Within recent months Barrow County had been looking into Making PRZones in an attempt to address the cuts to the transportation budget. The PRZones or, Parent Responsibility Zones would have parents responsible for the transportation of their children to and from school if they lived within one half mile for elementary students and one mile for middle and high school students. This would have put children of working parents at risk from attempting to walk to and from school. Fortunately, in a recent city council meeting the PRZones were reconsidered and a resolution was made that children within these zones would get on and off of their bus at the entrance of their neighborhoods eliminating bus stops within said neighborhoods. Although this is safer than having children walk to and from school without sidewalks, crosswalks or crossing guards this poses other threats to our children that need to be addressed. One danger is the new stops have busses stopping to pick up and deliver children on busy, highly traveled roads and that children will be crossing said roads to reach their bus as well as their neighborhoods. The second danger is that children will have to navigate through their subdivisions, often un-supervised to reach their bus stops and to return homes.Barrow County has approximately 150 registered sex offenders living within our neighborhoods, along with other dangers such as traffic, and dogs traveling these distances just to get to school are not a safe option for small children. Please take a minute to read and sign this petition; hopefully we can come together as a community to make our children’s commute to and from school as safe as possible.

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