While attending a meeting about a new charter school being formed earlier this year, Annette Frith said she saw a group of students be disciplined for riding their bikes to school. 

“If it were just my kids I would just not waste my time fighting for this, but it’s so much more than my kids,” she said. “It was seeing them being told by administrators that they could not ride their bikes to school that prompted me to speak up for them.”

Though it was not an action agenda item on Thursday evening’s agenda, trustees voted 3-2 not to reevaluate its policy that labels riding a bike to school as an unsafe activity.

Riding skateboards, Razr scooters, motorcycles and horseback riding are also listed as unsafe ways to get to school.

Before trustees took a vote by raising their hands, Frith rattled down a list of statistics supporting the benefit for kids to ride their bikes to school. For example, Centers for Disease Control statistics say childhood obesity in America has nearly tripled, from seven percent in 1980 to 20 percent in 2008. 

After her public comment, sheriff’s deputy Joe Barry spoke to the board.

Together with the sheriff’s department, the board conducted a study in 2009 that concluded that riding bikes to school is still an unsafe activity.

“There are a lot of vehicle accidents in Imperial Beach. There’s a fair amount,” he said. “As of 2012, we had five bicycle-and-car-related incidents, three of those involved school-age children.”

It’s up to parents to teach their children how to ride safely, Barry said. 

“Having said that, it’s not uncommon to find school-age children riding up and down the road into traffic as opposed to riding along with traffic,” he said. “We’re not here to question the policies of the school.”

Trustee Nick Inzuniga recommended classes be held where students are required to learn how to ride their bikes safely and prove they can handle the responsibility. 

“I know there are those students but we need to have faith in these kids,” he said. 

Trustee Chris Brown, who also is a volunteer community service officer, said she was adamantly against reviewing the district’s policy. Even when students have been taught how to ride safely at bike rodeo classes held by the Sheriff’s Department, they’re still children, she said.

“Some of the kids I’ve seen when I’m out on my patrol, they ride in the street and the road. And there’s a lot of parents who do teach their children not to do this and there’s a lot of parents who don’t, and those are the ones we’re really concerned about,” she said.

“Just being a parent, I have a small child; there’s no way that I’d let my child on a bicycle here on IB Boulevard where the sidewalk is right in the road. If they were to fall over, they’re going to fall over right into the lane of traffic and there’s nothing we can do about it.”

Board President David Lopez said he agreed with points being made by both sides of the argument but ultimately felt studying ways to make it work was a good idea. 

“I think it’s worth looking at some more. I think there has to be safe routes around some of these main streets. If we really looked at it and applied some effort, I think there are ways we could make this work.”

Trustee Elvia Aguilar said she the majority of students may be responsible, but there are always a few that will not. 

“It’s a great idea to have somebody teach them but even then, we teach our kids how to drive and we still have those accidents, and I just don’t trust the kids. I don’t trust them, and I’d rather have them safe at homes instead of out there in traffic,” she said.

Trustees Ellsworth, Aguilar and Brown voted against the idea while board president Lopez and Inzuniga voted in favor.

Terry Loyo from Imperial Beach is a district employee and has had her students attend classes in the district as well. Riding bikes in IB is a part of the culture, she said. 

“IB rides bikes. If you live in IB, you ride bikes. Adults ride bikes, kids ride bikes. I think they should have studied it more because there’s a group that wants it done,” she said.