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Nine hundred high school students told the College Station City Council this week that, for safety and environmental reasons, they needed a sidewalk to get to school.
What started as a day to get students to walk to school became a move to gather A&M Consolidated High School students' signatures on a petition to present to the City Council, said 16-year-old sophomore Hanna White.
"I feel like it's more important for students to express concern and stand up for something than to wait for something to happen," White said, adding that a simple walk to school to demonstrate lack of safety turned out not to be enough.
About 40 students gathered to walk from Wal-Mart on Harvey Mitchell Parkway to the high school one Friday morning, White said, and by the time they reached the school they realized that they needed to do more. So each student attempted to collect as many petition signatures as possible, explaining how dangerous it was to walk to school without a sidewalk. White said they asked students to sign if they wanted the council to know the issue was a priority to them.
White presented the petition to the council Monday. Students always wanted to highlight the fact that walking to school is more environmentally friendly than driving, she said.
The students' timing was good, because the city is focusing on more green efforts, said council member Dennis Maloney.
The city's new comprehensive plan will include a regulation that all new streets have sidewalks installed on both sides, he said. The council is also working on constructing sidewalks in neighborhoods that don't have them, he said.
The petition was a good way to demonstrate the group's opinions, Maloney said.
"It's not complaining. It's not whining. It's saying, 'Look, it's a concern shared not just by me, but by 900 other students as well,'" Maloney said. "The city has to step up to the plate. We keep talking green, but we have to make it real."
Maloney said it was exciting to see so many students get involved with local government and with something the council felt passionate about.
"I anticipate we will find some money and some way to get those sidewalks done," Maloney said. "She's in the right city, and we're going to take care of it for her, I'm positive."
Council member John Crompton also said the petition was timely, since the greenway master plan for the city will be presented to the council in September and ratified in October.
"Citizen involvement like that at a young age is absolutely terrific, and it sets an example for all of us," Crompton said.
Crompton said the students could also express their opinions by attending some of the residents' meetings at which the city seeks input on the comprehensive plan.
Pranitha Patil, 16, said the walk originated as something to show people that there are students who walk to school and how the method will save gas.
But after walking the stretch along Harvey Mitchell, said Patil, a junior, they realized how dangerous it was.
"It was just a spur-of-the-moment, last-minute thing we decided to do," she said. "It was just a 'Let's see how many signatures we can get.'"
Patil said they were shocked at the number of signatures they gathered and impressed by the number of people who cared about the issue.
"The City Council is made up of a lot of elderly people, and students don't really say a lot of things to them because students are really hesitant to say things sometimes. If they actually react to everything we're doing, we know we can actually give something and can make a change in our area. It would boost our self-confidence to know we can actually do something to help," Patil said.
Junior Brooke Dooley, 17, an avid cyclist, said she's always been into the "going green" fad that's overtaken the country.
Dooley said she knew the walk would help people recognize how dangerous it is to walk down Harvey Mitchell to get to school but said she hoped it also showed that it's equally dangerous for those on bicycles.
The city has gradually become more environmentally friendly, Dooley said.
"I see construction all over College Station that lasts for months just to put in another lane for people to turn on to decrease traffic, and I think if the city can take months to put in another lane, they can take the time to build a sidewalk and keep kids from putting themselves in danger to come to school," she said.
