Orange County School Board votes for e-bike restrictions
ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. —
Orange County Public Schools, Central Florida’s largest school district, is deciding to restrict the use of e-bikes on school property.
A recent survey shows 42% of polled middle schoolers use them as transportation, but those students won’t be able to use e-bikes in such a way anymore.
“The thing I wanted to say today is, let the kids scoot, let them scoot; pre-license-aged kids, so, middle schoolers, elementary school kids,” former teacher Mike Bustillos said Tuesday.
Incoming 8th grader Kaitlyn Weaver said her e-scooter allows her to get to school on time and safely.
“With the changes to this micromobility policy that you will be voting on today that will restrict these devices on school grounds, I, along with many other students, won’t be able to ride our devices to school,” she said.
But one parent who appeared by video supports a ban after losing her son, 13-year-old Colton Remsburg, on May 13 of this year.
He was struck and killed by a pickup truck while riding an e‑scooter on Moss Park Road.
“I understand the convenience, I lived it, but I also live with the unimaginable reality of what can happen,” said Colton’s mother, Ashley LaChance.
After a lengthy discussion, the Orange County School Board voted to support a ban on micromobility vehicles with the exception of high school students who have a driver’s license or a learner’s permit. They may be permitted to bring micromobility devices onto board property.
Otherwise, per the policy, elementary school students, middle school students, and high school students who do not have their driver’s licenses or learner’s permits are prohibited from bringing or operating motorized micromobility devices on board property at any time.
“You’ll have some grace period at the first, probably, month of the year to get used to that, make accommodations for transportation. That being said, your normal non-motorized bikes and scooters are still allowed. The good old-school way of getting to school, we’re still allowing that,” Orange County School Board member Marie Salamanca said.
School board members say they’re staying where the focus needs to be and that’s education.
“Anything that we cannot enforce fairly, equally, or across our schools, it doesn’t make sense for us to have it,” Salamanca added. “So, we are waiting on city, county, state to provide guidelines to keep our students safe, but we do know these devices are not safe to have on our campus and that we’ve had multiple lives lost due to these devices.”