Some advice on biking to school & using their bike shed.

[Puddles]

Hello all

Hoping someone can help, I should first state that I do put helmets on my children, but my mind set waivers on a daily basis with the more I read about them, anyhoo this is not so much helmet or anti-helmet

We had the newsletter today, and I had not realised the Head Teacher states helmets must be compulsory, I have a vague recollection of signing the Bike pass request form when waved under my nose by the eldest - can't say I read the terms though (bad Mummy).

Having and peered and stuff, it seems even the Government say it should be left up to parents whether to helmet their children, which is fair enough.

BUT, the Head Teacher has said that if my son does not wear a helmet on our journey to school then he cannot park his bike in the bike rack on school premises, I should point out you are not allowed to cycle on school premises, so from the gate he dismounts and pushes the bike.

The bottom line is the school is trying to dictate the safety gear that I put on my child in my time, off of school property with the rider that if I do not comply then my sons bike permit will be removed and no parking his bike at school.

I wrote a letter

"You state in your newsletter that a child must wear a helmet when cycling otherwise they are not allowed a bike pass, yet you also have stated on numerous occasions that there is to be no cycling within the school grounds.
If my child is not cycling on your property nor within school hours, I would question the validity of your statement considering you are attempting to dictate a requirement for my child to don a piece of headgear that is not a legal requirement, in order to pursue an activity that is not in school time and not on your property and not whilst my child is in your care.
Whilst on your property (but out of school hours) he has to push his bike into the school and park it in your bike rack neither of those activities pushing/parking are suitably dangerous to require a helmet.
I would very much appreciate you providing me with the information you based this decision on in order to extend your remit with regard to your duty of care to my child to attempt to enforce a policy on an activity that takes place in the time where my child is in my care.
I am aware of numerous studies that say helmets indeed save lives in serious collisions but would be most interested to hear how & who advised you with regard to accidents whilst wearing a helmet and resulting injuries caused by the helmet and how you weighed up this and decided that helmet wearing would be enforced regardless.
I and my children as cyclists are insured both our equipment and ourselves specifically whilst cycling, and my policy has a long list of items that must be adhered to before they will pay out in the event of an accident. Wearing a helmet is not one of those requirements.
Samuel does indeed wear a helmet which is my choice; you may then question why I choose to write with regard to this issue as I am adhering to your requirements in order to secure a cycle pass. The answer to that is simple, whilst my child is in your care and/or on your property I adhere without question to the policies that you have in place in order to ensure that you fulfil the duty of care you have towards my son & other students.
I, however, do not accept that you have the right to dictate any policy with regard to times that my child is not on your property & not in your care and nor do I accept that you have the right to do this via blackmail/penalties through the use of cycle helmets, i.e. “your child will wear one out of school in your time when not in our care else we will not let you lock their bike on our property” because if we bring it down to the baseline this is what you are saying, as there is no requirement for a child to wear a helmet when they are pushing a bike, (As there is no cycling on school property) nor whilst they are locking a bike into a bike rack, there is no time where my child is cycling whilst he is in your care or on your property.
I look forward to your response providing me with the information requested being, where it is shown you have the right to extend your remit to dictating requirements whilst a child is not in your care, what the discussion was with regard to the decision to make cycle helmets compulsory & upon whose expertise this was based & what studies you took note of in order to facilitate the making of this decision considering it is not a legal requirement in the UK for cyclists to wear helmets.
With the level of controversy & conflicting evidence over bike helmets and the fact that it is not a legal requirement I would suggest that the school is in a precarious position to cite that statement as fact & as a reason why they feel the need to over step their remit & attempt to enforce compulsory helmet wearing."
I received this reply

"Thank you for your email.

No child cycling to school is required to park their bicycle on school
grounds. If you or any parent disagrees with my view that wearing a helmet
is a sensible safety measure then you are under no obligation to park the
bike on the school site.

It is entirely your decision."

She is correct I am not required to park his bike there but there is no where else to leave it, I just think it is stretching her authority a bit far, surely the school has no authority over my child, in my time, off school grounds?

Heyulp!

 

[annedonnelly]

I can't help but I see a lot of kids cycling to the local school (a secondary school so they're 11 or older) with their helmets hanging from the handlebars. I assume this is because the school insists that they wear them and that the kids put them on at the gate - or claim that they've just taken them off. Always makes me smile...

Would the head prefer that you drive your son to school adding to traffic congestion nearby?

 

[Puddles]

This is primary school with surprisingly a huge car problem, we are in a village, its about 3 miles for longest journey I would say being really really generous but there is a park next to the school that has a nice car park, right next to the school gates and seriously, there is more in the newsletters asking parents to please park considerately, any school event (like the school fair today) is constantly interupted due to tannoy announcements asking people to move cars as they have blocked "park users" in. At drop off/pick up time they park in all the spaces, then start double parking all the way round the "U" road in the car park if that makes sense, so every inch of tarmac has a car on it.

The y have just bought more bike/scooter racks, they took part in the big pedal, they pushed the don't take car to school thing they have the huge signs saying Less Honk Honk more Tweet Tweet I had assumed they were pro-cycling. I just am a bit floored by the Head's stance of "I have every right to tell you what to do with your child in your time and off school grounds and if you don't do as I say then you will be barred from using the school bike facilities" cos that is what they are doing. Its Orwellian in my opinion

 

[Puddles]

I have found the school travel plan :-) It says nothing about helmets being worn, but says lots about discouraging cars & encouraging scooting/walking/cycling etc I have mailed and asked our local Transport Policy Team who work with schools to produce these if the school has the authority to do this.

I am glad you think it is rude, I thought it was rude. You might be right about jitters she is usually quite nice and happy to discuss things so ?

 

[Profpointy]

very rude response from head. Basically an abuse of power. Of course, the kid could cycle to work without a helmet, then what? get expelled / excluded? You could ask, and could be worded non rudely if you work at it, something on the lines of "I appreciate that you may choose to exclude my child, and that would of course be a lesson as to what happens if you stand up to abuses of power and bullies"

 

[Puddles]

All they say on non-compliance is that they will remove their bike pass, no bike pass means no parking in the cycle rack, but as to how they enforce that I do not know, I know he has to carry bike pass "at all times" (not forgetting the possible severe injury to my child)

I am going with
"I would still very much like to know the answer to the questions I raised

1. Where is the authority for the school to dictate what I shall do with my child, in my own time, off of their property as a pathway for the school to exclude my child from using a facility at the school?

2. As the wearing of helmets is not a legal requirement in the UK, what is the school basing their decision to enforce mandatory helmet wearing on? The government “encourages” cycle helmets in children, but has refused to make cycle helmet wearing for children compulsory, believing instead, that parents should choose, how did the school come to the conclusion that parents should have that decision removed from them if they wish to use the Cycle facilities on site?

Thank you for your time"
I think, possibly, and then if I don't get an answer apparently I then have to write to the Chair of Governors

 

[Puddles]

I cannot find another newsletter where I am told scooterists are mentioned too they also must wear helmet, if you want to park something in the bike/scooter rack you must wear a helmet

Oh and she wrote the Travel Safety Plan :-/

Ok will go with the justify helmet being a vital safety measure will do the simpler approach.

 

[summerdays]

I know when I was involved in getting a bike shelter installed in my children's primary school (err 8 or more years ago now I suspect), that the head there wanted to have a helmet rule and also that each pupil had had cycle training. At that point they only got training in the summer term in year 6 which meant the bike shed would have been completely used for most of the school year! We had the Safe Routes to School team on the local council contact him and they had a meeting which resulted in both rules not being implemented.

Find out what they are doing to make the policy inclusive - for those who may be wearing other things on their head for religious grounds, and what they will do for those families who can not afford to buy a helmet - will they provide a helmet for those pupils? Does it matter if the helmet actually fits ... and will they be checking that it is properly adjusted on the pupils heads on a regular basis. It would be more useful if they actually checked to see the bikes were roadworthy instead. Having working brakes on a bike is more important.

Me - I think I would be tempted to lock it to the school gates instead.

 

[Puddles]

Oooh never thought of that one If she does not answer sensibly I shall use that in my letter to the Chair of the Governors

I am tempted to lock it across the school gates, the only other option is locking it against one of the barriers around the car park in the park, and leaving it there for 6/7 hours and I cannot say I am too happy about doing that really I am not sure why if I am honest.

when they did the big pedal you could lock your bike to the school fence but we have since been told that is off limits to bike parking.

 

[summerdays]

Just noticed ... it doesn't seem to specify a cycle helmet in the bits you have posted .... you could wear a roman helmet for example - probably quite a good safety feature - certainly drivers would notice you!

 

[ufkacbln]

I think that she is perfectly right to use her powers beyond the school gates...... in fact she does not go far enough

She has now set up a precedent by withdrawing access to school facilities.

The car problem is now easy to solve, children need to apply for a pass to be driven to school, and withdraw school privileges if they are driven to school without a pass.

Equally they could put children in detention if a parent has to be asked to move their car, parks inconsiderately etc

After all she cannot state that it is beyond her control!

 

[summerdays]

I think that she is perfectly right to use her powers beyond the school gates...... in fact she does not go far enough

She has now set up a precedent by withdrawing access to school facilities.

The car problem is now easy to solve, children need to apply for a pass to be driven to school, and withdraw school privileges if they are driven to school without a pass.

Equally they could put children in detention if a parent has to be asked to move their car, parks inconsiderately etc

After all she cannot state that it is beyond her control!

Taking it even further - how is she intending to ensure that all children have arrived in school by car wearing a seat belt (standing under an umbrella in the middle of winter by the school gate)? Which unlike helmets actually has lots of evidence to prove it works. By the way I wear a helmet myself, as did my kids when they were younger - I just consider it is a decision for the parents rather than for the school to make, and that a lack of helmet should not prevent someone from cycling.

And is she going to get those who came by car have to do some extra exercise to make up for their lack of exercise getting to school - since that has obvious health risks too.

 

[ufkacbln]

Also ask her to provide the risk assessment used to make the decision, there needs to be one

There is also another stitchup.......If you can, get her to use the magic word PPE, ad direct question such as "do you classify a cycle helmet as Personal Protective Equipment?

Once they put that in writing they than have to provide, maintain and store!

 

[Puddles]

. By the way I wear a helmet myself, as did my kids when they were younger - I just consider it is a decision for the parents rather than for the school to make, and that a lack of helmet should not prevent someone from cycling.

.

That is my main issue, everywhere states, even the government that it is a matter for the individual to decide and in the case of the children, the parent to decide.

It is simply not within her remit, it is not her choice. It seems to me to be the thin end of the wedge, to dictate what will happen in my time whilst my child is in my care and to force compliance by removing a facility from my child if I do not.

Lots of people have said to me over this but your son wears a helmet so why are you making an issue over this, yes I choose at the moment for my son to wear a helmet but what happens if more evidence/studies happen that make me to change my mind on that, I should be able to change my mind on the helmet without reprisal from the school

 

[Puddles]

This was interesting to me tho

PART III, Article 7 of the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights.

Article 7
No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. In particular, no one shall be subjected without his free consent to medical or scientific experimentation.

The UK report RSRR30 reported 31 papers in favour of helmets or legislation compared with 32 against. The evidence supporting helmet use and legislation is clearly divided.

People have a right not to be experimented on, any form of mandatory cycle helmet use would be an experiment.

So a letter could go like this

In view of Article 7 of the ICCPR, I no longer want my son to be part of the bicycle helmet 'medical or scientific experiment'. Therefore please respect my sons right to ride his bicycle without a helmet and not be penalised by withdrawal of facilities which I exercise with my free refusal, the counter to free consent.
Kind regards,

Thanks to
http://www.freedomcyclist.blogspot.co.uk/ Freedoncyclist is a qualified solicitor.