Patuxent Elementary Students, Unsafe in Patuxent River Park

For over ten years, students at Patuxent Elementary School were granted a bus to get to school because of the hazards associated in traveling through the Patuxent River Park on Village Drive West. The conditions are the same today as they were ten years ago. For the record, this community is not in dispute with the distance from the school. According to Prince George’s regulation, elementary school children must walk to school because it is less than 1.5 miles to Patuxent Elementary School.

There are no street lights in the Patuxent Park because the county’s park police discourage people from entering the park after sunset and before sunrise. The Park Police Department has documented that in accordance with their state-wide policy, it is against the law to travel through the park before sunrise. Therefore, they will not install street lights.

School breakfast starts at 7:15 AM. Our students walk to school, in about 30 - 60 minutes. They must start in the dark, before sunrise. They must break the law in order to get to school if they must walk.

Ten years ago, our students rode school buses through the same risky street where the sidewalks were covered by natural obstructions (mud, water, ice, snow, tree limbs, leaves, dead/injured animals, etc.). The bus was granted ten years ago because there was a very steep 100 foot drop into a raven to the river bed. There were no fences to block our children from wandering/falling into the steep raven. It was not possible to climb back out of the bottom without assistance.

To make matters worse, the area was so isolated that the students were hidden from view from either end of the street while traveling through the park’s valley-like section.

Several years ago, a 21 year old man was murdered on these very streets. The young man bled to death because no one could see him from the road as he lay on the sidewalk!!!

NOTHING has changed in the park in the last 20 years. The hazards are naturally occuring and can NEVER change.

The Prince George’s County School Board officials have been contacted several times and have been informed of the problem in great detail. And yet, the school board has refused to even respond and give a simple answer as to why the bus service was terminated and why it cannot be re-instated today since the hazards/unsafe environment remain unchanged and still exist today.

Despite being told of this danger, the school board has ignored this liability. They have refused to get a certified determination as to the safety of subject area according to their own regulations.

These children are in immediate danger. The school system has now been told of the danger and are liable to this situation that they refuse to resolve. If something happens to even ONE of our PRECIOUS children who walk in the dark, this community will take legal action against the Prince George’s School System.

It is unbelievable that any government agency would require such young children to suffer this terrible injustice!

While we argue this issue, several other full sized buses arrive/depart Patuxent Elementary School carrying ONLY 1 – 15 students. Several buses idle/wait at the Patuxent school for long periods of time until their next scheduled run to pick-up other children. There are empty buses - no student riders. Our children are not allowed to board these empty buses!

With a little coordination, the empty buses could provide safe transportation without any additional cost to the county.

Shame on the PG School System, in Upper Marlboro, Maryland who claim to put "our children first"!