Brooklyn's Hasidic schools run by the United Talmudical Academy have reaffirmed that allowing children to bike to school is forbidden. The Post reports that parents recently received a "final warning" letter, presumably after someone had the gall to allow their child to get to school in a cheaper, faster, healthier way than their peers.
“If you have something that gives kids the feeling that they can go wherever they want . . . farther from their parents and the community, it brings a lot of bad things,” Moshe Smilowitz, a father of six children says, seemingly speaking about anything from "imagination" to "comfortable shoes."
But the ban isn't just a "Hasidic thing": a surprising amount of schools either don't allow children to ride to school or make it exceedingly difficult to do so. In 1969 48% of all children walked or rode to school. As of 2009, that number is down to 13%, which is less than the 17% of children between the ages of 2 and 19 who are obese.
