Wednesday, February 14, 2001

A note to all of the parents who drive their precious kids to school on rainy days: Thank you for causing me (yet again!) to be late to school because your precious middle schoolers and freshmen cannot wait at a bus stop with an umbrella.

I leave my house at 8:10 every morning (I live 4 minutes from Starr's Mill High School), and always get to school with ample time to spare. Monday, Feb. 12, I left my house at the same time, but the weather happened to be a bit damp and chilly.

To my dismay, I was faced with traffic that extended from Robinson Road all the way down Redwine and up to Ga. Highway 74. Even after taking a shortcut through neighborhoods, as well as having to turn around on Hwy. 74 to avoid the turning lane from hell (going onto Panther Path from Hwy. 74), and then trying to find a parking space (while spatting obscenities, mind you), I was exactly three minutes late to class.

While entering school, I witnessed a line of approximately 100-plus students who were forced to check-in because of the same problem I had faced. Most of these students wasted about 20 to 40 minutes of class time waiting in line to be handed an "unexcused" check-in pink slip. Thank you, oh so much.

Bottom line: Why were bus stops even created? I never had the luxury of my mom toting me to school on a morning when there were light sprinkles of water falling from the sky! Wanna know why? Because my mom knew that I wasn't going to melt by standing in the rain for three minutes. I also made use of a lovely invention called the umbrella, a great investment, by the way.

So, parents, quit giving into your whiny kids on rainy days! All it does is cause other people unnecessary stress and inconvenience. And I know what you're thinking, "Well, she should just leave her house earlier on rainy days, blah blah blah."

I have done that, and it made no difference! And anyway, I shouldn't have to! If parents would learn how to say "no," this problem could be avoided completely! Thanks for starting my week off so wonderfully, by the way.

Kerry FitzPatrick, age 18

Starr's Mill High School

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