How can anyone in the community not feel this is partially their fault? Two people killed just this year, three in the past 2 years and two of them our students from the same high school. Is it not our job as a community to support the children and help them find a safe way to get to school?

The crossing area is there, yes, however only the bells ding, there are no safety bars that come down. I challenge anyone to go to the crossing area and stand there when a passenger train is going 80 miles an hour, it’s scary at the ‘safe’ area. Then there is a matter of the ‘back gate’ at Tennyson that is open only randomly. While I was out there just this week I saw students having to jump the ‘back gate’. Think about that… if they have to jump the fence at the gate then why should they bother walking an extra quarter mile down to the “back gate” if they can jump the fence just as easily in other places??

As an apartment manager for 14 years I have learned, once something is allowed more than once or twice then it is a change of rules, and since I don’t have the authorization to change the rules then I cannot allow it. If you go to the tracks and observe the paths that have been made after years of walking the, the broken fences that have been repaired constantly then anyone is going to know that a better way for our children to get to school is needed.

Really think about it from a kids point of view… how much more safe it is to walk ½ mile (from the point that this child was killed) down to Tennyson with no sidewalk, cross with all the cars, walk another ½ mile past all the students and traffic at Chavez to reach Tennyson High then it is to jump a broken down fence that will save them a mile walk and 15 minutes of time in the morning.

Stop pointing fingers at the children, parents, and all the powers that be. Create a task force to actually do something about it!! Our children in the community are dying because of this one particular thing, obviously it is not working, it is time to do something else. The question is… what?

My problem with the public outcry regarding this situation is that once again, parents as
a group are pointing fingers at everyone and refusing to take accountability for thier
own kids. There is a crossing clearly marked. Clearly identified complete with
flashing lights and alarms that are engaged when a train is approaching. According to
reports, kids are “taking a short cut” that requires them to ignore the marked crossing
area a short distance ahead, and then hop a fence at the rear of the school. What this
boils down to is a tragic and unessesary accident caused by not following the rules.

Instead of parents demanding that the district “do something” or Amtrak, or the State for
that matter, My suggestion is that parents “do something” with thier own children by
re affirming the fact that “following the rules” is important. Yes Amtrak should make
sure that “Danger/No Tresspassing” signs are abundant and visible. Yes the district
should enforce the “front entrance to the school” as opposed to the “fence climbling rear
entrance”. There should be stiff punishment for anyone caught “taking the short
cut”. But no, I dont support the district or Amtrak being forced to fund ramps and
overpasses etc. when a crossing is clearly marked and simply being ignored.

Every day I sit outside the school waiting to pick up my child and every day I see kids with
a clear disregard for rules, and consequences. Society today as bred a generation of
kids with no respect for rules and authority and with no fear of consequence. On top of that
parents have no accountability. Wake up parents. Just because your kids go to school
does not mean you are off the hook. It’s what we teach them at home the counts the
most.

Parents cannot follow you everywhere, seeing to your safety. School officials cannot emphasize too much, the individual responsibility of watching your own back.

There have been 5 or 6 student fatalities on the tracks since 2000. It would be costly to
secure the effected area, but the lives of these young people are priceless. In a district that can find the money to pay Dale Vigil what he makes, surely the funds can be found to post security
persons at the problem area, not to mention close the gaps in the fence that allow the
shortcut to me taken.

Hayward school administration being what it is, this problem is likely to get much worse
before it gets any better.

There is some good news at HUSD. Myrna Truehill quit the board-if only Paul Frumkin would foll
follow her out the door.

I’m also saddened that the public, including all the students at Tennyson High School, have no fear of the Amtrak passenger trains that are rolling through their backyards at 80 miles per hour. Amtrak is entitled to roll through that area at 80 miles per hour and I understand that the train from this latest tragic accident was traveling at 79 miles per hour.

While we can argue whether the train tracks or the school was there first and what modifications, over time, that we can make, we can’t argue that these children have no understanding how fast an Amtrak train is traveling and how deceiving it is.

We can start by reminding these students about the speed of these trains during assemblies at school, through school newspapers or bulletins and from the local media. Lets start today!