ORLANDO, Fla. — The Orange County School Board voted to ban e-scooters and e-bikes on elementary and middle school campuses to promote safety for students and pedestrians.
The board voted Tuesday evening to approve the ban after hearing from ten parents who supported and opposed the new rules.
Board members amended their original proposal to say any student who has a driver’s permit will be able to use one of the vehicles on any campus. The Orange County School District estimates 11,800 students use e-bikes to get to and from school.
Parent Devin Sylvester told the school board his son rode his e-scooter to school almost every day last year. Sylvester said a ban does not promote safety; it just moves the risk to another place.
Heather Grimmer asked the board to slow down before making the decision and to consider the impacts of the changes. Grimmer said Florida law mandates helmets for all riders aged 16 and younger.
Some speakers asked board members to clarify the policy’s definitions about which specific vehicles will be covered. Others say it’s too much to ask the staff members to police this policy because they are already doing so much.
Brent Moore is the Executive Director of the Safety Village in Orange County. He told board members that e-bikes and e-scooters are becoming more common for students, offering convenience and independence, but they also introduce challenges many children are not ready for. The Safety Village is launching a comprehensive online safety program later this year.
Nate Clark also asked board members to consider the impacts of the changes they were proposing. He said students will park their vehicles across the street and then have to cross busy streets to go to schools.
Clark shared his opinion on Tuesday before the school board meeting.
“It definitely does create a dilemma, because our kids have been riding their scooters to and from school and after-school activities pretty consistently for the past couple of years,” Clark said.
Clark said that too many children and teens are not riding safely, but he opposes Orange County’s proposed ban on e-scooters and e-bikes on elementary and middle school campuses. The new rules would also allow only high school students with driver’s licenses to have them on campus.
“Banning them from school campus is not going to solve the problem that they’re setting out to solve,” Clark said.
His plan for the upcoming school year was to have his fifth grader ride to Baldwin Park Elementary and two children riding to Glenridge Middle School because they are not eligible to ride the bus.
Clark said if the ban goes into effect, he might have to buy regular bicycles for the kids or have them park their e-scooters close to their campuses.
School Board member Alicia Farrant represents District 3. Farrant says the district is acting because too many children are getting hurt on the way to and from school.
“We really want to protect our children and make sure we are taking part and doing our part to help the community,” Farrant said.
The district would have control over the vehicles on campuses but no control over how students ride on roads near schools. Farrant adds enforcement will be challenging for already busy school staff. She hopes parents will become partners to promote safety.
“We 100 percent need parents to partner with us. Really, we need parents to partner in general, because what we’re seeing right now is kids are flying through stop signs, stop lights, ignoring all sense of any kind of rules,” Farrant said.
Clark thinks making sure every child wears a helmet on every ride and promoting safety education are good solutions.
“Banning them completely would really unfairly punish those kids who are doing it responsibly,” Clark said.
School board members say they will phase in the new ban during the first month of school to educate students and parents. They also hope to come up with educational materials to promote safe riding.
Board members say the new ban is a first step toward safety, but they are working with Orlando, Orange County, and state lawmakers to come up with ordinances that put uniform rules in place across our region.