Pickup Is a Slippery Slope

To The Editor:

I was just wondering if I was the only parent concerned with the pickup procedure at the Washington Middle School.

I know the teachers and staff at the school care deeply for the safety of my child, but I do not know if the school board and city care equally.

Twice this school year the children were released to go to their waiting parents on 14th Street in the middle of torrential rain. There is no way for the children to wait inside until they see their parents arrive, so they all come out.

They see us and slip their way down the hill to the cars. There is no awning like at the high school. There are no windows facing the pick-up zone like the elementary schools.

The most alarming part is the parents are constantly pulling forward up the hill and traffic is always moving. The “sidewalk” only exists for approximately 100 feet. There is only grass and a curb beyond that.

So there I am waiting behind 25 cars down the hill watching my soaked child maneuver down the slope through the mud holding my breath that she does not slip out into the street, or worse yet under a car.

Why has the city neglected a sidewalk to a school? The high school has a similar lack of sidewalks along its streets.

Just wondering, but it seems like a slippery slope.

Cheryl Vieth

Marthasville