Compulsory helmets for school pupils?

[Bicycle]

Some very good points being made here.

It never occured to me to take up with the head tacher the conditions imposed when my children were cycling to primary school. I simply ignored the ones I didn't like. One child of my three was 'officially trained'. They all rode in before reaching Year 5. No-one batted an eyelid.

Some further thoughts: The bit about dobbing in children who don't comply looks odder every time I read it. I don't doubt for a moment that the phrase was in the letter, but I cannot imagine a concerned parent going up to the Reception desk at the end of a school day and saying that Kyle Denton from 5PG wasn't wearing a helmet. It all seems a bit surreal.

On the jokey (I'm guessing) suggestion that the head teacher's agenda might be slightly anti-cycling, I find that hugely unlikely. Getting the bike racks installed would have been a fairly involved task, involving the Governors and probably the LEA. Funding would have to be found. A Head could squash it quite easily at an early stage of discussion, but simply wouldn't.

Despite the slightly bizarre (and un-teacherlike) wording of the letter in the OP, I think it is a VERY GOOD THING that schools are making bike racks available.

 

[summerdays]

I would never report a child for not wearing a helmet. I have mentioned my concerns about a couple of them to the school and suggested they be put at the top of the list for cycle training - usually the ones that rode on the road into oncoming traffic.

 

[darth vadar]

Isn't it just about getting into good habits from a young age?

Cycling good. Training good. Helmets good.

Stuff like this this may last kids a lifetime.

There is no 'human rights' stuff going on here.

For once, maybe its just the right thing to do.

 

[snorri]

A controversial viewpoint darth vadar!

 

[Sh4rkyBloke]

I'd say helmets are good for kids as they are likely to be travelling more slowly, and have less control... so if they did fall off it may provide some protection and not cause any undue problems with shearing/neck strain etc. due to the lower speeds involved. That said though, the Head has absolutely no rights/power to insist on any conditions outside of the School though, I wouldn't have thought.

 

[4F]

What a load of utter cobblers, you should tell the head to do one and if she wan'ts to start policing the roads she should apply to be a plastic policeman. All my kids have cycled to primary school and I would not be told by some over fussy busy body that my youngest who is in year 3 would not be allowed to cycle in.

I won't even get started on the ridiculous suggestion of dobbing in kids who do not decide to wear a bit of coloured polystyrene.

 

[darth vadar]

Like I said it is just getting kids into good habits.

That's all it is.

No helmets debate blah, blah, blah.

Wait until somebody's precious "little darling" goes flying over the handlebars, and then you'll see all the over protective parents coming out the woodwork trying to blame somebody else.

 

[Dan_h]

Like I said it is just getting kids into good habits.

I agree, we should make sure the kids know how dangerous cycling is from the start, that way when they reach 17 they can go and get a license and a car like any good citizen.

I don't wear a helmet generally and my kids don't. I never did when I was a kid and I soaked up all the bumps and crashes just fine. Yes I went over the handlebars while trying to jump down steps on my Raleigh Grifter but I survived relatively unscathed. When I was 14 I even rode straight into the front of a car, still nothing more than a bump and some bruising. Rules like this are made up because some do good know it all head teacher has decided that they want to see kids wearing helmets which, frankly, is not their decision.

 

[Bman]

I used to cycle to primary school all the time. I never wore a helmet and never fell off and hit my head (while cycling to school). Then again, this was the 80's and people were not really interested in The H Word.

However, I did fall off my bike as a kid and hit my head when messing about, which resulted in a concussion. One thing is for sure, It made me a much more careful cyclist! Falling off hurts!

I know I would like my children to learn that lesson early too. Instead of preventing them learning that lesson by forced helmet wearing.

As for arse covering. The school can "advise" rather than enforce helmet wearing and achive the same thing.

 

[StuartG]

Oh dear its degenerating into the general bust up. There are two independent questions:

1. Should the head seek to exert authority outside school. The issue is almost irrelevant to the answer IMHO. No. I hope most pro-helmet people agree.
2. Should kids wear helmets to school? Can we agree that should be a parental decision in as much as parental control exists ...

Now if you wear a helmet it is consistent to get your kids to do so too.
If you do not wear a helmet is it consistent to discourage your kids from wearing one?

Not necessarily. I choose not to wear a helmet as I prefer not to and no one has balanced the benefits/disbenefits in a way that I see it as reducing risk. But that is based on the way I ride my bike. Kids are different, their accidents are different and the risks are different. Whichever way you look at it the risk and especially the type of risk is orientated more towards the possibility of helmets being useful.

One cannot say there is a net benefit in wearing a helmet but there is a greater benefit then for a mature and experienced cyclists who is not game playing. So I would argue you should be more inclined to helmet your kids than yourself. For me - I did ask, but did not insist, my kids wore helmets when they were young. Its now their choice and they have followed their father into the sceptic camp.

That's my take. Interested how many other sceptic parents agree/disagree.

 

[Dan_h]

This does have the potential to degenerate further, a discussion involving helmets AND parenting

Still, in answer to the questions you posed...

1) I don't think this is always clear cut, in the instance of people doing something that is illegal then I think they perhaps should try to influence behaviour as far as they are able. However in this case we are talking about a subject that is not illegal and is a matter of personal choice - under these circumstances it should be a choice for the parents to make (in fact I still think it IS a choice for the parents to make, whatever the school says).

2) As in the answer above I think it is a personal choice. I do not wear a helmet and do not insist that my kids do when cycling. This is based on the fact that I did not wear one as a kid and don't as an adult. However I would never criticize parents who do insist on their kids wearing helmets, nor would I criticize an adult who wears one.

 

[MontyVeda]

whilst I agree with you to an extent Darth, cycling when i was a kid was a fun activity rather than a dangerous one. Of course it has it's risks, but so does crossing the road... but we wouldn't suggest wearing a helmet for that.

 

[the snail]

I think we should be grateful that the head doesn't require the kids to be wrapped in dayglo bubblewrap. I despair when I see a local nursery taking the kids downtown to feed the ducks, they're strapped in double buggies, all wearing little hi-vis jackets. I'm really glad I went to school before they thought of health and safety. Apparently one of our local schools got a grant of £10000 to build a covered bike rack, then a new head took over and decided that the kids couldn't use it because there weren't enough spaces for all of them, which would be unfair.

 

[MacB]

Oh dear its degenerating into the general bust up. There are two independent questions:

1. Should the head seek to exert authority outside school. The issue is almost irrelevant to the answer IMHO. No. I hope most pro-helmet people agree.
2. Should kids wear helmets to school? Can we agree that should be a parental decision in as much as parental control exists ...

Now if you wear a helmet it is consistent to get your kids to do so too.
If you do not wear a helmet is it consistent to discourage your kids from wearing one?

Not necessarily. I choose not to wear a helmet as I prefer not to and no one has balanced the benefits/disbenefits in a way that I see it as reducing risk. But that is based on the way I ride my bike. Kids are different, their accidents are different and the risks are different. Whichever way you look at it the risk and especially the type of risk is orientated more towards the possibility of helmets being useful.

One cannot say there is a net benefit in wearing a helmet but there is a greater benefit then for a mature and experienced cyclists who is not game playing. So I would argue you should be more inclined to helmet your kids than yourself. For me - I did ask, but did not insist, my kids wore helmets when they were young. Its now their choice and they have followed their father into the sceptic camp.

That's my take. Interested how many other sceptic parents agree/disagree.

Seems reasonable to me my only concern is over the perception of risk that these things can instil in the young. It's like the difference between safety equipment that develops via experience and necessity and that which is thrust upon people.

I have no recollection as a child, despite almost living on my bike, of head injuries being a big concern. I do remember some nasty offs, missing skin and facial/mouth injuries(to others generally I was too timid). I also remember safety gear evolving, so those of us that built up tracker bikes would wear long trousers and long sleeves, maybe some gloves knicked off my Dad, that sort of thing. I also used wellies for riding, kept the jeans out of the chain, protected the shins a bit and weren't bothered by the mud. Some of my friends also got into skateboarding and would wear a helmet for that but not for offroading, though we did adopt the elbow and knee pads. When I played rugby I wore a gumshield but I didn't know anyone that wore a head protector.

If I cut my hair really short I have several visible scars on my head from childhood accidents. Two are a result of stones being thrown(one deliberate one not), one was from diving into a shallow pool, one was a fall in the school playground, one a fall from a tree and the other a fall down some steps. Oh yeah and one more from horseplay at college when I managed to jump headfirst into a low lintel.

The point of this is that if I were to insist on my children wearing bike helmets then, based on my own personal experience, I should really be making them wear a helmet pretty much all the time. In fact I should be making them wear helmets for all other activities ahead of cycling as they are the 'risky' ones.

 

[Alun]

Gosh, you were a bit of a ruffian MacB !