. . Y'all have done a great job at getting national attention for Ms Tryon, but it is important this incident become a positive for everyone and we don't overdue our concern and turn it into a negative.
. . This matter now has the attention of Andy Clark at the League of American Bicyclists who has assigned several people to work with the police chief and the National Safe Routes to School Partnership.
. . Jeff Miller at the Alliance for Biking and Walking has been following closely. And, the National Director for Safe Routes to School is researching further action. It is an important issue to all and I am sure Ms Tryon will get good support from these people.
. . Plus the Directors of Bike Walk Tennessee are helping.
. . I believe everything will work out fine as long as we remember our primary interest is the well being of the 5'th grade girl who wants to ride her bike to school. Both the mother and the policeman acted with sincere concern for the girl. We don't want to push people into hard positions that make them forget the best interests of the young girl are everyone's priority.
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The attention this incident has received astounds me. An earlier post about a drink driver killing a cyclist got one comment. Perhaps it is because someone is resisting the current climate of fear. Vehicles regularly kill cyclists but what Ms. Tryon has done is unique. The effort to get a Safe Routes to Schools program in Hendersonville was abandoned because we got zero support from any parent.
ReplyDeleteWhat future role BWT will play in this unclear to me. We have sown the wind. We do need to be around when the dust clears.
Bruce
Bruce
The incident has moved too fast. I was hoping that the Safe Routes to School Partnership would have been able to work with everyone and propose a solution that allows this girl to ride her bike to school before the battle lines were drawn. However, I am sure even they didn't expect this issue to be so explosive.
ReplyDeleteOnce again I appreciate the assistance. I appreciate that our children's safety and well being must be at the forefront of this. I believe the the volatile nature is stemming from the ever changing reports from the EPD, the child protective service involvement and the pure logic of the matter.
ReplyDeleteWhen the police are so heavy-handed as to threaten a woman with a warrant from Child Protective Services because she allows her kid to bike to school, its not hard to see how the situation would explode. The police in this jurisdiction are quite out of control. What they should have done, if they really wanted to solve rather than create a problem, would be to have an LCI observe the kid and judge whether she is capable of riding in the traffic situation at hand.
ReplyDeleteGlad the League is involved!
If the Policeman...
ReplyDelete...a person issued a badge and a gun, who can arrest for not following his order and (usually) kill humans without fear of reprimand, who is also under the impression that he will be able to retire at an early age to a guaranteed pension (despite what cruel realities the nation's economic future may hold for him) and whom, if killed by ANY means either on- or off-duty during his career, automatically gets the U.S. equivalent of a Royal Funeral...
...was truly concerned for children, he would:
Immediately remove all children from the converted flat-bed trucks that are marketed as "School Busses", impound the vehicles and arrest the operators and owners of said for child-endangerment.
Shut down all contact sports programs operated by the school district involving anyone under the age of consent, and immediately arrest the coaches and administrators of said programs.
Remove any flammible or explosive materials from any Science labs contained within the school.
etc., etc., etc.
All of the above pose a more serious threat to student safety than this child riding her bike for a mile.
This cop has a bizarre notion of his duties and responsibilities. He needs to be replaced post haste.
Well CPS has verbally advised me that they have no problems with her riding. However, now we are under siege from the community because of Bailey's conflicting stories. The harassment is growing and its affecting us all. Sad but true. I do wish I could afford an attorney, that would be most helpful at this juncture. If anyone knows of one who might be willing to help in any way (even answering questions) I would appreciate it.
ReplyDeleteOn a side note, I find it odd that if we as individuals changed our story like this - we would be arrested.
All relevant media at this time:
http://s1082.photobucket.com/albums/j377/tennesseedelight1/
http://www2.tricities.com/news/2011/aug/30/epd-unsupervised-10-year-old-should-not-ride-bike--ar-1275159/
http://www.starhq.com/news/html/news/articles/articles.asp?day=Thursday&article=nw-bikegirl.html