Today we highlight yet another asinine attempt by government to enact a law that makes one wonder if we still live in America. The City of Kensington, Maryland has banned kids from public parks:
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.
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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, a fifth-grade student.
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 too use but Kensington’s mayor disagrees. By phone 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 last time I checked, the parents of children in private schools still have to pay taxes to a city whether or not their children receive public education. Thus, the children are, in fact, tax paying citizens by proxy. If the parents of the children allow the children to play in the park, and their caregivers (school) are willing to watch them, then what’s the problem?
We welcome your comments below, but just in case you feel like sending an email to the Mayor of Kensington or the city council, here’s the link!
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Comments…..I agree with the town council. Have you ever been to Kensinton MD? Believe me, you dont what the parks to look like the houses. I see parents that let kids throw trash on the ground and not say a word. The older kids are dirty, but the parents are worse. 2 generations of litter bugs. I clean up when I go there with my 2 yr old.
America, land of the free…
Being a parent and a teacher I don’t have a problem with this. If the school is responsible for so much abuse that normal care can’t keep up with it, then they should be held accountable.
It sounds like the school doesn’t want to have recess on their own property. One could infer that the reason is they know they’ll have to clean up after their kids. So, they go somewhere else and let the kids get away with things they shouldn’t get away with and then ignore the end result.
Sad.
By the same token, if parents taught their kids to respect what’s not theirs, then this wouldn’t be a problem. Just because you pay taxes, doesn’t give you are your brats the right to trash public property. It’s PUBLIC, not YOUR’S!
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The parents of the children are tax payers and thus the children are entitled to use the city park. Otherwise, the equal protection clause of the constitution is violated and the parents of the children are no longer required to pay city taxes in my opinion.
Sounds like the government didn’t like the competition from a private school and are trying to shut it down. Sad because prive school and home school children do so much better than the schools run by government employees.
The law is clearly illegal but then everything Hitler did was “legal”.
You don’t ban the kids, you penalize the parents forcing them to take responsibility for the actions of their kids. Quite simple to have an enforcement officer patrolling the park, issuing citations as needed to help deter the issue.
Sounds like there is more to why the council wants to ban Brookewood school. Could it be that the council doesn’t like the school for what it teaches? This can not simply be about the park. Â