Safety concerns prompt Kingswood residents to lobby for school buses

‘‘See, look at that,” Johnson (Dist. 1) of Laurel said. ‘‘Anybody or anything can be lurking in those woods. It just isn’t safe.”

Johnson, along with a group of eight Kingswood residents, elected officials and county school administrators, walked from the Lanham neighborhood to Parkdale High School on Tuesday, taking the same route as students who attend the Riverdale school.

The walk started at Trinity Moravian Church, continued onto Nashville Road and then veered back onto Good Luck Road toward Parkdale.

Hakeem Muhammed, president of the Kingswood Civic Association, organized the walk to help convince county school district officials that safety concerns make busing from Kingswood to Parkdale a necessity.

‘‘There are kids from Kingswood that walk this way every morning to get to school,” Muhammed said. ‘‘They have to deal with hills, woods, damaged sidewalks, traffic. [There are] so many different turns and hills kids have to go through. It’s too far for the kids to walk and too much for them to deal with. We need a bus.”

Parkdale freshman Josh Burris, a New Carrollton resident, said he walks to school every day.

‘‘I have a few friends who live [in Kingswood] and it takes them an hour to get home,” Burris said. ‘‘It’s just a long walk for them. I think a bus would help.”

Michael Dodson, the county school system’s director of transportation, said approximately 280 Parkdale students living in Kingswood walk to the school. He said six additional buses, estimated at a cost of $75,000 to $80,000 each, would need to be purchased in order to accommodate them.

Dodson said he noticed many of the same safety concerns that Muhammed spoke of, but said Kingswood lies within the 2-mile radius the county school district uses to determine whether students receive buses. Since Kingswood is within 2 miles of Parkdale, no buses have been provided, he said.

Dobson said in certain circumstances, particularly where safety is an issue, communities within the 2-mile radius can receive buses. But, he said, it is difficult to weigh the comparative safety concerns of students in one community versus another when considering whether busing is appropriate.

‘‘It’s a balancing act,” Dobson said. ‘‘We have to balance the needs of students across the county and address the safety concerns of each community. We want to make sure we’re not being unfair to one community over the other.”

John White, a spokesman for the county school system, said the school system will continue to look into whether busing is appropriate.

‘‘The transportation folks frequently visit communities to gather information and respond to community calls for assistance throughout the county,” White said. ‘‘We look into these calls. We investigate. We walk these routes and then we make a determination. We will do the same thing in this case. If a change is made, the people affected will be notified.”

Eric Walker, a safety officer with the school system’s Office of Safety, said he was most concerned about the heavy traffic, lack of sidewalks and intersections on Good Luck Road. He said he was concerned that the intersection of Good Luck Road and Ian Street, where the sidewalk ends, does not have a stop light or crossing guard to help students cross the street.

However, Walker said he needed more time to analyze the situation before determining whether students from Kingswood need buses.

Kingswood resident Hank Shackelford said the April 2 stabbing death of Guillermo Enrique Medina, a Parkdale sophomore who was killed while walking home from school, has heightened residents’ efforts to get busing for students.

Kingswood resident Bob Volpe said his 12-year-old son will soon be attending Parkdale. He said he would not allow his son to walk to or from school and will drive him instead.

‘‘Personally I’d like to see the busing because I’d feel better about the kids being safer,” Volpe said.

The community has the support of Johnson, County Councilman Eric Olson (D-Dist. 3) of College Park and Del. Justin Ross (D-Dist. 22) of Greenbelt. All three were present for the walk and said they thought Kingswood students needed buses to take them to school.

‘‘From what I know of this community, they have been saying for 15 years they need a bus and I don’t intend for there to be another 15 years before they get a bus,” Johnson said. ‘‘I’m going to be as diligent as I can in advocating for these students.”

Olson said the walk was a difficult one — and would be made worse by inclement weather — and his office would support Johnson in advocating for buses.

Ross said he wanted to come out and show his support.

‘‘There’s a great concern that children walking to Parkdale have to walk far too long,” Ross said. ‘‘I think we need to put more resources toward fixing the issue.”

E-mail Jonathan Stein at jstein@gazette.net.