To the editor:
I was out walking my dog one evening last week past St. John the Evangelist Catholic School when two little girls rode up on their bicycles with a soccer ball. After they parked their bikes and took off their helmets, they began to kick the ball around the schoolyard. No sooner had they started when they were approached by a woman coming out of the school who admonished them for being there.
"This is a schoolyard, not a park," I heard her say. The two little girls politely took the tongue-lashing and began to pack up their belongings, no doubt frustrated and confused. To their credit, they respected her authority and did actually leave the school premises after she drove away. Unfortunately, their second choice of venue was a parking lot. It wasn't busy but it was still far more dangerous than a school playground.
The behaviour of the school official disgusted me. These two children were not loitering, smoking, drinking, vandalizing school property or engaging in inappropriate behaviour of any kind, yet they were reprimanded for using public property for the very reason it was intended (there is a soccer field at this school).
The girls were removed from a safe area in which to play. In an age of satellite TV, iPods, Facebook, and video games, it was refreshing to see a couple of kids having fun and getting some exercise out in the fresh air. We should be encouraging this type of behaviour not punishing it.
Steve Wyse
Whitby
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