ORLANDO, Fla. — Members of the Orange County School Board are hosting a public hearing Tuesday to discuss micromobility at district schools.
The public hearing starts at 4 p.m. at the Ronald Blocker Educational Leadership Center, 445 West Amelia Street, and will take place one hour before the School Board’s regular meeting.
The policy focuses on e-bikes and e-scooters, which board members have been discussing this summer as they consider rules aimed at student safety. The discussion comes after a teen was killed this year while riding an e-scooter.
As currently proposed, the policy would prohibit any elementary, middle and high school student without a license from using an e-bike or scooter on school property. Students also would need a decal from their school before bringing an e-bike or e-scooter onto campus.
During a work session last week, School Board members said they are open to revisiting the policy in the future after seeing how it works.
“I always felt like this was just one step we could do as a school district, where we are responsible for releasing 350 of these kids in a middle school area zone at 3:30 in the afternoon on our communities,” said School Board member Melissa Byrd. “So, if this is something we can do to help our communities make them safer until either some of these other things get put in place and things improve, then we can come back and revisit.”
School Board vice-chair Maria Salamanca said that in her district, some principals have complained about batteries smoking on campus, and generally, many students not knowing rules of the road.
“That’s why we did the license, right? They don’t know how to operate it and they’re in the road operating very fast vehicles very dangerously,” Salamanca said. “They don’t know how to yield, they don’t know what the rules are for certain stops, and it is very dangerous.”
If approved, the policy would be implemented by the upcoming school year.