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                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, February 14, 1993                   TAG: 9302120231
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-4   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

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A CHILD'S LIFE WORTH MORE THAN TREES

Landowners near a proposed Blacksburg school want the bus entrance moved and a stand of old trees preserved.

Entangling bus and automobile traffic at school entrances is a well-documented danger. How many of the opponents have experienced the tension at Gilbert Linkous Elementary, for example, when cars and buses are loading and unloading little people who barely can see over the hood of a car?

Opponents want the bus entrance at the proposed school moved next to the car entrance in the middle of the block on a major thoroughfare. And apparently they want it on property not owned by the school.

Opponents imply that school officials are too safety conscious. Officials are not concerned enough about other issues such as preserving a stand of aesthetically attractive trees. An expert characterizes the trees as diseased and very dangerous to those who use the school.

Opponents also accept that most neighborhood children will walk to school. Any parent whose first-grader walks to school along a road with no sidewalks and a reputation for excessive speeds by motorists should have their parental rights revoked.

Instead of vilifying the designers, we should commend educators for putting the safety of our children first. Officials are fighting off those who want to trade safety to the many for the benefit to a few. The opponents now are using scare tactics and misinformation.

Are the opponents also volunteering to relieve a family's suffering and bring back to life a child who dies to save some trees?\ George Morgan\ Blacksburg

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