Wednesday, April 16, 2003

I was disappointed but not surprised to read in the Atlanta newspaper about the irresponsible teens in Peachtree City who were destroying the grass on our playgrounds with their parents' golf carts. I was less than thrilled to see it on the noon news that day. Finally, days later, I saw it mentioned in today's The Citizen.

I was disappointed that a local problem was first aired in the Atlanta media. To the best of my knowledge, golf cart problems are only relevant in the Peachtree City and now to a lesser degree, in the Tyrone area.

Having just experienced how truly amazing our local teens really are, when I worked reading essays and background histories of the many teens applying for the McIntosh High School Tip Off Club scholarships recently awarded, I was furious that the community reputation of our many thoughtful and responsible teens was being tarnished.

I was not surprised, however, that irresponsible teens were creating problems in our community. Over a year ago, when we first asked for the golf cart driving age to be returned to 15, we identified the real problem. It was not the age of the teen driver (15 is old enough to expect reasonable choices) but the level of responsibility already shown that should dictate which teen is handed the key to any vehicle. The parent who hands the key to a golf cart to an irresponsible 15-year-old will also hand them the key to a car at 16.

I applaud the police who are willing to put the effort into writing citations that will hopefully keep those teens who have acted irresponsibly with golf carts also off our roads in cars as a consequence of their actions. However, that should be the job of the parent, not our police. Last year, when we originally requested the change, we wanted to help the parents of irresponsible teens identify them before they were handed the key to any vehicle.

We requested that along with the age change, all parents of 15-year-olds wanting to drive a golf cart would be required to simply sign a form listing some possible signs indicating the actions of a responsible teen. Their signature would confirm that in their opinion, this specific teen already showed in their choices and actions to be responsible enough to drive a cart unsupervised in Peachtree City.

We were told that requiring a signature was too much to ask of busy parents and placing the forms in a box (automatically filing them in date received order) would be too time-consuming. This is what is required of parents of teens wanting to use our skating half pipe but it was too much to ask of teens wanting to use our golf cart paths. It might be construed as unnecessary government intervention. I don't agree.

I would like to see this problem revisited by our City Council or our newly created Teen Committee (the offshoot of the Mayor's Teen Study Circles.) Let's let the responsible, concerned and involved teens of our community help parents identify the "not yet responsible" teens.

In the past few months we have come to recognize how we can better help our teens become more responsible drivers. It would be helpful to parents of teens and the rest of our community to make certain we do it right.

Kathie Cheney

Peachtree City