bad, it just gets more dangerous.
“Families who can drive their children, often do in severe weather, which is resulting in additional traffic during those children’s walking time in the morning,” she told the school board. “Because Kalamazoo Schools does not call snow days until 6 a.m., it is not uncommon for these students to already have left home to walk to school to get there to discover they are closed.”
The local policy is that any elementary student living more than a mile from school get bused, and it’s a mile and a half for middle and high schoolers. Superintendent Darrin Slade says the policy applies to most students, and they have for a very long time.
“This is a practice that has been in place in the district for 40 plus years without any change. It’s also a common practice in all school districts,” says Slade.
The local policies are actually more generous than the state rule, which is 1.5 miles for all students.
The subject also came up at this week’s Kalamazoo City Commission meeting, when Shonna Espinoza complained about the sidewalk that takes those students up and down Alamo Avenue.
“That sidewalk needs to be fixed that sidewalk at times is not shoveled so it’s dark time in the morning and guess what those students are walking in the street,” Espinoza told the city commission.
Are exceptions possible when the circumstances warrant? Possibly, but it’s unclear in this case and a determination will have to be made.
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