NEWPORT BEACH : Two Schools Adopt Bicycle Helmet Rule

When school starts next fall, students who ride bicycles to Newport and Kaiser elementary schools will be required to wear helmets.

Just before the school year ended this week, officials at those two schools sent home notices to parents to inform them of the new policy. Parents who oppose the regulation can sign a waiver that will allow their children to ride to school without helmets.

Newport and Kaiser are the first schools in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District to adopt helmet regulations.

“It just makes good common sense,” said Newport Elementary Principal Bill Knight, adding that other schools may adopt a similar policy if it succeeds at his school. “This is mostly a pilot program.”

The policy has been discussed by parents and administrators in the district for several years but became more urgent after a student riding without a helmet to Ensign Intermediate School was killed in a collision with a motorist last month.

Knight said wearing a bicycle helmet is nothing new for most students at Newport Elementary, which is located on the boardwalk on Balboa Peninsula.

“There are so many things that happen that can throw them off the bike,” Knight said, adding that about two-thirds of the students who ride to school already wear helmets. “Even some of those who roller-blade to school on the sidewalks around here wear helmets.”

Officials at other schools in the district say they have not made helmets mandatory because such a requirement is difficult to enforce.