Biking Battle
October 12, 2009
By: Paul Merrill
Originally Published: fox23news.com
Adam Marino and his mother want the Saratoga Springs City School District to change its policy that prohibits them from biking to school. (Photographer: Michael Wickham) On some mornings, when the weather is nice, 12-year-old Adam Marino and his mother will ride their bikes to the Maple Avenue Middle School in Saratoga Springs.
"What's wrong with it, really?" asks Adam who is a seventh grader at the school.
Members of the Saratoga Springs City School District say biking to school violates a 15-year-old district policy.
The biking battle began in the spring on National Bike to Work Day.
Janette Kaddo Marino, Adam's mother, tellls us, "I guess I dug my heels in and refused to not follow their policy because I really felt that they were overstepping their boundaries."
Marino is asking the school district to change its policy.
She's part of a committee that is recommending an update to the school rules to allow parents to bike to school with their kids.
"It isn't a bad thing we're doing," she says. "It's a healthy thing we're doing."
The fight gained national attention when former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Newt Gingrich sent a letter to the Saratoga School Board of Education.
Gingrich, who is the founder of the Center for Health Transformation - a group of leaders who say they are working toward saving lives and money for all Americans.
Gingrich's letter advocating for the Marinos reads, in part, "At a time when nearly one-third of American children and teens are overweight or on the brink of obesity, students like Adam who exhibit healthy behaviors should not be punished but rather rewarded."
Adam's mother says, "We'll take any support we can possibly gather for this cause."
The Marinos encourage Adam to be active because he has diabetes.
He tells us that he enjoys starting his day with a bike ride.
"It just gets some energy out of me so I can focus in school," Adam says.
Even though Adam has biked from Buffalo to Albany twice and around New York City, he's legally blind.
His parents say they want to make sure he's confident with his independence.
"He's not going to get that if he's tied to a bus...if he's being chauffeured by mom and dad," Janette tells us.
FOX23 News contacted Saratoga Springs City School District Superintendent Janice White by phone.
When asked what will happen at the district's Tuesday night board of education meeting, White said, "The policy committee will make a recommendation to a revision of that policy that is more in line with the district's jurisdiction and identify access points for each building that would be safe for bike access."
That meeting is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday at Saratoga's Dorothy Nolan Elementary School.
